The novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, set in the 1920s during the Roaring 20’s era in Long Island, New York, narrates the story of Nick Carraway, who relocated from the Midwest to the Northeast, after serving in WWI. This was an era of economic boom but also a time of increased divide between rich and poor. Nick’s narration follows his encounter with Jay Gatsby, his enigmatic and affluent neighbor known for hosting extravagant parties, and Gatsby's pursuit of his married and wealthy love interest, Daisy Buchanan. The book explores themes such as materialism, wealth, capitalism, corruption, and the passage of time. In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, wealth is portrayed as a corrupting influence on both individual characters and …show more content…
This land, unlike the eggs, isn't associated with wealth. It's a land filled with poor workers who are looked down upon by those in East and West Eggs. He talks about the decline from the beautiful place it once was to basically a dumping ground saying it was “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort” the beautiful typically land has been transformed into a bleak depressing area of grey ashes most likely representing how due to the obsession of acquiring wealth the area has become filled with just poor laborers who cant enjoy luxuries. The grey ashes refer to depreciation for factory jobs and how the only people who live here don't get to participate in the lifestyle of West or East Egg. It's a bleak reality, though. We can see the loss of morals of those who acquire wealth, with Nick being aggravated about his train delay caused by drawbridges carrying barges with building materials from the very factories that drive the construction