Quote 1
"He must be very rich," said John simply. "I'm glad. I like very rich people. The richer a fella is, the better I like him." (1.22)
John is the embodiment of America's wealth-obsessed culture, at least as Fitzgerald sees it.
Quote 2
They were obviously ascending, and within a few minutes the car was crossing a high rise, where they caught a glimpse of a pale moon newly risen in the distance. The car stopped suddenly and several figures took shape out of the dark beside it—these were negroes also. Again the two young men were saluted in the same dimly recognizable dialect; then the negroes set to work and four immense cables dangling from overhead were attached with hooks to the hubs of the great jeweled wheels. At a resounding "Hey-yah!" John felt the car being lifted slowly from the ground— up and up—clear of the tallest rocks on both sides—then higher, until he could see a wavy, moonlit valley stretched out before him in sharp contrast to the quagmire of rocks that they had just left. Only on one side was there still rock—and then suddenly there was no rock beside them or anywhere around. (2.16)
There's something almost ritualistic in the way that Percy and John travel slowly to their destination. There are stations on the way, and certain procedures which must be observed. The process has an air of sacred secrecy about it, like some sort of cult ceremony.
Quote 3
Afterward John remembered that first night as a daze of many colors, of quick sensory impressions, of music soft as a voice in love, and of the beauty of things, lights and shadows, and motions and faces. There was a white-haired man who stood drinking a many-hued cordial from a crystal thimble set on a golden stem. There was a girl with a flowery face, dressed like Titania with braided sapphires in her hair. There was a room where the solid, soft gold of the walls yielded to the pressure of his hand, and a room that was like a platonic conception of the ultimate prism—ceiling, floor, and all, it was lined with an unbroken mass of diamonds, diamonds of every size and shape, until, lit with tall violet lamps in the corners, it dazzled the eyes with a whiteness that could be compared only with itself, beyond human wish or dream. (2.30)
John looks at the château with a childlike wonder. There is something mythological and ancient about the scene, as emphasized with allusions to Ancient Greek mythology (or mythical characters borrowed from Shakespeare).