Elegance of Being Drunk

"The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher." (40)

I find this sentence amusing because it is elegantly describing what is going on at the party and how drunk everyone is. The lights in the garden get brighter as the sun goes down. This describes how the partygoers are so drunk that they are becoming more sensitive to light, causing the lights to seem brighter. He also describes how "the earth lurches away from the sun." It sounds like a more violent phrase then what was actually going on. It is describing the drunkenness of the partygoers and how the world lurches around them rather than it rotating smoothly.  It also describes the music as the color yellow, which is usually not used to describe music. I think this is another sign of their drunkenness. Basically, the whole sentence elegantly and colorfully describes the drunken partygoers at Gatsby's party and how the world is "spinning around them."

Sad and Lovely

"Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered 'Listen'..."

The way Fitzgerald describes his characters is so much like a painting. It makes the reader not only conjure in their mind the image of this person but also the aura of him or her. In this case, Daisy is described as exciting but the author reveals more about how she makes people feel rather than how she appears.

Its body was firm and wrinkled with leaves climbing from the trunk to the tips of the tallest branches, but there was something about its nature that people who hung around it could not easily ignore: some dependability of this steadfast companion that softly promised 'You are not alone'...

Point of View

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
Sometimes it's hard not to judge people. I chose this quote because it relates to my personal struggle with being judgmental of others. Always think about what it's like in someone else's shoes before you accuse them.

Fiesta

"The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names."

I chose this line because I believe it really captures the essence of the party. We learn what the atmosphere is like especially with the description of the guests interacting even though they dont care about each other.

"The fiesta is full of life, and capri-suns are passed around the kitchen of the birthday boy's house, as the boys discuss loudly their opinions on this and that, hardly acknowledging each other, much less their opinions, as each though is cast into the conversation and disregarded."

Mr. Mumble and the Mysterious Floating Cocktails

I chose the sentence,"A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight, and we sat down at a table with two girls in yellow and three men, each one introduced to us as Mr. Mumble." This sentence includes the strange imagery of the cocktails but also tells us a lot about the characters of the two girls in yellow by simply showing how they introduced the three men. They introduced the men in order to get that portion of the conversation out of the way so that they could start talking about themselves.

The stack of poker chips drifted between those of us sitting around the table, and I finally stood up with empty pockets and multiple messages on my phone, each message telling me to remember my appointment at mumble AM.

Pizzazz and Class

"I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. [...] Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans."

Nick is talking about the two "types" of civilizations... The hard-working West Egg and the ever so glamorous East Egg.

I lived with less pizzazz and class in West Egg, even though this is a snobby way to differentiate them. Across the water, I can see the sparkling buildings of the beautiful East Egg. The city and water dividing us seemed to glow as the sun hit it just right. The rest of the story unwinds as I visit the elegant city for dinner with the Buchanans. 

Ceilings made of Cake?!... Yes please!

"A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea. (8)"

This may in fact be one of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read in my entire life, and here Fitzgerald is describing mere curtains blowing in a breeze. However, upon reading this colorful and poetic sentence, I am immediately intrigued to see what type of majestic creature I am about to be introduced to in the story. Only the most gorgeous and captivating of characters could own curtains that blow in the breeze, that twist up to the "wedding-cake" ceiling and the "wine" rug.

 Another sentence:
His eyes gleamed with the brilliant blue of a spring morning sky, that had finally awoken from the frosted dreams of winter.