lavish and dazzling extravagance – a modern Solomon erecting a bizarre temple to the wayward popularity” (E.K. 7). Gatsby is compared to Solomon because, like Solomon, Gatsby is king of his domain, the Son of God. It seems odd that Gatsby would invite strangers to his house, but he has a need for his guests, and though it seemed the guests came only for the free party, the private beach, and the endless flow of cocktails, they also needed Gatsby. He provided them with an escape from reality, yet in the end illusions and reality must go their separate ways (Brewley 43). One of the most moving scenes in the novel is when Gatsby bids farewell to his guests. Nick describes “a sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal gesture of farewell” (Fitzgerald 60). This scene evokes the image that the guests were not human, but illusions created by Gatsby to support his vision. As Marius Brewley stated, “The names of guests could have been recorded nowhere more appropriately as in the margins of a faded timetable. They were the embodiments of illusions – as ephemeral as time itself” (42). Brewley is referring, of course, to the list of names Nick recorded of those who attended Gatsby’s parties that summer (Fitzgerald 65). The list itself evokes a series of fabulous parties, attended by an endless number of eccentric, fashionable, ambitious, and bored people (Miller 100). In the end the guests were nothing more than the orange pulps and lemon rinds, what were left of Gatsby’s dream (Lehan, “The Road to West Egg” 33). The mystirous and decieving outward appearances of the party’s guest is by far out-shadowed by Gatsby’s past and business.Gatsby’s business operations seem to provide the most interesting cover. Gatsby got his...
