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What Role Does The West Play In The Great Gatsby

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In F. Scott Fitzgarlds “The great Gatsby” the contrasting theme of the East and West play an important role in shaping the narrative and character development. The East was where the people born into wealth or inherited great fortunes. The West was much different, it was filled with people who had worked hard for there money or created fortunes through stocks and investments. The Regions also play an important role showing Fitzgeralds assessment of the modern world. Firstly, The East was known for being ultra fancy, lavish, and extraordinary. For them this is the perfect place to live with New York City being the symbol of wealth and prosperity. They were seen as the established wealth due to the fact that they had inherited there money or …show more content…

They were seen as “unsuited” to life in the east because they had just recently gained wealth and don’t know how to be properly wealthy. This region was home to Jay Gtasby. His lavish home and stellar parties were the main symbol of the West. The people who live in the West strive to be like the East but will never be seen capable of fitting in. “I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them”(4), Nick had just moved to the region when he said this showing that everyone knows the difference between the …show more content…

Tom and Daisy are from the East egg, “among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax.”(5) This shows how Tom is seen almost as royalty in the USA, while compared to Gatsby being a new and mysteries person to join the Wealthy regions. “He hurried the phrase “educated at Oxford,” or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him now. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all.” This shows the extreme opposite of people living in the eggs. Gatsby has created wealth through being a fraud, but still had to work for it. He tries to cover up the truth by fitting in, following trends, showing off, and throwing lavish

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