Extract Plaza Scene Contrast

Extract:

“We can’t argue about it here,” Tom said impatiently, as a truck gave out a cursing whistle behind us. “You follow me to the south side of Central Park, in front of the Plaza.”

Several times he turned his head and looked back for their car, and if the traffic delayed them he slowed up until they came into sight. I think he was afraid they would dart down a side-street and out of his life forever.

But they didn’t. And we all took the less explicable step of engaging the parlour of a suite in the Plaza Hotel.

The prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into that room eludes me, though I have a sharp physical memory that, in the course of it, my underwear kept climbing like a damp snake around my legs and intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back. The notion originated with Daisy’s suggestion that we hire five bathrooms and take cold baths, and then assumed more tangible form as “a place to have a mint julep.” Each of us said over and over that it was a “crazy idea”—we all talked at once to a baffled clerk and thought, or pretended to think, that we were being very funny…

The room was large and stifling, and, though it was already four o’clock, opening the windows admitted only a gust of hot shrubbery from the Park. Daisy went to the mirror and stood with her back to us, fixing her hair.

“It’s a swell suite,” whispered Jordan respectfully, and everyone laughed.

“Open another window,” commanded Daisy, without turning around.

“There aren’t any more.”

“Well, we’d better telephone for an axe—”

“The thing to do is to forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. “You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it.”

He unrolled the bottle of whisky from the towel and put it on the table.

“Why not let her alone, old sport?” remarked Gatsby. “You’re the one that wanted to come to town.”

There was a moment of silence. The telephone book slipped from its nail and splashed to the floor, whereupon Jordan whispered, “Excuse me”—but this time no one laughed.

Analysis:
During the extract from when Nick and his mates enter the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, the author creates a rather rich and prosperous mood which is contradicting to what we previously saw with the dark and uncomfortable atmosphere created in the valley of ashes . The author does this through using diction and the effect upon the reader is it sets up the vibe for New York City which in fact is a rich and prosperous area. Firstly, the use of the phrase "south side of Central Park, in front of the Plaza" is extremely specific, he has chosen the south side of central park as this is an extremely wealthy place and is where the building "billionares row" is located. This buildings, suggested by the name, is where all the wealthy people live, furthermore, the Plaza hotel is one of the most lavish in the world. Moving on, the second example is when the author states "we all took the less explicable step of engaging the parlour of a suite in the Plaza Hotel." This sentence describes the hotel in a rich manner, also, the diction of using the word "suite" adds onto the already established rich atmosphere, and the repitition of the word "plaza" throughout this extract enforces the idea that we are once again in a rich atmosphere. Finally, "He unrolled the bottle of whisky from the towel and put it on the table.", the specific diction of the word "whisky" was carefully chosen since whisky is quite a rich drink once again repeating that rich atmosphere. Also, "unrolling" gives the sense off a paticular and posh vibe.