When you think of the East what comes to mind? Is it its rich culture? Or is it the scientific advancements? Or maybe your mind explores a heavenly romanticized locale. Whichever it is, you can agree that the East is a place of wealth. F Scott Fitzgerald exerts this idea in The Great Gatsby by contrasting East Egg and West Egg. Families that inherited and consumed money, as if it was a prize, settled in East Egg. Their White Georgian mansions “glittered along the water,” to flaunt the fashionable statement of affluence. On the surface, East Egg is seen to portray a traditional and formal lifestyle. The people of East Egg appear to be living a fantasy. However, it is not as exotic as it looks. The troubles that lurk underneath are disregarded …show more content…
Nick becomes submerged into the lifestyle shared by Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Jay Gatsby. The lifestyle of wealthy living. Although Nick is still a resident of West Egg, he becomes “particularly aware of the beauty” when surrounded by the enchantment of East Egg. As if being there opens him up to a whole new society and light. One where happiness comes from just being in East Egg. One where happiness comes from attaining items. One where social normalities and human decencies mean very little when pinned against money and possessions. Tom and Daisy believe that by securing their wealth and living in the East, they will mask their problems and reach happiness. This idea that materialistic items lead to contentment is a common theme Fitzgerald addresses. Something he utilized from James Joyce’s Araby. The East In Araby is romanticized to fit the expectations of a young western boy. With the idea that obtaining a gift and crossing into the mystical land of Arabia, would bring light into the boy’s life, the East is seen as a passage into
After Gatsby’s death, Nick’s search for his American Dream came to a halt, as West Egg was no longer a new and exciting place for him. Gatsby’s parties represented a new, unseen life to Nick, therefore progressing his dream of striving towards a newer and better future. Once Gatsby is gone, and therefore the progression of Nick’s dream, life on West Egg goes back to a normal and Nick strives for new opportunities and experiences
“They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together…” (179). F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the overwhelming of wealth and the sense of higher social status through many character relationships in The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby represents the wealthiest man in Long Island, who fell in love with the more affluent, Daisy Buchanan. Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, also depicts a wealthy man, but less classy as he has an affair with the unprosperous Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson’s wife. “Money is the root of all evil.”
Meanwhile, he shows that the characters who were living on the West Egg were the newly wealthy who appreciated their money because of how hard they worked for it. But, specifically, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the
In this story, it focuses more on the rich people and how their lives are. Before Gatsby is introduced in detail, Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker are introduced. Nick lives in West Egg which is a rich area, and he claims that it is not as rich as the East Egg by saying, “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).
Those living in West Egg and those coming to Gatsby’s parties are no less rich than those in East Egg. But, they remain unrefined in their manners: They are not respectable. “Gatsby's lavish existence in the nouveau riche Long Island community of West Egg, moreover, cannot ever compensate for his lack of the more pedigreed [old] wealth of East Egg” (“The Great Gatsby” 2). One can gather that Gatsby, as much as he wants to impress Daisy, will never be able to truly provide her with the life she is accustomed to and dreams of spending with him. This is further expressed by the fact that Gatsby grew up in the Midwest.
Representation of Money in The Great Gatsby In The Great Gatsby, wealth was a huge contributing factor in the plot of the story. This story represents three classes of money; “old money”, “new money” and “no money” (Kestler, Justin). Jay Gatsby would be a part of the “new money” class because he made his fortune on his own by illegally selling alcohol. Tom and Daisy would be a part of the “old money” class due to the fact that their wealth was inherited through former family members. Though money has the ability to create a comfortable life, the love of it is evil and can cause many bad things to occur.
-Symbolism of East/West egg -The first chapter of The Great Gatsby introduces the two main settings for the novel's events: East and West egg .These opposite sides are the way of the author juxtaposing two different social classes : the old aristocracy and the new capitalists .These two geographical areas are symbols for the social and economic status ,and values of the people dwelling on them .On one side East egg ,where the Buchanans live, is home to people who are rich just because they belong to a certain family and by inheriting the money .Here social values ,prestige ,and etiquette are given a tremendous importance which puts its inhabitants under so much pressure , deprives them from their freedom of choice , and confines them
What is more valuable, love or money? In the novel the ¨The Great Gatsby¨ written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is old and new money, Gatsby who is the main character in the novel comes from the side of new money. Gatsby finds out that his money can buy: a beautiful home, nice cars, friends, however; his wealth cannot buy the one thing that he wants most. Fitzgerald is conveying that money cannot buy certain things. Gatsby's rise and fall throughout the novel show that money isn't what makes a person happy.
Jazz is most often thought to have been started in the 1920s as this explosive movement, but that is in fact not the case. Starting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century many African American musicians have started to explore their taste in improvising, and where better to do that than New Orleans (Anderson). Before the 1920s these jazz musicians have already been going around sharing the unique sound, but up until then, jazz had remained majorly in New Orleans. Interestingly during this period, a common jazz band would consist of a cornet, a clarinet, a trombone, and a rhythm section when at this period of time the clarinet is not commonly associated with being a jazz instrument, it moved into being the saxophone rather. A big
Nick’s strong abhor with the wealthy East Egg crowd. At this point, he is devoted to Gatsby and determined to protect his legacy. The once seemingly impartial narrator has now seen Gatsby in a brighter light than he has
Nick Carraway and Gatsby live in “West Egg, the -- well, the less fashionable of the two” (Fitzgerald 5). West Egg is the area where the self-made men and women,
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby describes the life of Jay Gatsby in the 1920’s. The novel shares his love story and his loneliness. A major question the author raises is how does wealth impact class structure and society? Fitzgerald answers this question through the distinction between “New rich” and “Old rich” and the significance of East and West Egg.
Nick had attempted to escape from this lifestyle but because he was unable to make a complete decision in the beginning, he kept living it through the Buchanans; they were Nick’s window to the past. He witnesses Tom’s affair being “insisted upon wherever he was known” (21) without shame, and Daisy “[turn] out the light” (117) in her relationship with Gatsby, as it it never happened. A quiet bystander, never interfering, he experiences their life of ignorance, one with no repercussions, the one he had. Unwilling to remove himself from them, he instead complies to their wants, their decisions that create a sense of accomplishment. Doing nothing to change and move on from his past, Nick makes his choice to move to the east pointless.
The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a classic 20th century story -that period was also known as the “roaring twenties”- which critiques the vision of the American Dream people in general have. At that time, the idea of a free market, and industrial revolution provided the opportunity for many to seize the market and people were starting to see that they could become rich without having any type of restriction. New York city was the centre of this wealth-creating society. After the war, this movement generated new opportunities and ambitions for people wanting to start a wealthy upper class life. That period of time was all about alcohol, partying, gambling, fashion, and money.
In the great Gatsby it is seen as the “east egg” and the west egg”. The east egg represent people who have old money also known as the ancestral wealth which is run in the family. The west egg represent people who had recently climbed up the socioeconomic status. This could be clearly seen in the great Gatsby as fitzgerald portrayed in the disguise of clothes. Jay Gatsby is seen wearing multi colored dresses at different occasions which made him look different than other people like tom who has old money.