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Differences Between East And West Egg In The Great Gatsby

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Throughout history, there has been an established social hierarchy. Dominated by wealth and social status, the hierarchy prevailed during the Roaring ‘20s. There was a large class distinction between people of great wealth and people in extreme poverty. The working and lower class were always blamed for the unacceptable actions of the wealthy. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores the socioeconomic differences in the neighborhoods of East and West Egg and the Valley of Ashes, revealing that individuals are confined to their social status and do not have the opportunity to change their class. East and West Egg are significantly similar, but the perception people have of each area creates a wealth and social status separation. The novel is based around New York, but specifically two areas of land labeled East and West Egg. The shell of each egg protects the rich people. The white part of the egg represents purity, while the yellow inside represents corruption and chaos (Olesen, “Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby”). Just outside of the city, there is “a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by courtesy bay” where Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Tom and Daisy Buchanan live (9). East and West Egg are physically the same; they both contain huge mansions and perfectly cut grass, but the water …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores East and West Egg and the Valley of Ashes, examining the differences in social status between the two. Life during this time was based around social status and wealth. Most people’s lives were about how much money one had and how high in the social hierarchy they were. Many people became rich through organized crime or bootlegging. The social hierarchy still exists today, but now one can change their lives to become a different level of the social hierarchy. There will always be an upper and lower class, but one now has the opportunity to live in the social status they wish to

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The Writer painter and designer Johannes Itten said, “Color is life; for a world without color appears to us as dead. Colors are primordial ideas the children of light.” Fitzgerald decided to use many colors in the novel The Great Gatsby. He used many colors and each color had a special meaning. The special meaning is focused more as a theme that is involved threw out the novel.

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The next major symbols in The Great Gatsby are the East and West Egg, and the differences between them. Nick and Gatsby live in West Egg. It is not as luxurious as East Egg, Nick describes it as, “the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not little sinister contrast between them” (14). West Egg seems as though it is for the families and people who are newly wealthy, Gatsby for example, or young, as Nick has moved into a small house, with the “consoling proximity of millionaires - all for eighty dollars a month” (14). When comparing West Egg to East Egg, the reader is able to see what each island symbolizes, which helps to create depth in the novel.

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Social stratification is permanent in society and has been represented in numerous literary texts where the most vulnerable dream to become higher class with wealth, and status. This desire to escape the low-class life, flows down into a path of blatant lies, leading to tragic failure and demise. Nicolah Burns, 27th April 2023 The prosperous ‘Jazz Aged’ parties of Long Island in the 1920s, sparked the mind of F. Scott Fitzgerald to write the classic novel, The Great Gatsby (1925). Fitzgerald represents a class system in the novel featuring the locations of the Eggs and The Valley of Ashes, where success, wealth, and popularity, became a desired lifestyle for those of the higher class, yet a lifetime goal for those of the lower class.

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The impact of socioeconomic status can be examined through a myriad of lenses. F. Scott Fitzgerald aims to show the relationship between socioeconomic status and power. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom’s character shows that socioeconomic status is equivalent to power within the novel. Tom puts great pride and emphasis on his socioeconomic status and wealth.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Not only does the amount of wealth affect social class, but the type of wealth also affects it. It even affects where people live and who people marry as seen with Gatsby and Daisy. The characters social standing affect who they interact and how they are perceived by others. Fitzgerald highlights the different class structures like “New rich” and “Old rich” and the impact of wealth on the people’s lives in those classes. He also shows the superficial nature of the characters and highlights the value placed on wealth.

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The Great Gatsby Essay F. Scott Fitzgerald was a famous author who wrote the book, The Great Gatsby. His purpose in writing this book was to show the differences between old and new money. Old money meaning people being born into wealthy lifestyles and new money meaning people who were not born with money but gained a lot of wealth. These were separated by two areas called west egg and east egg. This book gives sort of an exclusive look into the luxury and glamour that people think is the life of a person with a high amount of wealth.

