Wealth is the power that motivates creation and empowers downfall. For centuries it has divided people into separate categories and class systems. Fitzgerald uses the various settings to carefully illustrate how wealth positively and negatively affects individuals lives in the roaring 20’s and the traits it reveals about each character.
East Egg and West Egg are both known as a residence for the socially elite and affluent of the east coast, but possess differences that relay the characteristics of the inhabitants of each. West Egg is home to Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, and Jay Gatsby, his mysterious next door neighbor who introduces him to grand facade of the 1920s. While in East Egg, the reader learns about Daisy, Nick’s distant cousin, and her husband Tom Buchanan.
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It displays the privilege Tom had because of his background and explains why Fitzgerald strategically placed him East Egg. Daisy was also no stranger to the advantages of being born into a wealthy bloodline, for her family was well known among the high society. In contrast, Gatsby and Nick’s experience with money had differed. Nick was new to the working field of the city and had recently began supporting himself and was a bondsman by trade, making a living for himself. Gatsby was also a working man who had come up from nothing, creating a name for himself. Both men had come up during the prosperity of the 1920s, a time when the american dream was ideal. Despite being of the same social class, East Egg residents continued to used their address to divide and look down upon West Eggers. West Egg would continuously be known as “the less fashionable of the two…” and would be treated as less for this reason (Fitzgerald, 5). This can be shown by how Gatsby is treated by Mr.