How Is West Egg Portrayed In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald communicates through his text, the ideas and general attitude of the characters. Each of the character's ideas and attitudes can place them into one of three places where they would most likely live, either East Egg, West Egg, or the valley of ashes. The characters that lived in the East Egg are those who have been wealthy for a while. The characters that lived in West Egg are a lot like characters from the East egg, but they haven't been wealthy for as long as those who live in East Egg. The characters who live in the Valley of Ashes are quite different from those who live in East and West Egg, this is because the Valley of Ashes is for the non wealthy. The location of where the characters live plays an important role throughout the novel and shows the ideas and attitudes of the characters.

The characters who live in East Egg are the wealthy and those who have been wealthy for generally a long time this is expressed when Nick says, “East Egg is the home of Old Money citizens like Daisy and Tom”. Those who live in East Egg are viewed more highly by the society, this is because the people from East Egg had more connections and contacts, which is desperately wanted by those from West Egg. The characters from East Egg are generally arrogant and rude an example of

this is the fact that Tom was cheating on his wife for Myrtle disregarding the respect he should have for his wife. This kind of careless act is done is because characters from the East Egg have the thought that they can't be caught and held responsible for their actions.

The characters who live in East Egg are those who have just came into wealth like and are just now deciding what to do with it like Nick and Gatsby for example.

Although West Egg is for the wealthy, they are not viewed as highly as the people from East Egg, this is shown when Nick states, “I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two”. The people from West Egg look up to the people from East Egg, this is because even though the people from East Egg might be arrogant, they still have contacts through the social ladder. The people from East Egg are normally, polite and suck ups because they are interested in being socially

respected.

The characters from the Valley of Ashes are those who have been poor and have been looked down upon by the higher classes, making them social outcasts of the New York, Myrtle and Wilson show this when Wilson confronts Tom, “No, he doesn’t,” said Tom coldly. “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all.” “I don’t mean that,” explained Wilson quickly.”(28) The people who live in the Valley of Ashes are generally gullible, clueless and spineless as shown when Tom hooks up with Myrtle right under Wilson’s nose.

In conclusion, the characters from The Great Gatsby can be categorized by their personalities, ideas, and general attitude. From the information we gather we can conclude if each character would most likely live in East Egg, West Egg, or the Valley of Ashes. Even though characters throughout the book have stayed true to their locations general ideas and attitudes some characters like Gatsby for example have shown us that we can't judge a book by its cover.