Essay On West Egg In The Great Gatsby

Once Nick Carraway, the narrator, moves into a small home in West Egg, he soon comprehends that East Egg and West Egg are completely different. Carraway realizes the East Egg is where the upscale residents live and West Egg is more economically disadvantaged as he explains, “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” (Fitzgerald 5). East Egg residences extremely wealthy people whose wealth has been passed down the line for years, while West Egg houses the hard-working people who build up their wealth. Furthermore, Thomas C. Fowler defines that living in a wealthy, luxurious geographical environment can reconstruct a character into a conceited personality explaining, “Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces inhabiting humans” (174). This theory is correct because the residences’ in East Egg are spoiled, selfish people finding themselves in a wealthy and treasured lifestyle.

In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates a division between the East egg who are inheritably rich and the West Egg, who are newly rich and have worked for their money. Although they are both wealthy cities, there are many differences portrayed throughout the book. The East Egg snobbishly rejects the West Egg since it lacks traditional social conventions they have always lived. The two cities are used to emphasize the character development in the story and show the struggle of Gatsby trying to be with someone from a different class structure.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses West Egg and East Egg as a symbol for class systems to reveal the differences between the two social classes. The difference between the two social classes are vast. East Egg refers to whom came into wealth. West Egg refers to whom carried down wealth from traditional upper-class families. During the 20th century, East Egg residents were more prestigious. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you had (Fitzgerald 1).” Many wealthy people were born into wealth. Some wealthy are born poor but had to earn their way up. “And I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool(Fitzgerald 30).” Women who were housewives in the 1920s didn’t get as much respect as Men did (BBC 7). “An Oxford man!” He was incredulous. “Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit (Fitzgerald 110).”

Getting to where one is and life depends on what class one is born in. For instance, if one is born in old money they are not only born in a generation a great deal of wealth but they are also born with a high degree of respect. Meaning they will grow up in a world where money is handed to them and it is used to solve the majority of their problems. On the other hand, people who are born in new money are not born rich or with respect. They grow up earning their income and respect. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, East Egg is considered to be old money. Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan are living in East Egg. Meanwhile, West Egg is considered to be new money. Gatsby and Nick Carraway are living in West Egg. Nick is a character who lives in a smaller house, next to Gatsbys mansion “I lived at West Egg, the – well, the least fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizzare and not a little sinister contrast between them.” (1.10) Nick is explaining that both West egg and East Egg are high class areas in New York but West Egg is not as high class or fashionable as East Egg is. Nick enjoyed his time in his small house located in West Egg, as he helped Gatsby reunite with his true love. Daisy Buchanan is a young woman who lives in Eastlake with her fiancé Tom Buchanan. She is one who enjoys materialistic objects rather than the person themselves in a relationship. Gatsby is aware of this information so he illegally bootlegs alcohol during the Prohibition time period as The novel takes place in the 1900s. With the money he earns, he pie is a big mansion right across from

The main point in The Great Gatsby is identity. It revolves by Nick’s narrative focusing on Gatsby and himself. As well as loniness and how it can affect others. As an example in the novel, West Egg described the new coming rich meanwhike the East Egg described the inherited of an empty rich. The author Fitzgerald, F. Scott showed rich people as carefree and uptight people. For as Gatsby is described as the new rich fpr having a huge mansion and having good clothengs. And as for the East Egg they are more calm and colletive with a good qualaty of elegance. The East Egg can be well described as the Buchanan’s family household and how well dress

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the West Egg consist of two main characters, Jay Gatsby and Nick Caraway, both who want to obtain the American Dream. The American Dream consists of an aspirer of a lower social class hoping to acquire the utmost wealth to become similar to those of East Egg. Furthermore, East Egg subsists of “old money,” a population of a high social class of people who don’t strive to achieve wealth like the West Eggers. The contrast of the two sides is evident as the characters of West Egg are portrayed as wed to the vitality of the American Dream.

Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald fulfills his purpose of the negative portrayal of wealth through the ideas of “old money” and “new money” and how they relate to the American dream. “Old money” is simply the idea of established or inherited wealth that goes back through generations. And “New money” is the idea that an individual has gathered their wealth quickly. However, typically, those in the “old money” category, like the Buchanan’s from Fitzgerald’s novel, look down up those with “new money” like Jay Gatsby. They look down upon Gatsby because those with “new money”, while being equal in quantitative amount of wealth, are unequal in the deeply rooted social connections and conventions that the Buchanan’s and others with “old money” have. Fitzgerald illustrates this rift between old and new money perfectly when in the novel, Tom Buchanan, a man of “old money” shows distaste towards Gatsby… “An Oxford man! …. Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit,” (Fitzgerald 129). Tom declares clear distaste for Gatsby because even though Gatsby is just as wealthy, he doesn’t have the same social connections or reputation as the Buchanan’s. The harsh words of Tom not only show the clash between old and new money, but they also show the failings of wealth and the American dream. The American dream, is the idea that the economically disadvantaged can rise through the ranks and better themselves. However, Fitzgerald makes a critical note of the American dream. Even though Gatsby, a member of the “new money” category, was able to come from nothing into something, he wasn’t able to achieve the same social status that Tom enjoys. The way Fitzgerald sees it, the American dream is bittersweet, for what you gain financially, you lack morally and socially.

