For Trimalchio, the one does not exist without the other. … Trimalchio sees death as eminent, but while he lives he will eat, drink, be merry and even pretend to die, because for Trimalchio while he lives, he dies and when he dies he will still live on. … postquam nos auferet Orcus.

Was Trimalchio a real person?

Trimalchio, after all, had been an unusually successful businessman; for all that is known, might have proved an unusually successful general.

Why is Gatsby compared to Trimalchio?

The connection of title character Jay Gatsby to Trimalchio is clear. Gatsby is a former nobody who can suddenly claim great wealth by uncertain means, a figure of gossip and speculation trusted by no one, whose wealth is taken advantage of by everyone.