The novel opens with narrator Nick Carraway settling in West Egg, Long Island, next to the mansion of the mysterious Jay Gatsby, whose extravagant parties and murky origins establish the novel's central atmosphere of glamour built over uncertain foundations.

Key elements established in the opening:

• The contrast between West Egg (new money, like Gatsby) and East Egg (old money, like Nick's cousin Daisy and her husband Tom) establishes the novel's preoccupation with class distinctions beneath surface wealth
• Gatsby's lavish, mysterious parties — attended by hundreds who know almost nothing genuine about their host — establish the novel's theme of spectacle and image over substance
• Nick's position as both participant and skeptical observer sets up his role as the reader's guide through the moral ambiguity that follows

This opening establishes the glittering surface the rest of the novel will progressively reveal as concealing genuine hollowness.