In chapter three of The Great Gatsby, describe the events and atmosphere of the party.

Gatsby's party in chapter three expresses the Jazz Age in
its sheer excess but captures the mood of the era in other ways as well. First, the
party defies the Prohibition: drinks flow freely. There's a "bar with a real brass
rail," writes Nick, "stocked with gins and liquors and cordials ...floating rounds of
cocktails permeate the garden outside ..." 

Second, the
party depends on the availability of automobiles, another hallmark of the age: "the cars
from New York," we learn, "are parked five deep in the drive." In a significant
foreshadowing event at the end of the party, there's a car accident as the drunken
revellers leave by the dozen, and the driver accused of the accident claims he wasn't
driving the car. 

Third, in allowing anyone entry, the
party reflects the new openness of the Jazz Age, where people of different classes
mingled freely. (This will later annoy the class-bound Tom Buchanan.) Gatsby perhaps
exemplifies this exuberant freedom: much of the gossip at the party involves circulating
wild stories about who he really might be, stories that in their contradictory excess
seem to assure him his anonymity. This anonymity also reflects the age: who puts it
better than Jordan Baker when she says, "I like large parties. They're so intimate. At
small parties there isn't any privacy." 

Further, as events
at the party unfold, we gain some insights not only into the superficiality of the Jazz
Age, but some hints into the flimsiness of Gatsby's self-construction: Owl Eyes notes
that the pages of the books in the library have not been cut, though the books
themselves are real, a fact that startles and impresses
him. 

It's at this party that Nick meets Gatsby for the
first time and is charmed by his smile that "concentrated on you with an irresistible
prejudice in your favor." 

Alcohol, autos and anonymity as
classes and sexes mix with a new freedom: all of these weave through the narrative of
Gatsby's party.