The setting of The Great Gatsby is one of the most influential components of the novel. Perhaps the most significant places in the novel are the West and East Eggs. In the story, the eggs are described by Nick, the narrator, as, “…a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay” (Fitzgerald 9). However, the appearance of the two eggs is almost all they have in common as Nick point out when he says, “To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size” (Fitzgerald 9). As the story progresses, the dissimilarities between the two eggs begin to emerge, yet there is always a faint, common element among the two. The setting affects the events of the story and the clashing characters according to where the scene takes place, and which area each character is from, influencing the characters’ attitudes, background, and current lifestyle and values.
The two main homes that are described in the eggs are Gatsby’s and the Buchanan’s. Gatsby’s house is described as, “…a factual imitation of the Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new… and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald 9). Gatsby’s mansion is garish and is used as an attempt to win Daisy’s attention and affection. His home is the site of lavish parties where denizens of both eggs gather. The parties at Gatsby’s house last all night and many come and go, “…like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Fitzgerald 43). Gatsby has dozens of crates of food delivered, caterers, and orchestras for his parties. These parties are not a rare occasion, though; he has them at least ever two weeks or so. Li...
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...s among their inhabitants, especially when Nick takes the reader to visit the homes of Jay Gatsby and Tom and Daisy Buchanan. The eggs also serve to represent two contrasting types of wealth: newly gained and inherited. Along with the opposing types of wealth come opposing attitudes, which greatly contribute to the story. All of the factors of the setting of The Great Gatsby affect the events of the story and the characters that make up the story considerably.
Work Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic, The Great Gatsby, tells a story of how love and greed lead to death. The narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway, tells of his unusual summer after meeting the main character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s intense love makes him attempt anything to win the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan. All the love in the world, however, cannot spare Gatsby from his unfortunate yet inevitable death. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald utilizes the contrasting locations of East Egg and West Egg to represent opposing forces vital to the novel.
Gatsby’s dream is corrupted by the opulence surrounding him; therefore, he fallaciously assumes that material wealth is synonymous to happiness and wealth. In response to Gatsby’s demand Nick Carraway states "the modesty of the demand shook [him]. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could "come over" some afternoon to a stranger's garden" (83). Gatsby throws lavish parties in hope of attracting Daisy, but Daisy never goes to any of his parties making Gatsby’s attempt seem futile. People in East Egg inherit their money and already have everything they want, they did not work for their money and do not appreciate the same way West Egg does. Daisy already has money meaning there is no reason to be with Gatsby because of money. The parties that Gatsby throws wastes money in an obscene fashion and those parties host shallow attendees only trying to increase their social status. Those parties may appear to East Egg as the vulgarity of nouveau riche, only lowering Gatsby’s social status among those in East Egg. Jordan Baker thinks "[Gatsby] half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night, […] but she never did." (84). Gatsby believes that he can impress Daisy with wealth, but Daisy already has wealth making his parties not impressive. Corrupted by wealth, Gatsby tries too hard to buy his dream and a way into a society that would not fully accept him.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby recounts a love story of fortune, sacrifice, and passion. Mystified by the foreign land of excessive capital and immense material possessions, the narrator, Nick Carraway, judges or exalts numerous inhabitants of the East and West Eggs, especially Jay Gatsby, whose mystery and secrecy attracts many. Although it seems like Mr. Carraway obsesses about Gatsby, strictly, for his wealth, a careful look at craft choices and his characterization reveals that Jay Gatsby captivates Nick because he is one of the only characters, who, unclouded by prosperity, recognizes his own fascination with money.
