Why Is West Egg Important In The Great Gatsby

Class issues played a great role in The Great Gatsby it is the root of all conflict and excitement. Your class would determine not just how you lived but what kind of social life you would have whether it was “old money” or “ new money”. The American economy of during the roaring twenties was a time of economic progress for most Americans and where wealth became very important in your social life.

Throughout history many societies have had upper, middle, and lower classes. The classes formed separate communities of diverse living and never crossed social barriers. In the book, The Great Gatsby, instead of streets and communities separating each class there was a sound. On West Egg, the rich received their money not from inheritance but from what they accomplished by themselves. They worked hard for their money and received no financial support from their families. These people gained in one of two ways; either they worked for it or relied on illegal means for survival. On the other hand, or island, East Egg natives represent the class of society that receive money from their

East Egg and West Egg are "identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay ... They are not perfect ovals ... but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual wonder to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size."(9) In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates different worlds, where many different people live amongst each other. The areas of East Egg and West Egg in Long Island find isolation not just geographically, “separated only by a courtesy bay” (9), but more significantly in the way the two societies contrast. Along with East and West Egg, Fitzgerald creates another symbol

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are two main settings in book that are symbolic, East Egg and West Egg. East Egg represents old money and West Egg represents new money. The characters who reside in the West Egg are Nick and Gatsby. The characters who reside in the East Egg are Tom and Daisy. East is described as “... who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near” (Fitzgerald 61). This quote means that people in the East Egg are more snobby, greedy, and mean from those who live in West Egg because they have families who had

Additionally the interior yellow can symbolize gold and lavish objects. Moreover an egg is used as the division of the town East egg and West egg. This precious metal is a social status and signifies wealth. The division of these competing areas separates the newly rich from the historically wealthy families. The narrator Nick, comments that he lives in West Egg, being 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” (Gatsby 5). By saying this, nick expresses the idea of his egg (West Egg) being less fashionable and desirable than the other more prominent side (East Egg). Even though some might not live in the more fashionable part of town you still can achieve the American Dream. Nick and the west side represent those that have actually worked hard and earned their new status. This part of town houses Nick and Gatsby, which do show that if you put in hard work you, can achieve the American dream.

In the novel the people of West Egg are portrayed as being rather gaudy (like Gatsby's pink suit and Rolls Royce), showy (like Gatsby's rather ostentatious white mansion), and gauche (socially awkward, as Gatsby seems always to be). The objective of flaunting their wealth is to gain respect and entry into the exclusive social circle of East Egg. While the novel focuses on literary devices to portray the theme of belonging, the film version by Baz Luhrmann uses camera angles to show this theme. In the film, the scene where the audience first sees Gatsby at his extravagant party, Gatsby’s and Nick’s facial expressions are focused using close up shots. Gatsby’s smile encapsulates his desire for Nick to belong in the society in which he lives in, which relies on money to determine class (reoccurring theme of belonging to a different social class). Gatsby’s wealthy appearance and confident charisma masks the fact that he does not belong with the people he surrounds himself with. The camera angle focuses on a close up of both characters facial expressions emphasizing Nick’s shock in discovering Gatsby and Gatsby’s pride in his name and achievements. Throughout the scene, Nick is looking up towards Gatsby showing his superiority over not

In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald there is an emphasis on the differences between the two neighborhoods, East Egg and West Egg. When it came to both of the neighborhood they both had similar characteristics, but, they differed more than anything. A prime example of how different they are are Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. They both are from separate eggs and live very different lifestyles. Through the emphasis on setting the author created a clear contrast between the two neighborhoods.

The locations of East Egg, West Egg, show the differences between old and new money, and how each can exemplify the American Dream. Fitzgerald used the atmosphere to represent more than just a location, but add a deeper meaning to the novel and make it “seem longer than its length of fifty thousand words”(“The Great Gatsby”). Fitzgerald uses the settings to represent something, adding significance to the places visited in the novel. By making the two locations of West and East Egg, Fitzgerald indicates that there is a significant difference between the two of these, “not just in style but in what might be called moral geography, between the East and West people”(Bruccoli.) The location of New York’s East Egg, the more wealthy and fashionable

F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘’who was not only part of the irresponsible and extravagant life of The Roaring Twenties, but he also helped named this era, The Jazz Age with his novels.’’(Mescal Evler 587) The Roaring Twenties gave people the opportunity to become wealthy. Many people at the time of this era were making a lot of money and partying. Fitzgerald most well-known novel, The Great Gatsby, was based on The Roaring Twenties. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes us wonder and speculate whether the pursuit of wealth is a noble aspect of life or does it lead to corruption and shower greed upon an individual.

The society of the mid nineteen-twenties, as depicted by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel “The Great Gatsby”, is one of glamorous parties and shallow, superficial and material-based relations. East Egg is home to the more apathetic portion of New York’s elite, which cares only for their money and view the world around them as disposable. West Egg, however, is full of hardworking people who are willing to peer beyond one’s surface to discover the true potential locked within one’s self. Though both Eggs are similar in the fact that they are both very careless due to their social status, the two vary greatly when it comes to their levels of compassion towards others, as well as their morals. East Egg and West Egg, although similar in nature,

The importance of two places in a literary work not only reveal the meaning of the work, but the hidden pieces of demonstrating one’s true destination and significance in the work. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald applies a meaning to the two separate places known as East Egg and West Egg. The two conflicting places reveal the differentiating actions taken toward the social and economic statuses, which leads to the sorrowful events of dehumanization. The West Egg, a part of the new societal values has been noted to consist of snobbish wealthy citizens who have attained wealth through illegal terms; the East Egg side includes those that have gained wealth from generation to generation, the ones with old money and aristocracy,

This is not necessarily applicable to modern day society anymore, as there is no longer any major presence of rich aristocracies in America. Instead society, as transformed as a class structure where a majority of the population is in the middle class, a small percentage in the upper class, and a reasonable percentage being in the lower class. Furthermore, the upper class is no longer divided between, “new money” and “old money”, just people who have a great amount of wealth, a major difference from the 1920s society of the Great Gatsby. All in all, the Great Gatsby is no longer relevant to modern day society, as it's central themes of racism, sexism, the American Dream, and the division between “New Money” and “Old Money” has faded away either to a shell of it's former self, or completely

The Roaring 20s, The Jazz age, the 1920s were a time of great prosperity in the United States. The 1920s were an era of change, both politically and socially. Americans began to move into cities, rather than living on farms, and the nation's wealth more than doubled. Buying the same goods, listening to the same music, dancing the same dances, and overall having the same values, people felt united. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, these values are reflected in the characters’ lifestyles. A recurring theme in the novel is that money cannot buy a person’s true happiness, and this theme is exhibited in the various characters actions, choices, and what they value most in their lives.

Both wealth and class are intertwined, but one can be greater than the other, or one cannot be there at all. The Great Gatsby is set in the 20’s,

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