Erik Georgiev Mrs. Anele ENG3U1-04 12 April 2024 Exploring Geographic Determinism in The Great Gatsby In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, geographical locations such as East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes embody the resident’s social class, lifestyle, and personality. To begin, Jay Gatsby is a character that represents the social class, lifestyle, and personality of the people living in West Egg. Firstly, Gatsby and the residents of West Egg are wealthy and labelled as "new money." In the beginning of the novel, as Nick is walking through West Egg describing his surroundings, he spots a “colossal” mansion that, “was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a …show more content…
George's small garage shows the reality faced by lower-class citizens trying to make a living in a forgotten wasteland. Additionally, George and the residents of the Valley of Ashes live a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. During the party in New York, Myrtle explains that she regretted marrying George because “He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it” (Fitzgerald, 35). George’s inability to buy a suit for his marriage shows that he is unable to pay his necessities if he buys a suit. This not only highlights the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle the residents of the Valley of Ashes have, but also sheds light on the systemic inequalities endured by George and his fellow residents. Finally, George and the residents of the Valley of Ashes hopelessly. While Nick describes the valley of ashes, he says that it is full “of ash-gray men, who move dimly and are already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Fitzgerald, 23). Nick's portrayal of the residents of the Valley of Ashes as "ash-gray men" evokes an image of hopelessness, also suggesting a lack of vitality and purpose, as if the inhabitants are merely existing rather than truly living. In conclusion, F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrayal of the geographical locations such as East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes in The Great Gatsby vividly reflects the social class, lifestyle, and personality of its residents through characters like Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, and George
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 Valley of Ashes to display the reoccurring theme of a pre-set social class and to expose the false reality that the American Dream presents upon society.
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.
Many forms of literature portray conflicting or contrasting areas in which each place has a significant impact on the story. These opposing forces add to the overall theme, symbolism and meaning of the story. In the ‘Great Gatsby’, by F. Scott Fitzgerald these areas are the ‘East Egg’ and the ‘West Egg’. To illustrate the East Egg represents the former or classic establishment. It consists of wealthy families who have handed down money from generation to generation. However the West egg includes money or fortunes that recently have been acquired. The West Egg sets the standard of the American Dream theme; working hard to become successful. Notably, the Great Gatsby reveals characters that come from both areas and impact the story and other locations.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, introduces one of the main characters Jay Gatsby. The setting of this novel is the big picture of the roaring twenties. Gatsby surrounds himself with expensive belongings and wealthy people. He considers himself as new money, which is the West Egg, and lives his life this way for one desire Daisy Buchanan, whom is the love he lost five years earlier. Jay Gatsby is unique from others due to his childhood and growing up poor, his hopeless love for Daisy, and his kindness towards others.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, paints vivid picture of the lives of upper and lower classes together and their interactions during the Roaring 20’s. Fitzgerald does this by showing the readers the true nature and purpose behind the upper class and the manipulation they use against anyone lower than them. An example of this manipulation would be Tom Buchanan, a wealthy man married to Daisy Buchanan, lying George Wilson, a lowly poor individual running a mechanics shop, about selling a car, just to see the man’s wife. This poor man, Wilson, lives in “The Valley of Ashes”, an almost desolate area on the way to New York from West and East Egg. This valley is a representation of the manipulation and reckless behavior of the upper class. Through The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald paints a picture of the 1920’s by portraying the upper class as immoral and careless through their actions, and their opinions.
Throughout The Great Gatsby, various locations are introduced that correlate to specific types of inhabitants. The geography of the novel is primarily comprised of four scenes: East Egg, West Egg, the valley of the ashes, and New York City. Although all of the localities are situated in the East, Nick muses at the end of the novel that the story is, in actuality, “of the West” (Fitzgerald 176). This discovery insinuates that the materialisms of the East besmirched the characters of the West, symbolizing the deteriorating effects the quest for riches has on traditional values. Employing the four major settings, Fitzgerald is able to translate the moral and social corruption of society which dramatically contrasts with the conventional ethics of the West. F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes setting and its inhabitants in order to represent the theme of artificiality as well as the corrupt nature of the materialistic pursuit of wealth.
Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses an ensemble of characters to portray different aspects of the 1920s. The characters’ occupations and lifestyles represent the corruption, carefreeness, and prosperity of the Roaring Twenties. Perhaps most striking about this ensemble is the pompous bigot Tom Buchanan and the novel’s namesake Jay Gatsby. Set in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on Long Island, New York, in the summer of 1922, the novel revolves around the protagonist Nick Carraway when he moves to West Egg.
