Accounting Portfolio
For a clearer view of the table, and to see sources click on the document download link below.
The first column is a list of the items I believed Gatsby had at his party based on the books reading and research. The second column is approximately how much each item Gatsby spent for each of his parties, and the third is approximately how much each item cost in 1922. The fourth column is approximately how much Gatsby would have spent on each item if he lived in 2008, and the fifth column is approximately how much each item cost in 2008. The last column is the source I used for that row to figure out the calculations. The source in the totals column is the inflation calculator that I used for the third column. The totals column shows that Gatsby spent about $758.81 on each party and approximately $9,105.72 on the whole summer. If Gatsby were to throw these kinds of parties today it would cost him approximately $8,701.35 for each party and $104,416.20 on the whole summer.
Reflection
Since I starting taking accounting this year and really seemed to like it, I decided that it would be fun to try and estimate how much Gatsby's parties would cost. This chart shows both what it would cost in 1922 and in 2008. It also shows what kind of parties were thrown in that time period. An example of this is instead of just having a DJ, like we do now, they had an entire orchestra! Since the parties that Gatsby threw were glamorous and had many expensive things, it shows how much Gatsby really wanted other people to like him. It would cost over $100,000 to throw parties like these every week during a summer in 2008. This shows just about how rich Gatsby was for him to be able to afford this cost.
The type of food at these parties were very elegant and elaborate. It says in the story that at Gatsby's parties there would be two dinners, one in the evening and one after midnight. All of the food that he needed was not presented directly in the book but based on all of the names that Nick listed and how he described the parties itself I estimated the approximate amount of food that I thought he would need. In the 1920s, they ate sardines and caviar as a delicacy, while today many people hate the taste of sardines and caviar. If those foods were to be put out at a party today, many people would not eat. Gatsby decorated his house with lights to make his house stand out from the others. This shows how much Gatsby wanted to be seen. If someone put out Christmas lights during the summer today they would be thought as weird. This shows many differences between the 1920s and of today.
