The locations of East Egg, West Egg, show the differences between old and new money, and how each can exemplify the American Dream. Fitzgerald used the atmosphere to represent more than just a location, but add a deeper meaning to the novel and make it “seem longer than its length of fifty thousand words”(“The Great Gatsby”). Fitzgerald uses the settings to represent something, adding significance to the places visited in the novel. By making the two locations of West and East Egg, Fitzgerald indicates that there is a significant difference between the two of these, “not just in style but in what might be called moral geography, between the East and West people”(Bruccoli.) The location of New York’s East Egg, the more wealthy and fashionable …show more content…
One way we see differences between East and West Egg is the use of symbols. The symbols “establish that the central characters believe in an American Dream that offers than limitless freedom, wealth, and power and enables them to buy the love of a woman who personifies their aspirations”(Roberts). Gatsby uses the symbol of the green light across the bay to represent his longing for the American Dream, and for Daisy. Gatsby stares wishingly at the green light from West Egg, looking across the water to the light on Daisy’s dock in East Egg. The light is “nepature lament for the futility of American optimism”(Daisley). The green light shows the hope that remains inside all Americans, the “longing for something that is just beyond reach for his or her life”(Baker). This green light on East Egg reflects the longing Americans have for something greater, in hope that they will eventually achieve it. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”(Fitzgerald 152). The green light is a symbol that all Americans believe in, as Gatsby stares at it from West Egg, a place of desiring
The vast wealth of great New York at the time enlivened its people, creating a class that succumbed them in their money and the power it held. On Long Island in the two Eggs, the majority of the main characters of Fitzgerald’s reside. There was a distinct difference
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the people of East Egg have many advantages because of their wealth, their wealth also makes them believe they are superior to others. The people of East Egg love two things: their money and parties. They love going crazy and having a good time; lucky for them, they do not have to pay the consequences for their actions. Towards the end of the book, Nick gives his opinion of Tom’s and Daisy’s
During the Roaring twenties, social class was an important aspect of society. All different classes were for the most part separated by where people lived. In other words, by no means would anyone from a lower class be caught in an uptown setting. There are a variety of characters in the novel that come from different economic backgrounds. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald successfully uses location to differentiate social status amongst his characters while the weather and seasons of those locations help guide them. Each character helps represent and support the differences of social class and the four main locations, The East Egg, the West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and New York City.
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, setting plays a very important role. The novel is set in New York City and in Long Island in 1922, yet in the novel there are three different locations described in great detail as well as the people who reside in each area. The locations are West Egg, East Egg, and The Valley of Ashes. Each one of these areas represent a different type of personality or way of living from every person that stay there. Each characters background, their true motivations, and their believed pressures put on them by their society and environment is represented by where they live.
An analysis of The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald indicated that the setting of the book contributed to the theme of money by comparing the two classes of people in the West and East egg, giving detailed descriptions of places based on the amount of money that it has, and establishing the feel of the ¨roaring twenties¨. In the first chapter, Nick introduces he is from West egg, calling it ¨ẗhe less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them¨ (Fitzgerald 5). East egg is described as being the most fashionable one, having the nickname ¨old money¨, meaning the inhabitants have achieved their wealth through inheritance, while the West egg is ¨new money¨, meaning
Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, location is a critical motif. The contrasts between East and West, East Egg and West Egg, and the two Eggs and New York serve important thematic roles and provide the backdrops for the main conflict. Yet, there needs to be a middle ground between each of these sites, a buffer zone, as it were; there is the great distance that separates East from West; there is the bay that separates East Egg from West Egg; and, there is the Valley of Ashes that separates Long Island from New York. The last of these is probably the most striking. Yet, the traditional literal interpretation does not serve Fitzgerald's theme as well as a more
The East Egg and West Egg are symbolic of the effects of wealth and the corruption of values. The West Egg is the home of the newly rich, like Gatsby, and those like him who have made huge fortunes, but lack the traditions associated with old wealthy families. The West Egg made up of families like the Buchanans, have a tradition of money, have grown up with money and have never had to work for anything
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that has a large focus on the ideas of the American Dream and social class in the 1920s. In the novel, the people of West Egg and East Egg are people of the upper who have earned money either through inheritance or working hard and have had many opportunities to make their American Dream a reality. The people of the Valley of Ashes are people of lower class who have little to no money and have to work all their lives to make ends meet. Even though both social classes strive for the same thing, The American Dream, neither of them will ever truly achieve it. Fitzgerald uses a vast contrast in the settings of East Egg, West Egg, and
The symbolism behind East Egg and West Egg plays an important role in Fitzgerald's expression of corruption. East represents the wealth and the sophistication as well as the recklessness and the corruption of the people. The West on the other hand represents the lower classes, which in their blindness try to attain wealth, in order to fit in with the high privileged classes, which are mercenary to begin with. Fitzgerald points out here that both the upper, more privileged classes and the lower classes are immoral and corrupt for each of them has reached a level where their lives are taken by the materialism of life.