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As expressed through the characters in The Great Gatsby, money and materialistic goods are what drove the ranking system during the twenties. The narrator explains to the reader how the characters in this book use their wealth to climb the social chain; His father told him, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the

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During the twenties the economy of the United States was changing greatly. Due to the establishment of the prohibition of alcohol the billionaires were those who would smuggle the goods to society. The Great Gatsby is a novel which portrays the different societies of the United States during the twenties differently. F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses on revealing the types of lives lived by each social group. Throughout the book we are exposed to the marginalization of women and the lower class during the time, since the important individuals in society were the wealthy people who impacted the economy of the country.

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Much like their personality, people during this time period could never settle because they always thought that more is better. Most of their decisions are based off personal benefit. The Great Gatsby contains rhetorical queues, such as logos, ethos, and pathos, that validate that the pursuit of “The American Dream” transforms society into greedy, heartless people. At this time, people only thought about social status because that determined who you partied with and how much money you had.

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In “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald presents editorial on an assortment of topics, — equity, control, insatiability, treachery, the American dream. Of the considerable number of subjects, maybe none is more all around created than that of social stratification. The Great Gatsby is viewed as a splendid bit of social discourse, offering a clear look into American life in the 1920s. Fitzgerald deliberately sets up his novel into particular gatherings in any case, at last, each gathering has its own issues to battle with, leaving an effective indication of what a problematic place the world truly is. By making unmistakable social classes — old cash, new cash, and no cash — Fitzgerald sends solid messages about the elitism running all through each stratum of society.

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Shoots and Broken Ladders F. Scott Fitzgerald’s early American masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, gives readers a glimpse of life in the Roaring Twenties. In a time period filled with new inventions and a booming economy, rising through the ranks of social hierarchy seems deceivingly simple. Yet, improving one’s social stature in the communities of East Egg and West Egg is, in fact, a nearly impossible task. Unfortunately, rising in social standing in today’s society has proven just as difficult. As the nation’s wealth gap grows larger, more and more individuals are driven into poverty.

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There is lower, middle, and upper class, but there are also subcategories that fill the gaps in between, like the impoverished and the top one percenters. “Class in America”, written by Gregory Mantsios, addresses the myths and realities about socioeconomic class in America and how they affect American lives. His article highlights the unequal divide that has persisted over the course of history and will continue to manifest in the future. To introduce the existence of this issue, Mantsios states that this country’s citizens “don’t like to talk about class...or class privileges, or class oppression, or the class nature of society” (Mantsios 378). This is the case in America today because people are neglecting to acknowledge the existence of these elusive

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2175 Words | 9 Pages

In Search of Human Morality Although the past is generally portrayed as a recollection of mistakes, regrets and unfond memories, it does not define one’s self identity. This plot is explained in vivid detail in both novels The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a coming of age novel of an uncommon bond between two unlikely friends who separate due to the increasing religious and political tension in Afghanistan 's years of corruption. After several years, Amir, the protagonist, receives a call and a familiar voice reminds his that there is a way to be good again. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald bases in Long Island, New York in the Nineteenth Twenties where

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The Great Gatsby GEOGRAPHY Throughout the novel, places and settings symbolize the various aspects of the 1920s American society that Fitzgerald depicts. East Egg represents the old aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich, the valley of ashes the moral and social decay of America, and New York City the dissolute, amoral quest for money and pleasure. Additionally, the East is connected to the moral decay and social cynicism of New York, while the West is connected to more traditional social values and ideals. Themes: The American Dream "Whereas the American Dream was once equated with certain principles of freedom, it is now equated with things.

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In the 1920’s, social classes were divided with a large gap. The poor wanted nothing to do with the rich, and the rich wanted even less to do with the poor. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he uses the class structure in the 1920’s to redefine poverty. While the rich people in the novel are material rich, they are still “poor” socially and psychologically. Poverty is shown in a differently in this book than other books being written in this time era, and in doing this, it shows the rich what they are, and how they treat others from a different perspective.

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