“The Great Gatsby” was a extremely sophisticated novel; it expressed love, money, and social class. The novel is told by Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor. Nick had just moved to West Egg, Longs Island to pursue his dream as a bond salesman. Nick goes across the bay to visit his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan in East Egg. Nick goes home later that day where he saw Gatsby standing on his dock with his arms out reaching toward the green light. Tom invites Nick to go with him to visit his mistress Mrs. Myrtle Wilson, a mid class woman from New York. When Nick returned from his adventure of meeting Myrtle he chooses to turn his attention to his mysterious neighbor, Gatsby. Gatsby is a very wealthy man that host weekly parties for the
The first example of Gatsby's belief that money can buy his happiness is when Nick Carraway describes the subdivision in which he lives, West Egg. The subdivision across the water is East Egg. The houses are very luxurious to say the least. On the other hand, there is a distinction between the two. The West Egg house are more recently built and are elaborately decorated, where as the houses in East Egg are still as big but very conservative in architecture. The two neighborhoods represent the division in the upper class at this time in America. During the 1920's, the conservative "old rich" despised the "new rich". A good example of an "old rich" family would be the Rockefellers, where as a "new rich" family would be the Kennedys. The East Egg represented the conservative money of the "old rich". For generations their money passed down giving them the belief that the "new rich" with their newly acquired wealth were still lower and not equal to them. The "new rich" liked to display their wealth in lavish ways that the conservative wealthy did not approve. In addition, the "new rich" often did not earn their money in legitimate ways; most earned their money from boot legging. Carraway in an ironic way is neither "new rich" nor "old rich". He lives in a rather modest house compared to Gatsby's huge mansion. Gatsby owns a huge house but is the only person living there besides some servants. Gatsby tries to use the house to win the happiness and respect from others. Another reason for the house is to hide the way in which he really makes his money.
There are many themes that are implemented in the Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald uses as a technique to juxtapose two contrasting topics. During this time of the Roaring Twenties, business and economy was booming, however there’s still was a underlying hint of urban corruption and the gap between the rich and poor became greater. Through the technique of juxtaposition, Fitzgerald paints a detailed picture of society in the 1920’s and its cultural clashes. By comparing the characters living in the East and West Egg, Fitzgerald highlights the contrast between morality and corruption in society during the 1920’s. Additionally, his contrasting descriptions of Tom and Daisy’s house to the Valley of Ashes offers a juxtaposition of the rich and poor.
For most people, a certain colour may represent something meaningful to them. While in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the colours used in the novel are meant to represent something. The novel’s setting is in East and West Egg, two places in New York. Our narrator, Nick Carraway, lives in the West Egg. Along with living in West Egg is a friend of Nick’s, Jay Gatsby; a character that is in love with Daisy Buchanan. Unfortunately, Daisy is married to Tom. As the plot unravels, the reader notices the connection between certain colours and their importance to the novel. The use of colours within The Great Gatsby symbolizes actual themes, as grey symbolizes corruption, blue symbolizes reality, and green symbolizes jealousy and envy.
...East Egg she doesn’t want change even though how much she loved Gatsby at a younger age. “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end”(104). After all the hurdles that Gatsby had to overcome, he turned into a rich and wealthy man. He was able to change his life for the better in such a positive way. Gatsby did not let the setting of living in West Egg, even though Nick said that West Egg was “the less fashionable of the two” (Fitzgerald 5) get in the way of achieving his ambition.
The two were young lovers who were unable to be together because of differences in social status. Gatsby spends his life after Daisy acquiring material wealth and social standing to try and reestablish a place in Daisy’s life. Once Gatsby gains material wealth he moves to the West Egg where the only thing separating he and Daisy is a body of water. It is through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, that the reader gains insight into the mysterious Jay Gatsby. In Nick’s description of his first encounter with Gatsby he says, “But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” The reader soon discovers that the green light is at the end of Daisy’s dock, signifying Gatsby’s desperation and desire to get her back. Gatsby’s obsessive nature drives him to throw parties in hopes that his belonged love will attend. The parties further reveal the ungrasping mysteriousness of Gatsby that lead to speculations about his past. Although the suspicions are there, Gatsby himself never denies the rumors told about him. In Nick’s examination of Gatsby he says, “He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.” This persona Gatsby portrays shows how he is viewed by others, and further signifies his hope and imagination
Setting is essential to any good novel, it envelopes the entire work and pervades every scene and line for, as Jack M. Bickham said, “when you choose setting, you had better choose it wisely and well, because the very choice defines—and circumscribes—your story’s possibilities”. F. Scott Fitzgerald created a setting in The Great Gatsby that not only is an overarching motif in the story, but implants itself in each character that hails from West Egg, East Egg, and the Valley of Ashes. West Egg, symbolizing the new, opportunistic rich, representative of the American dream, East Egg, the established, aristocratic rich, and the Valley of Ashes, the crumbling decay of society, are linked together in the “haunted” image of the East, the hollow, shallow, and brutal land that Fitzgerald uses to illustrate the hollow, shallow, and brutal people living there (176).