East Egg and West Egg are "identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay ... They are not perfect ovals ... but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual wonder to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size."(9) In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates different worlds, where many different people live amongst each other. The areas of East Egg and West Egg in Long Island find isolation not just geographically, “separated only by a courtesy bay” (9), but more significantly in the way the two societies contrast. Along with East and West Egg, Fitzgerald creates another symbol
The settings and backdrops in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are essential elements to the formation of the characters, symbolic imagery and the overall plot development. Fitzgerald uses East and West Egg communities to portray two separate worlds and two classes of people that are technically the same their status, but fundamentally different in their ideals. The physical geography of the settings is representative of the distance between classes of the East and West Eggers. Every setting connotes a different tone and enhances the imagery of story line. From the wealthy class of the "eggs", the desolate "valley of ashes", to the chaos of Manhattan. The imagery provided by Fitzgerald becomes an important
Once Nick Carraway, the narrator, moves into a small home in West Egg, he soon comprehends that East Egg and West Egg are completely different. Carraway realizes the East Egg is where the upscale residents live and West Egg is more economically disadvantaged as he explains, “I lived at West Egg, the--well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them” (Fitzgerald 5). East Egg residences extremely wealthy people whose wealth has been passed down the line for years, while West Egg houses the hard-working people who build up their wealth. Furthermore, Thomas C. Fowler defines that living in a wealthy, luxurious geographical environment can reconstruct a character into a conceited personality explaining, “Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces inhabiting humans” (174). This theory is correct because the residences’ in East Egg are spoiled, selfish people finding themselves in a wealthy and treasured lifestyle.
Additionally the interior yellow can symbolize gold and lavish objects. Moreover an egg is used as the division of the town East egg and West egg. This precious metal is a social status and signifies wealth. The division of these competing areas separates the newly rich from the historically wealthy families. The narrator Nick, comments that he lives in West Egg, being the,” well the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them” (Gatsby 5). By saying this, nick expresses the idea of his egg (West Egg) being less fashionable and desirable than the other more prominent side (East Egg). Even though some might not live in the more fashionable part of town you still can achieve the American Dream. Nick and the west side represent those that have actually worked hard and earned their new status. This part of town houses Nick and Gatsby, which do show that if you put in hard work you, can achieve the American dream.
Americans carry the freedom of opportunity and social mobility, allowing any individual to prosper, depending on their tenacity to succeed. Explicitly, Gatsby’s character differentiates between the four types of people present in this world, “the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (79). An instrumental facet of Gatsby’s character is his aspirations to pursue his goals, with a tenacious attitude to overcome any challenges that he may face. The passion that Gatsby contains is indefinable, his constant motivation to achieve his perfect utopian world allows him to reach out for a single “green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (21). Peculiarly, the green light at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock is barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn. Daisy resides along the East Egg depicting the moral decay and social cynicism of the old aristocracy, whereas Gatsby is settled along the West Egg, illustrating the newly rich of New York. The City of New York is a place for hope, a location often present in the quest to gain excessive wealth and a place full of pleasure. Moreover, the green light symbolizes Gatsby’s hope and misfortunate end with “his dream [seeming] so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him…” (180).
Like East Egg and West Egg, they are both modern and uprising communities of New York. East Egg is where Daisy and Tom live. A place where people that are well educated, have a high status stay. Their origins have also come from the lavish and rich inheritance of American society. This is what is known as ‘Old Money’ people, the kind that defiance the poor. West Egg, is where Nick caraway and Gatsby lives. They are also wealthy people, but with a different background. Jay Gatsby is uneducated, but a rising newcomer in the fireball of wealth. As a comparison to the East Eggers, the west side lacks the polish standards of choice. Although Gatsby is kind hearted in the inside, he will always be an outsider to the high class. Because it wasn’t meant to be, it was a miracle from the roots of where he is from. One of the many themes from this book is presented in the movie from the angles of East Egg and West