...The Great Gatsby In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses four settings; two main locations of wealth, the East and West Egg, New York City where both sides do business and the Valley of Ashes home of the poor and a total wasteland of ash. The Eggs are separated by a small bay, on Long Island. This bay separates more than just the two locations. It also, separates and defines two very different social classes and ways of life. One area is known as the East Egg, where “old money” resides and the other is the West Egg, where the “new money” lives. The East Egg is characterized by long-standing wealth also referred to as "old money". People who live there come from generation after generation of money and social prestige. The Roosevelt's, DuPont's and Vanderbilt's would be considered "old money" during this time. They are similar to royalty. Their lifestyle is grand, sophisticated, fashionable and elegant which was characterized by their homes "white...
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...In his novel The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald explores the hypocrisy of the American Dream, through his intricate construction the settings of West-Egg, East-Egg and the Valley of Ashes. Fitzgerald’s use of West-Egg and East-Egg as a microcosm for the East-West divide of broader America shows how, despite the assertions to the contrary in the American Dream, social structures and bias still run rampant in American society. The obvious juxtaposition between the values and attitudes of the two locations highlights this, with West-Egg described as having “wide lawns and friendly trees” (pg. 7), compared to “the white palaces of East-Egg” that “glittered along the water” (pg. 8). This serves to paint the East-Egg as untouchable to those perceived...
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...Symbolism, in a novel, creates great depth and puts meaning behind otherwise insignificant words or phrases. This depth can be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby follows a set of characters that reside in Long Island. The book is narrated by one of the characters, Nick Carraway, who has just moved to West Egg. Opposite to West Egg is East Egg, where his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, reside. His cousin and her husband live luxurious lives and Nick finds himself surrounded by their privileged way of life. In West Egg, Nick lives next to Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Daisy Buchanan and hopes to reconnect. The Great Gatsby contains a considerable amount of symbolism that includes colors, temperature,...
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...author can give something more significance in a story, and add an extra layer of meaning that wasn’t there before. In “The Great Gatsby” symbolism is used to give a deeper meaning to the story, and by analyzing it the reader can better understand the message it is portraying. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism throughout “The Great Gatsby” in a variety of unique ways to express his feelings about 1920’s America. Between West Egg and the city lies The Valley of Ashes, a place symbolised in “The Great Gatsby”, as grey, and dreary. By using...
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...In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, there is an obvious hiatus between the different social classes. Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who resides in West Egg. Before Gatsby moved to West Egg, he had a relationship with Daisy Buchanan, who is Nick Carraway’s cousin. Gatsby went away from Daisy so he could fight in the war. While Gatsby was away, Daisy married Tom Buchanan and eventually moved to East Egg, where all the old money is. Gatsby moves to West Egg, where all the new money resides, so he could get back with Daisy. Between West and East Egg is an area called the valley of ashes, which all the working class and poor people live. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism and characterization to create the theme of the disconnect between the social classes. Fitzgerald uses symbolism for the valley of ashes to display the disconnect between the social classes. The valley of ashes is a poor area which connects West Egg to East Egg. It is full of “men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 23). The valley of ashes symbolizes the poor people who live in the dirty...
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...including parties and events. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of how a group of wealthy individuals gets wrapped up in conflicts while trying to convey their wealth to one another. Jay Gatsby, the main character, became wealthy by getting involved in the stock market after the WWI, where he originally fell in love with Daisy. Daisy Buchanan is married to a wealthy man named Tom Buchanan, who later resents Gatsby, leading to his contribution to Gatsby’s death. A whirlwind of events occurs after the reunion of Gatsby and Daisy that is furthered with the symbolic messages created by Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald uses a variety of symbolic messages, including the green light of Daisy’s porch, the valley of ashes, and the East and West Egg, to help with the development of the plot and to give the novel...
