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The Great Gatsby East And West Analysis

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What is the symbolic use of east and west? Why do all the main characters travel from west to east? The Great Gatsby is a novel written in 1925 by Scott Fitzgerald, an American author. In the novel, the story takes place in East and West Egg. In West Egg live Nick Carraway and Gatsby and in East Egg live Tom and Daisy. This novel takes place in the twentieth century just after world war one. In the novel, the west egg is known for being a place where “the newly rich” live, as the east egg is for “the old rich”. This means that these two places are not only separated by water, but by history. From the beginning of the novel, Nick says that the richest people of the country live in East egg, but despite the fact that Gatsby has a lot of money, we know that he still lives in West egg. Nick, the narrator of the novel, paints the East egg as being for superior people, which have been rich since they …show more content…

Nick and Gatsby represent the hard working people while Daisy and Tom represent the spoiled ones. This can be seen when Nick moves to the east pursuing the American dream. Throughout the novel we see how Nick works and we also learn how Gatsby has also worked very hard to accomplish what he has. On the other hand, during the whole novel we never hear about Daisy or Tom going to work. Daisy and Tom have become lazy since they have never had to work in their lives. At the first glance The Great Gatsby may be seen as a love story but it is truly much more than that. Symbolism is used through the whole story like the east and west. I would conclude that the east and west are used to symbolize how society in the 1920s in the United States was very critical. The most important thing for people was money and it is amazing that people would rather be rich and unhappy than poor but happy like Daisy did when she married

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