Read the following excerpt from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: I spent my Saturday nights in New York, because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and down his drive. One night I did hear a material car there, and saw its lights stop at his front steps. But I didn't investigate. Probably it was some final guest who had been away at the ends of the earth and didn't know that the party was over.

How does this excerpt contribute to the overall meaning of The Great Gatsby? What aesthetic impact is it meant to have on the reader? Be sure to cite evidence from the reading to support your answer. lo