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...In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald places the setting of the novel in a time of high, pretentious aura and his characters in multiple scenarios that reveal their true character. The characters in the novel symbolize America as a whole and the environment significantly depicts the vast difference between the high class and the low class. Moreover, Fitzgerald applies the difference in the geography to outshine the main personality difference of the characters that live in that area. Nevertheless, he contrasts two specific different types of upper class: the “old money and “new money.” Fitzgerald geographically sets these two upper classes into West and East Egg to establish how the area can affect a character. The main character, Jay...
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...GREAT GATSBY CHAPTER ONE SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Nick Carraway, the novel's narrator and protagonist, begins The Great Gatsby by recounting a bit of advice his father taught him: don't criticize others, because most people have not enjoyed the "advantages" that he has. Nick says that as a result of following this advice, he's become a tolerant and forgiving person who resists making quick judgments of others. Nick's "advantages" come from "old money." Nick casts himself as someone who doesn't judge based on class, which indicates that other people do judge based on class. However, he is contradictory here as he does judge the other characters, apart from Gatsby who is instead romanticized. There is a sense of irony surrounding Nick. For instance, Nick says that though he scorns everything Gatsby stood for, he withholds judgment entirely regarding him. Nick says Gatsby was a man of "gorgeous" personality and boundless hope. Nick views Gatsby as a victim, a man who fell prey to the "foul dust" that corrupted his dreams. Nick introduces Gatsby and connects him to both new money and the American Dream, and indicates that Gatsby was done in by the "foul dust" of the Roaring Twenties. In the summer of 1922, Nick, a Yale graduate, moves from his hometown in Minnesota, where his family has lived for three generations, to live and work in New York. He has recently returned from military service in World War I, an experience that left him feeling restless in the dull Midwest. As...
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...American society is cruel. A once high, mighty, and pure ideal has become degraded and buried by the merciless greed for money. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, many of the characters, believed in the Dream and that wealth and social mobility was within his or her reach. Fitzgerald illustrates three specific social classes: old money, new money, and the lower class, with old money and new money taking center stage. Gatsby, himself, represents new money: he climbed the social and economic ladder and succeeded by way of shady dealings of bootlegging. On the other hand, Daisy Buchanan, the love of Gatsby’s life, represents old money. She received everything she has on a silver platter; she earned nothing but her inheritance. Gatsby, aware of this segregation, attempts to act as though he is “old” money in order to be accepted by Daisy’s class. By illustrating social-economic class differences through Gatsby and his desire for Daisy, Fitzgerald depicts the mistaken hype of the corrupted American Dream and the unreachable gap of economic class. In the novel we may see a clear connection between geographical location and social values, East Egg, West Egg and the Valley of Ashes demonstrate to that. These differences are evident in such characters as Jay Gatsby (West Egg), Tom and Daisy Buchanan (East Egg), George and Myrtle Wilson (the Valley of Ashes). Though...
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...The Great Gatsby is full of ideas and disappointment. It portrays the American life of those among different social classes. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald drives you through the ups and downs of... Daisy Buchanan is one of the main characters of The Great Gatsby. She has a lot of money. While the setting around her is corrupt, Daisy gives off the impression of being pure. Her dress, accessories, and car are all white. Fitzgerald presents her as a person of innocence. Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan used to have a relationship in the past. Gatsby now wants her to leave her husband, Tom Buchanan, so he tries to win her heart. In fact, Nick Carraway, the narrator, describes her as Gatsby’s green light. The green light is something that Gatsby tries to achieve throughout the story. He does this by throwing big parties in order to attract Daisy. The time period varies throughout the story. It starts with the end of World War I. Some characters, such as Gatsby and Carraway, participated in this Great War. The war caused many lives and homes. The Jazz Age, a post-war movement had begun. Many people celebrated by playing jazz music and dancing. Americans adopted a new lifestyle and embraced cultural and economic ideas. Sadly, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 soon ended this. Though the rich did not as much those in the...