Who builds his own wealth and therefore builds his superiority. With a lack of family wealth and self-earned fortune, he represents the opposite from Tom and Daisy Buchanan. While the Buchanans seem to live without goals or ambition, Gatsby has a one track mind – to become wealthy to win back Daisy. Fitzgerald shows Gatsby’s ambitions with the schedule of his daily activities written in his childhood novel (Fitzgerald 164). Gatsby’s father say to Nick “It just shows you…[He] was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this” (Fitzgerald 164). This quote is what separates the East eggers (old money) from the West eggers (new money). Gatsby has earned his social superiority through his drive and ambition. The house symbolizes Gatsby 's upbringing from a poor farm boy to a rich, wealthy New Yorker. His flashy and superficial personality comes from the importance he puts on material items. “[an] imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side,…a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald 11), all suggest Gatsby 's desire to be perceived as
The Great Gatsby is a novel that was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story Great Gatsby has two male main characters Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway. Both characters live in West Egg district, which is located in Long Island New York. Nick Carraway grew up and lived in Minnesota and then later moved to the west egg district in the summer of 1922. Jay Gatsby lived in a large gothic style mansion. Nick was Jays neighbor when he moved in from Minnesota. Nick was in aw over Jays house because in Minnesota they did not have houses like the one Jay was living in. Nick was intimated at first and skeptical of Jay because of his home.
Each place takes on a different meaning of wealth and success. Fitzgerald also used the different locations to divide up the social classes. The community of the West Egg represents “new money”. It is a place where the newly rich inhabit. A society of rich entrepreneurs who have made their money from participating in illegal activity after World War I. The West Egg society is portrayed in the book as being gaudy and showoffs; a community with no class or dignity. Fitzgerald includes Gatsby’s pink suit, Rolls Royce, and white mansion to depict Gatsby as being flashy and trying to copy the people from the East Egg. The East Egg is right across the bay from the West Egg, where the people who were born rich reside. The West Egg represents “old money”. The West Egg social elites are thought to have style, dignity, and class. As for Tom and Daisy, who live in West Egg, have none of those traits. They are both having affairs, Daisy killed a woman, and Tom is a racist abuser. This is an example that having the American dream will not make life easy or make a person any happier. Fitzgerald includes a place where the poor and hard-working citizens of New York live. The place where working yourself to the bone will get you nowhere in life and anyone who is wealthy enough ends up moving far away. It is a community of dirt poor people whose labor in the factories
By exploring the physical site of the valley, followed by the inhabitants of the valley – George and Myrtle, George representing the working class and Myrtle the exception, extending this to the references of the valley to Gatsby’s humble origins, the Valley of the Ashes represents the low social mobility and the failure of the American Dream.
The writing of Fitzgerald is influenced by his life deeply. He was born in 1896, (The Great Gatsby, back of book) in Minnesota. He was educated at Princeton University. He became wealthy after college and married a woman named Zelda. He lived in the upper class, spending much of his time in New York and Paris, much like Gatsby's life. After living in the middle United States, they both were educated at excellent universities. They then became rich and traveled to New York frequently. Although the way they made their money is very different, they still went from rags to riches. This could be why Fitzgerald chose to put Gatsby in West Egg, with the "newly rich," because Fitzgerald himself would know how to write from his view.
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).
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s. The story is narrated by Nick Carraway as he moves from the Midwest to New York City, in the fictional town of West Egg along Long Island. The story is primarily focused on the attractive, young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his love for Daisy Buchanan. Pursuing the American Dream, Nick lived next door to Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her husband,Tom Buchanan. It is then that Nick is drawn into the striking world of the riches' lusts, loves, lies and deceits. The Great Gatsby explores themes of love, social changes, and irony, creating a image of the Golden Twenties that has been described as the tale about the American Dream.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby employs a variety of symbols throughout the novel. A repeating symbol throughout the novel is the contrast between the East and West Egg islands. The employment of these two locations creates a distinction between new money and old money, between self-made individuals and inherited wealth. Jay Gatsby lives on the West egg, which is characterized by large wealth and gaudiness and lacks social standing, and the elegant refinement of the East egg where Tom Buchanon lives.