On one level The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald comments on the careless gaiety and moral decadence of the period in which it was set. It contains innumerable references to the contemporary scene. The wild extravagance of Gatsby's parties, the shallowness and aimlessness of the guests and the hint of Gatsby's involvement in crime all identify the period and the American setting. But as a piece of social commentary The Great Gatsby also describes the failure of the American dream, from the point of view that American political ideals conflict with the actual social conditions that exist. For whereas American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle's attempt to break into the group to which the Buchanans belong is doomed to fail. Taking advantage of her vivacity, her lively nature, she seeks to escape from her own class. She enters into an affair with Tom and takes on his way of living. But she only becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She scorns people from her own class and loses all sense of morality. And for all her social ambition, Myrtle never succeeds in her attempt to find a place for herself in Tom's class. When it comes to a crisis, the rich stand together against all outsiders.
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 traditions. Their stable wealth, although lacking the vulgarity of new wealth, is symbolic of their empty future and now purposelessness lives together. The House also has a cold sense to it according to Nick. This sense symbolizes Tom's brutality, and as Perkins's says in his manuscript to Fitzgerald "I would know...Buchanan if I met him and would avoid him," because Tom is so cold and brute (Perkins 199).
Within the novel of the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses a symbolic setting to contribute to the novel's overall purpose. Right in the beginning of the great Gatsby, he introduces the idea of West Egg and East Egg. East Egg being where Tom Buchanan and Daisy reside, among other people who live lavishly off of their inherited family money,”across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”(Pg.8). This part of the two eggs represents “old money,” which is the way the author calls wealth that has been passed on through generations within families.West Egg being the location where the narrator, Nick Carraway, and Jay Gatsby reside, represents “new money,”or people who are new to wealth, as opposed to people who have had it in their families,”West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two”(Pg.7). Fitzgerald sets this sort of tension between the West and East Eggers. Many of the East Eggers thought the entrepreneurs living on the West were shady, “A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers…”(114). Between West Egg and East Egg, there is a place the author calls the Valley of Ashes, “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like
Within the film, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, whilst East Egg and its denizens, particularly Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Luhrman presents these people of the newly rich as being rather vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. This notion is particularly apparent in the depiction of Jay Gatsby and the spoils of his luxurious and decadent lifestyle, this has been achieved through the profound set development in the production of a monstrously ornate mansion, of epic proportions; resembling his life of inordinate decadence and excess, yet is unable to secure ultimate happiness. Contrastingly, epitomized by the Buchanans’ is the old aristocracy with demonstration of grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, demonstrated through the tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker. The East Eggers however prove themselves to be rather careless, and inconsiderate bullies with their profound resources, which are demonstrated to relinquish them of all accountability and human morality. Luhrman through the Buchanans towards the conclusion of this film, where after Daisy had killed Myrtle, they simply move to a new residence, far away rather than condescend to attend Gatsby’s funeral; allowing them to remove themselves of the tragedy not only physically but psychologically. This also demonstrates the character of Jay Gatsby, though his recent wealth derives from criminal activity, he is of sincere and loyal heart, ironically it is these characteristics that are the cause of his death, taking blame for the killing of Myrtle rather than allowing Daisy Buchannan to be
In conclusion, the setting and geography of The Great Gatsby is an exceptional influence on many things such as characters’ personalities, themes, and foreshadowing. It relates characters to where they live and how they act. East and West Egg, the valley of the ashes, and Nee York City all house different types of people that the main characters in the story represent. The setting, especially the weather foreshadows what will happen that day in the novel. If one regards the locations and conditions they may find out a lot about what a certain character is planning to do or how they are feeling on that particular day. Therefore, the setting and geography dictates many things about the characters such as social status, personality traits, and background, while the weather incorporates a character’s feelings into the setting.