One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country’s richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce,

West Eggers are the newly rich; the people who have worked hard and earned their money in a short period of time. Their wealth is epitomized on material possessions. Gatsby, like the West Eggers, lacks the traditions of the East Eggers. He is considered 'new money', in the sense that his wealth came to him more recently through his own success. Although Gatsby is now a part of this class, his faith and belief in the success of his dreams has allowed him to preserve some morality. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, lives in West Egg and exhibits honesty in this place of superficiality. Clearly the West is able to preserve some ethics while the East is not able to grasp any. Although West Egg is the more moral, it is still a place of superficiality and materialism.

At the beginning of this chapter, Gatsby’s party brings 1920s wealth and glamour into full focus, showing the upper class at its most lavishly opulent. The rich, both socialites from East Egg and their coarser counterparts from West Egg, cavort without restraint. As his depiction of the differences between East Egg and West Egg evidences, Fitzgerald is fascinated with the social hierarchy and mood of America in the 1920s, when a large group of industrialists, speculators, and businessmen with brand-new fortunes joined the old, aristocratic families at the top of the economic

    Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, location is a critical motif. The contrasts between East and West, East Egg and West Egg, and the two Eggs and New York serve important thematic roles and provide the backdrops for the main conflict. Yet, there needs to be a middle ground between each of these sites, a buffer zone, as it were; there is the great distance that separates East from West; there is the bay that separates East Egg from West Egg; and, there is the Valley of Ashes that separates Long Island from New York. The last of these is probably the most striking. Yet, the traditional literal interpretation does not serve Fitzgerald's theme as well as a more

Like East Egg and West Egg, they are both modern and uprising communities of New York. East Egg is where Daisy and Tom live. A place where people that are well educated, have a high status stay. Their origins have also come from the lavish and rich inheritance of American society. This is what is known as ‘Old Money’ people, the kind that defiance the poor. West Egg, is where Nick caraway and Gatsby lives. They are also wealthy people, but with a different background. Jay Gatsby is uneducated, but a rising newcomer in the fireball of wealth. As a comparison to the East Eggers, the west side lacks the polish standards of choice. Although Gatsby is kind hearted in the inside, he will always be an outsider to the high class. Because it wasn’t meant to be, it was a miracle from the roots of where he is from. One of the many themes from this book is presented in the movie from the angles of East Egg and West

The social group West Egg represents the corruption of the American Dream, during the 1920’s. Fitzgerld describes West Egg as a home for the newly rich. This is a place where people who have recently become fortunate live. It is a place that represents new money. New money portrays the image of the corruption of the American Dream by showing how the people strived for acquiring only material goods. It made attaining material goods their goal in life. In addition, people in the 1920’s connected the American Dream to making quick money. In The Great Gatsby many of the residents that lived in West Egg became fortunate through illegal methods, such as bootlegging alcohol or gambling. Fitzgerld shows this through the character Gatsby. Gatsby’s goal was to become wealthy so that he could win Daisy’s love. By selling stolen alcohol Gatsby was able to mange to rise up to the top of the upper class and live in West Egg. The want for money and power to achieve love shows the decay of the American Dream. The parties that were held at West Egg also represent the corruption of the American Dream. The parties that Gatsby threw were huge and glamorous. Everyone from West and East Egg would attend these parties. They had no care for who Gatsby was. Rather, they only cared that he was someone who was extremely

The settings and backdrops in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are essential elements to the formation of the characters, symbolic imagery and the overall plot development. Fitzgerald uses East and West Egg communities to portray two separate worlds and two classes of people that are technically the same their status, but fundamentally different in their ideals. The physical geography of the settings is representative of the distance between classes of the East and West Eggers. Every setting connotes a different tone and enhances the imagery of story line. From the wealthy class of the "eggs", the desolate "valley of ashes", to the chaos of Manhattan. The imagery provided by Fitzgerald becomes an important

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald starts out by introducing the narrator, Nick Carraway, who has just recently moved to West Egg. Nick’s cousin Daisy, who is married to the wealthy Tom Buchanan, happens to live across the island on East Egg. Next door to Carraway lives Jay Gatsby, the mysterious man who throws extravagant parties each week exhibiting extreme hospitality to his numerous guests.