The final incident of the chapter is the party at its end, the first and only party Daisy attends, and is, in many ways, unlike any party Gatsby has hosted so far. Up to this point, the purpose of the parties was twofold: to get Daisy’s attention or, failing that, to make contact with someone who knows her. Now, for the first time, she’s in attendance (with Tom, no less), so the party’s purpose must necessarily change. Daisy and Gatsby have become increasingly comfortable with each other and even Tom is beginning to feel somewhat threatened by Daisy’s “running around alone.” At the party, Gatsby tries his best to impress the Buchannans by pointing out all the famous guests. Tom and Daisy, however, are remarkably unimpressed, although Tom does seem to be having a better time after he finds a woman to pursue and Daisy, not surprisingly, is drawn to the luminescent quality of the movie star (who is, in many ways, a sister to Daisy). By and large, though, Tom and especially Daisy are unimpressed by the West Eggers. The “raw vigor” of the party disgusts them, offending their “old money” sensibilities, providing another example of how the Buchannans and the people they represent discriminate on the basis of social class.
After Tom and Daisy head home, Nick and Gatsby debrief the evening’s events. Gatsby, worried that Daisy didn’t have a good time (after all, the Daisy in his dream would have a good time), shares his concern with Nick. Carraway, always the gentle voice of reason, reminds his friend that the past is in the past and it can’t be resurrected. Most would agree with this, which makes Gatsby’s “Why of course you can!” even more striking. There is no mistaking Gatsby’s personality: He’s like an errant knight, seeking to capture the illusive grail. He is living in the past, something the reader may not have known, had he not realized his dream of reuniting with Daisy. Although it would be going too far to say Gatsby is weak in character, Fitzgerald creates a protagonist who is unable to function in the present. He must continually return to the past, revising it and modifying it until it takes on epic qualities which, sadly, can never be realized in the everyday world. Gatsby, just as he is at his parties and with the social elite, is once again marginalized, forced to the fringes by the vivacity of his dream.
