There are the nonprivileged pursuing the privileged. There are the busy who are still competing, and there are the tired ho have given up. These are the lifestyles that the competition between classes creates. Nick, a nonprivileged Westerner is not familiar with the privileged lifestyle of Easterners. The rest of the characters in The Great Gatsby, like Nick, are also confused by the privileged lifestyle of the East.
Nick living in the West Egg describes it as “the less fashionable” Egg compared to the East Egg (Fitzgerald 5). Though right after Nick almost takes it back calling it the most “superficial tag to express the bizarre [...] contrast between them” (5). To help confuse this contradiction Nick describes the houses or “mansions” that surround him. The neighbor to the right had a “tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (5).
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.
The east was full of diverse cultures and new ideas, the west had many cultures that gave it diversity as well. The east was filled with large metropolises and businesses. The west was a wide open range metropolis that had ranches that could reach thousands of acres and enough cattle to feel a moderate city. So while the east was full of people making money for people the west too was full of people making money for people. The diverse cultures where basically the same.
Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the cultural difference between East Egg & West Egg can be seen through parties, clothes, & their money. The culture differs as you would go from west egg to east egg. The parties, presentations, and their money.
The strongest point of the American Dream being unattainable and how it provides a false narrative is through old vs new money. Throughout the story Fitzgerald illustrates the social divide between East and West Egg, with both sides having a poor opinion on the other. The symbolism between East and West Egg is clear, with East Egg symbolizing the generations of wealth that preserve old traditions and frown upon new ones, and West Egg symbolizing change and the American Dream. Fitzgerald portrays this social divide through the protagonist and antagonist, Gatsby and Tom. The clashing of ideals between the two and how both characters chase Daisy depicts the differing ideologies between West and East Egg.
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.
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.
“And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time” (Fitzgerald 138). These words, spoken by Tom Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, exemplify the personality traits that are omnipresent throughout the novel. Tom is Daisy Buchanan’s husband whom she marries after her first love, Jay Gatsby, leaves for the war.
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.
Nick Carraway and Gatsby live in “West Egg, the -- well, the less fashionable of the two” (Fitzgerald 5). West Egg is the area where the self-made men and women,
One way Fitzgerald demonstrates appearance versus reality is through his characterization of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald characterizes them as wealthy aristocrats who live in East Egg. They are considered as the old money and due to his status, Tom is well known around East Egg. When Nick first visits Tom in East Egg he states that, “their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay”
Nick is not swayed by materialistic items, but rather lives a smaller house and is more modest in his earnings. Nick is able to distinguish the corruption between the Eggs and how money dominates their lives. Another example of how why Nick represents living in the real is his break up with Jordan at the end of the novel, and him moving away from New York. Nick recalls his experiences in the eggs and describes those of East Egg, "They 're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You 're worth the whole damn bunch put together.
“Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern Life” (Fitzgerald 176). Nick found that that the life of glitz and glamour was no longer captivating. The east was changing him into the exact person he hates. The corruption of the east showed him how much he had changed and wanted to move back to the west,to his
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.
