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The Great Gatsby Research Paper

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Ammanuel Roberts Mr. Reed American Literature The Death of the American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby evolves around a group of people living a lavish lifestyle, but unable to enjoy it. This is particularly clear with main character Gatsby, who chases his dream to be with Daisy but is unable to do so. Gatsby is unable to chase is dreams to be with Daisy due to his past. His yearning to be with Daisy is also not achieved due to her relationship with Tom Buchanan and the relatively less lavish lifestyle that he lives. These two realities yield to Gatsby's decline from a hip party host to a dead, lonely man. Gatsby inability to let Daisy go is fueled by him thinking that things will be the same as it was in Louisville. Ever since …show more content…

Within the novel, there are two contrasting geographical areas, the East Egg and the West Egg. Gatsby belongs to the West Egg, which is home to new money, while Daisy belongs to the East Egg, which is home to old money. This contrast in wealth sources correlates with different social principles, which ends up contributing to Gatsby's inability to be with Daisy. Those who belong to the East Egg tend to have a larger ego, which is a direct causation of their unwillingness to let those who are not like them into their social circle, "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out“ (Fitzgerald ). This tendency contributes to the reason behind why Daisy is unwilling to get with Gastby. East Eggers also tend to have a larger net worth due to the fact that their money is accumulated over many generations rather than one generation, hence the adjective old money. "I lived at West Egg, the – well, the least fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them“ (Fitzgerald 6). Because East Eggers tend to have more money, they are able to lead a more extravagant lifestyle, which is particularly attractive to Daisy. This extravagant lifestyle one of the reasons behind why Daisy is unwilling to get with Gatsby,

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Gatsby's decision to build his grand mansion in West Egg is a tribute to his own Midwestern upbringing. Nick Caraway says West Egg is "the less fashionable of the two," and describes the way that "the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the

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949 Words | 4 Pages

The East and West Egg reflect Tom and Daisy’s presiding class dominance. Fitzgerald first introduces the places where the main characters Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy live by describing them as “a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay” (5). Already Fitzgerald gives the idea that these eggs have very similar features but are somehow different through his word choice of “identical” and “separated”. Fitzgerald places Gatsby on the West Egg and Tom on the East egg. They are “identical” in wealth but “separated” by class.

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739 Words | 3 Pages

The Buchanans are a family of east egg Tom Buchanan was born in a wealthy family and married his wife Daisy into this money. The Buchanans are seen as stuck up in the novel while tom and gatsby feud over Tom's wife Daisy Gatsby's life long sweetheart. F. scotts fitzgerald the Great Gatsby goes into great detail about the differences between the East and West Egg and there comparison and contrast by giving many details. Fitzgerald shows how two societies can be alike but different with the east and west egg one community is seen as a perfect community “A Mans Dream” and the other is seen as a corrupt town full of reckless rich people. The two are separated physically and socially because the East egg is built off of old money and the West egg is built off new money.

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1374 Words | 6 Pages

Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanan’s. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. ”(The Great Gatsby page 5). This explains the difference between the East and West Egg. People who lived in East Egg were valued more over the West Egg.

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1557 Words | 7 Pages

In The Great Gatsby, East Egg represents real aristocracy. It symbolizes “old money” which is an inheritance. Many people from the East Egg have extreme arrogance and are just so snobby. This perfectly describes two people who live in East Egg, Tom and Daisy. They view the West Egg as not as fancy.

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534 Words | 3 Pages

This shows that the only way to get super wealthy is to lose some morals. This is evident when Gatsby results to illegal activities to get rich and when the people around him, including Tom, Daisy, Jordan, are all cheat in and out of the bedroom. After Gatsby settles down in West Egg, with new money, and buys a house across from Daisy and Tom Buchanan, who live in East Egg, with old money. Also, nobody knows that he is a bootlegger, but people begin to suspect him when he throws these very lavish parties every day. The goal of these parties was that Daisy would wander in and one day

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1817 Words | 8 Pages

Kira Parra Ms. Pruitt PDP English 2 – P.3 1 March 2016 Great Gatsby - Seminar Questions 1. Fitzgerald uses location to segregate the social classes by putting the different social classes into different parts of the city to emphasize where poor and rich live. Examples of this separation are West Egg and East Egg this is where the wealthy live. West Egg being the side that signifies Old Money, while East Egg is the side that signifies New Money.

