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Examples Of Old Money In The Great Gatsby

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“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about fortune, love, and greed. These topics are heavily portrayed through the theme of Old Money v. New Money. Old Money v. New Money is essentially representing the divide between the people who are born rich, (old money), and the people who have recently acquired their wealth (new money). This is further shown by the literal divide of the two groups of people in their respective towns; East Egg and West Egg, Throughout the duration of the novel, the main characters that we are introduced to (Nick, Daisy, Tom, Myrtle, and George), all represent different walks of life inside the 2 fictitious groups. These 2 contrasting cities develop the theme through examining the different attitudes of people from the cities, the social construct of the two cities, and lastly the effect that this developing class rivalry has …show more content…

East Egg is the city consisting of mostly of people who inherited their wealth. In a literal sense, their money is old, and West Egg resident’s money is new. It’s interesting to really delve into the social construct of the cities, because it really isn’t all black and white. For example, even though Gatsby is from West Egg, he was a very poor farm boy and had to completely reinvent himself to become who he was. Nick, describing Gatsby stated: "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." (Fitzgerald 6.105). Essentially, at this time, New Money was looked down upon because it sometimes came from a questionable background; point and case: Gatsby. Tom points this out by stating: “I found out what your drug-stores were. He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter." (Fitzgerald 7.133). This complicates things, and serves as a major turning point in the

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"Exploring the Differences Between West Egg and East Egg in The Great Gatsby" The setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald's ‘The Great Gatsby’ is 1920’s New York, more specifically the Long Island community of East Egg and West Egg. At the start of the novel, East Egg and West Egg residents are similar on the surface. This is due to the fact that both are communities of wealthy individuals. As the story progresses, clear differences can be seen between East Egg’s “old money” inhabitants and West Egg’s “new money” population.

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Knowing what is was like during the thriving times of the 1920’s is truly inspirational. A movie known as The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a way to go back in time and see how people lived during the roaring twenties. We need to better understand that parties and riches separated west egg and east egg from one another. West egg being known as “new money” and east egg being known as “old money.” Through the empty lives of three characters from this novel- George Wilson, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan- Fitzgerald shows that chasing hollow dreams leads only to misery.

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The 1920s was a time of flamboyance and wealth in the upper class. Jay Gatsby, a man of old money, threw over the top parties, in which he would spend his money very nonchalantly. The ambiance of his parties greatly illustrated the upper class of the time. The author uses symbolism and characterization to support the central idea that the upper class was very careless, wealthy, and extravagant. Gatsby’s parties are luxurious, glamorous, and over the top.

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In the Incomparable Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the creator makes two particular areas, East Egg and West Egg, that address the distinctions between the old and new cash first class. The distinct traits and ways of life of the wealthy class can be seen in these two locations. While East Egg addresses the old cash privileged, West Egg is described by the nouveau riche, who made their fortune in industry and speculations. In this essay, we'll look at how the novel's characters and East and West Egg differ from one location to the next.

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Through-out the story readers come to the senses that Gatsby wants to be seen as “one of them.”, as well as trying to achive the american dream. In the great Gatsby, there is alot of talk of the “West egg and East egg”. In the novel, the East egg represents the old money and West egg new money; the East egg is considered superior to West egg. On page 5 it says, “i lived at west egg, the—well, less fashionable of the two...”

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Jay Gatsby, the business mogul himself, has his ways of bringing about his paycheck, “His methods of attaining his wealth are pretty shady” (Simpson The Problematic Gatsby). The unreliable state of Jay’s business brings to the demise of his wealth and his character around Nick and Daisy, “‘Young Parke’s in trouble... They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter’” (Fitzgerald 166). Events happen in the world of every business, but Gatsby’s line of work puts people in danger.

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Bang! Bang! Those could be the last sounds you could ever hear if you have been too obsessed with money . All of the people in the Great Gatsby love money and it turns out that the money betrays them. In F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby it proves that no matter how much you have money can't buy true happiness.

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Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to show the corruptness that money and power can bring upon not just an individual, but an entire class of society. The divide between the upper class of “Old Money” and

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In The Great Gatsby the characters in the novel come from various social classes. Nick, Daisy, and Tom are from Wealthy families who have been wealthy for a long time. These characters are referred to as “Old rich” because of their families’ long histories of wealth. Jay Gatsby, unlike Daisy and Tom, did not belong to a wealthy family, and he earns his wealth through his own hard work and success. Although Tom and Gatsby are both wealthy, Tom and the other “Old rich” people look down at Gatsby.

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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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In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the misperception between appearance versus reality is thoroughly demonstrated throughout the whole novel. We meet certain characters such as Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan who all paint us a vivid picture of what it is like to be living in close geological quarters, but are ranked differently in society. Fitzgerald describes New York as two separated locations, East Egg and West Egg. Although they are geographically close, they differ in respect to morality, happiness and values. These factors are expressed through the characters which overall contribute to the theme of contrast within a society.

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In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald characterizes the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values. One of the major themes explored in this novel is the Hollowness of the Upper Class. The entire book revolves around money including power and little love. Coincidentally the three main characters of the novel belong to the upper class and throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows how this characters have become corrupted and have lost their morality due to excess money and success and this has led them to change their perspective towards other people and they have been portrayed as short-sighted to what is important in life. First of all, we have the main character of this novel, Gatsby who won’t stop at nothing to become rich overnight in illegal dealings with mobsters such as Wolfsheim in order to conquer Daisy’s heart.”

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There is mention of Southampton on page 147, which is one of the richer areas of Long Island, and the exclusive suburb of Lake Forest in Chicago is talked about on page 11. By alluding to these real places of wealth spoken by the characters of old money, I could identify the key difference between old money and new wealth, which is critical when needing to distinguish key characters upbringings. There is also the space between West and East Egg, which is used to show the division between new and old money, to geographically divide the upper class people into a hierarchy where old money trumps new money. Furthermore, there is a juxtaposition between both Gatsby’s outlandish mansion and Nick’s lovely, but not as grandeur property to further show the distance of Gatsby to his old class and new identification. To demonstrate the distancing Gatsby did between the classes, coincides with the distancing of Gatsby from the younger version of himself, to the final version of himself.

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The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that tells the story of love affairs, the american dream, and the battle between old money versus new money. The main problem of the novel is the fight for Daisy’s heart. Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, and their love is fading away. Tom is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, while later on Daisy is having an affair also with Jay Gatsby. The Buchanans come from old money, while Gatsby comes from new money.

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In The Great Gatsby, social status is a significant element in the book as it separates the haves from the have nots. However more importantly, social status portrays the personalities of people belonging to different classes. In the end, you are stuck in the class you are born into, and attempting to change classes only leads to tragedy and heartbreak.     In The Great Gatsby, there are three main social classes portrayed. These are old money, new money, and no money.

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