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...American society is cruel. A once high, mighty, and pure ideal has become degraded and buried by the merciless greed for money. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, many of the characters, believed in the Dream and that wealth and social mobility was within his or her reach. Fitzgerald illustrates three specific social classes: old money, new money, and the lower class, with old money and new money taking center stage. Gatsby, himself, represents new money: he climbed the social and economic ladder and succeeded by way of shady dealings of bootlegging. On the other hand, Daisy Buchanan, the love of Gatsby’s life, represents old money. She received everything she has on a silver platter; she earned nothing but her inheritance. Gatsby, aware of this segregation, attempts to act as though he is “old” money in order to be accepted by Daisy’s class. By illustrating social-economic class differences through Gatsby and his desire for Daisy, Fitzgerald depicts the mistaken hype of the corrupted American Dream and the unreachable gap of economic class. In the novel we may see a clear connection between geographical location and social values, East Egg, West Egg and the Valley of Ashes demonstrate to that. These differences are evident in such characters as Jay Gatsby (West Egg), Tom and Daisy Buchanan (East Egg), George and Myrtle Wilson (the Valley of Ashes). Though...
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...Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained...
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...Symbolism of Houses and Cars in The Great Gatsby Francis Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of symbolism, which is portrayed by the houses and cars in an array of ways. One of the more important qualities of symbolism within The Great Gatsby is the way in which it is so completely incorporated into the plot and structure. Symbols, such as Gatsby's house and car, symbolize material wealth. Gatsby's house "[is] a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy" which contains "a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy" is a symbol of Gatsby's large illegal income (Fitzgerald 9). Gatsby's large income isn't enough to keep him happy. He needs "The house he feels he needs in order to win happiness" and it is also the perfect symbol of carelessness with money which is a major part of his personality (Bewley 24). Gatsby's house like his car symbolizes his vulgar and excessive trait of getting attention. Gatz's house is a mixture of different styles and periods which symbolizes an owner who does not know their true identity. The Buchanan's house is symbolic of their ideals. East Egg is home to the more prominent established wealth families. Tom's and Daisy's home is on the East Egg. Their house, a "red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay" with its "wine-colored rug[s]" is just as impressive as Gatsby's house but much more low-key (Fitzgerald 11) (13). East egg and Tom's home represents the established wealth and...
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...The Great Gatsby (Novel) Author Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald Purpose To show the author’s conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age Relationship with the Author and the Characters Fitzgerald and Carraway Thoughtful young man from Minnesota Educated at an Ivy League school Moves to NYC after the war Found the new extravagant lifestyle seductive and exciting Fitzgerald and Gatsby Idolizes wealth and luxury Falls in love with a beautiful young woman while at military camp Narrator Nick Carraway; he also implies that he is the book’s author Point of View Both first and third person Presents only what he himself observes Tone Ambivalent and contradictory; sometimes he seems to disapprove Gatsby, and sometimes he romanticizes and admires Gatsby, describing events in nostalgic and elegiac tone Background Year written: 1925 (the Jazz Age) American economy soared; great prosperity for majority Prohibition (18th Amendment in 1919) ‘bootleggers’ Money is everything Plot Nick Carraway moves from Minnesota to New York (West Egg) to learn about bond business West Egg: wealthy and fashionable area; where the “New Rich” live Nick has social connections with East Egg, where the “Old Rich” live Nick’s classmate at Yale, Tom Buchanan, lives with Nick’s cousin Daisy in East Egg Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, in the Valley of Ashes Valley of Ashes is a gray industrial dumping ground At one party, Nick breaks...
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...The Great Gatsby: Summary: Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg, Long Island, a wealthy area populated by the new rich, people who made their fortunes due to the economic upswing of the Roaring Twenties. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a huge mansion and throws extravagant parties on the weekends. Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island and the home of the upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a former classmate of Nick during his time at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a random, vulgar party in the apartment that Tom bought because of his affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually gets an invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters...
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