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576 Words | 3 Pages

For instance, Gatsby throws the most lavish parties and throws money around like candy. In East Egg, most of the people live in mansions and have special house features such as “a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of ivy, and a marble swimming pool…” (5). Gatsby also mentioned how he “collect[ed] jewels, chiefly rubies, hunt[ed] big game, painting a little, things only for myself only” (66) which shows that throughout his life he was after material objects. Fitzgerald talks about how Dan Cody was “James Gatz’s destiny” (100) which means that Gatsby has been chasing wealth since he very young. Materialism is ridiculed from beginning to end which shows the novel as satirical.

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449 Words | 2 Pages

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald develops the novel by showing how class influences all aspects of life. The setting of Long Island demonstrates a clear division of the eggs and the valley of ashes. East egg represents people that have had generations of wealth (old money). An example of east egg wealth is when the text states, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . .

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871 Words | 4 Pages

I. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is depicted as a mirage due to its ultimate lack of fulfillment, outsider’s inability to obtain it, and the corruption it causes. A. Those who have achieved their idea of the American Dream are ultimately unfulfilled emotionally even though they possess tremendous wealth. B. The American Dream is a mirage, and thus unattainable as it limits success of an individual by their class and ethnic origin. C. Not only is the American Dream exclusive and unfulfilling, but it also causes corruption as those who strive for the American Dream corrupt themselves in doing so and the old rich hide behind their wealth in order to conceal their immoralities.

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1073 Words | 5 Pages

In the great Gatsby it is seen as the “east egg” and the west egg”. The east egg represent people who have old money also known as the ancestral wealth which is run in the family. The west egg represent people who had recently climbed up the socioeconomic status. This could be clearly seen in the great Gatsby as fitzgerald portrayed in the disguise of clothes. Jay Gatsby is seen wearing multi colored dresses at different occasions which made him look different than other people like tom who has old money.

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1233 Words | 5 Pages

At the end of the novel, Nick views Tom and Daisy as careless aristocrats who care little about the damage that they cause others. On the other hand, West Egg is representative of all those who self-made their success. This side is ostentatious and showy with their money. Gatsby is an example of this through the

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715 Words | 3 Pages

In the Novel called the Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a man named Jay Gatsby who is a wealthy man that lives in the rich part of Long Island which was called the West Egg. The West Egg is where all the socialites, celebrities, and wealthy people lived, including Mr. Gatsby. Mr. Gatsby would throw these very elaborate parties at his mansion very often only hoping that the love of his life Daisy Buchanan would attend one of these elaborate parties. Mr. Gatsby was not always a rich man, before the war he was very poor but he was in love with Daisy. Around that time there was a war going on so he had to leave to fight in the war leaving Daisy alone.

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Fitzgerald makes it apparent throughout the novel that Gatsby does everything in hopes to compete against Tom and impress Daisy. For example, Gatsby throws lavish parties every weekend with the hope that Daisy will stumble in, and then they will be reunited and return to their old ways. Additionally, when Gatsby moves to the West Egg, he purposefully purchases an extravagant mansion near the Buchanan’s mansion where he can view their emerald light on his dock. Throughout the duration of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby noticeably envies Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, for seizing the life that Gatsby was not able to achieve. Gatsby longs to return to the passionate relationship they had five years prior and maybe even create a family similar to the family Daisy has with Tom.

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755 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby then gets involved with the nightmare of the American Dream. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s perfectly as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. This novel shows the lack of social skills in newly made millionaires such as Gatsby that cannot even pick up on an invitation to lunch. This book was enjoyable to read because it set in when America was becoming an economic superpower and it was relatable in some ways.

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