Commenting upon the party in Manhattan, Nick said, “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” What did he mean?
This quote is from chapter 2 when Nick follows Gatsby to New York. Nick witnesses Tom cheating on Daisy with Myrtle. Nick has had a lot to drink: the partying and debauchery makes his head spin. Nick is both a participant and an observer in a scene that he does not like. Nick is attracted to the excessive larger than life experience of unlimited money and "pleasure" while, at the same time, being repelled by the immorality and superficiality of the scene.
