If Fitzgerald were alive and writing the novel today

clearly he wouldn't write the way he did 90 years ago. But purely from the literary point of view, in part he used the imagery to symbolize that 'anything can happen' as he put right after that paragraph. We should always keep in mind that literary works need to be analyzed in a historical perspective. Of course I am not defending Fitzgerald for i don't like to read anything offensive either. But that's what it was many years ago.