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Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Tony's Story

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In both “Tony’s Story” by Leslie Marmon Silko and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author's try to show social inequality. In both stories the authors try to spread awareness for the theme of social inequality by Silko showing racism and Fitzgerald depicting different social classes. In “Tony’s Story”, a cop causes a racial disturbance by killing a native american with a different skin color than his. In the “Great Gatsby”, the people of West Egg, East Egg, and in between the middle, the Valley of Ashes, all have different tiers of wealth which adds further on to the theme of social inequality. The cop in “Tony’s Story” doesn’t like people who aren’t necessarily the same skin color as he is and accuses them for alleged …show more content…

When Nick Carraway decides to visit Gatsby at his mansion in the West Egg, he sees a huge building with lights filled from top to bottom. He also sees a fair in progress where people are dancing and having a good time. It was described like this, “When I came home to West Egg that night I was afraid for a moment that my home was on fire. Two o’clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light, which fell unreal on the shrubbery and made thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires. Turning a corner, I saw that it was Gatsby’s house, lit from tower to cellar. “Your place looks like the World’s Fair,” I said” (Fitzgerald 81). Nick is very amazed by what Gatsby had prepared for his visit and acknowledges his extreme wealth. This is yet another example of social inequality. The Valley of the Ashes as mentioned before is a very unhealthy place located in between West Egg and East Egg and in the car ride there, Nick explains sarcastically, “ This is the Valley of ashes---a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of house and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 23). As you can see

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