For most the American Dream is pursued by working hard, showing determination, and achieving your goals to live a lavish lifestyle. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby craves to be a part of the upper class society. Gatsby built his wealth through illegal matters, all to get back to who he believes is his true love Daisy. Daisy desires a life of luxury and privilege, to be taken care of by whomever she marries. Daisy’s American dream of being an upper-class wealthy woman is shown through the symbols of her being a golden girl, the palaces of East Egg, and the color white, all symbolizing her upper class status and the lifestyle many Americans with an American Dream pray to accomplish. In “The Great Gatsby '' Daisy portrays a golden girl …show more content…
In “The Great Gatsby” East Egg is the desirable place to live, representing to others their status and history of old money, all who live in East Egg buy their homes, while the residents of West Egg must rent their home because they are not as wealthy. “The consoling proximity of millionaires — ... Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” (Fitzgerald 7). Fitzgerald is describing a neighborhood of high stature of which Daisy’s home and lifestyle portrays. The American Dream of achieving wealth and high stature is perfectly represented through how Daisy’s neighborhood is described from Fitzgerald. According to Barbara Will ‘s “The Great Gatsby and The Obscene World” East Egg represents the tight knit social class as well as the American Dream “the immediate community of East Egg but also the very concept of Americanism itself” (Will 214). Achieving this elite social status means cutting out anything that does not relate out, this community is a perfect representation of that, showing that they believe all they need is wealth to be
Janessa Collingwood Mrs Forker English 11-0 1 March 2023 Symbols in The Great Gatsby Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s infamous novel The Great Gatsby he uses multiple symbols to symbolise the moral conflict in pursuit of the American Dream. The American Dream is a major theme in The Great Gatsby and the life of Jay Gatsby is a personification of the American Dream. Jay Gatsby lived in West Egg, in Long Island during the roaring twenties.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, the West Egg represents wealth and the dark side of the American Dream. It also represents the self-made part of America during the 1920s. The West Egg is home to Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire and the host of many extravagant parties. Gatsby's parties symbolize the excessive and fake nature of the 1920s, where wealth and status was more important than anything else. When Nick, the narrator, describes Gatsby's parties, he says “ People were not invited --- they went there” (Fitzgerald 34).
In the Great Gatsby economic wellbeing is a to a great degree critical component as it recognizes geological areas in the novel yet more essentially, depicts the attitudes of individuals having a place with various social class' which influences the occasions that happen and shape a considerable lot of the characters. The characters in the novel are recognized by their riches and where they live or work and are isolated by the distinctive settings inside the novel. East Egg reflects high class society where the tenants are rich, regarded to as "old money". Societal position and riches, which we can go together, likewise shape characters and their joy with their circumstances. For instance, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the Valley of Ashes abhors her life at the corner store and venerates the city life
In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway meets a man named Jay Gatsby, who throws parties in the summer of 1922, in West Egg, New York. They live in a world shaped by social class and status, which is highlighted by East Egg which is home to the ‘old’ money individuals, that has been passed down for generations, and West Egg which is home to the ‘New’ money and self made wealthiness. Fitzgerald uses the character of Jay Gatsby to highlight the American dream, which is that someone could rise from nothing to wealth and achieve all their desires and wishes. In this case, Gatsby’s main goal is to impress his former lover, Daisy, by putting on a facade in an attempt to win her over .
Carraway and Gatsby live in West Egg, which is described as, “the less fashionable of the two,” (Fitzgerald 7). However, East Egg is described as a much more favorable place of even greater wealth. Moreover, it is evident that only people who have always been wealthy can afford to live in East Egg as Tom Buchanan’s family had always been rich before he was successful. Thus, this might show that there are differences in achieving the American dream, as those in the West Egg seem to be depicted as poor before becoming successful. This might be ironic, as people in West Egg have truly achieved their goals through struggle and work although they live a technically less comfortable life.
The massive increase in wealth following World War I in America created a new culture of a glamourous and party lifestyle. Although the 1920s seemed like a great era of peace and prosperity from a distance, Fitzgerald shows that it was a time of flaunting hollow wealth and following a culture of carelessness. Gatsby’s mansion is the main focus point of East Egg, being a place where a majority of the story takes place. Nick described it as “ a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden(4).” The main that Fitzgerald was trying to demonstrate through this description was the ultimately hollowness of the mansion itself.
America is like a carnival whose inhabitants are in a constant search for fun, opportunity, and their very own popcorn – the “American Dream”. The American Dream motivates people to achieve success, wealth, and happiness through hard work, regardless of social status. However, in reality, this motivation only turns into a lifestyle for the top one percent. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays this in his novel, The Great Gatsby, where Jay Gatsby is faced with the challenge of winning over his lifelong romantic interest, Daisy Fay. Gatsby is meant to embody the American dream, rising up from a poor background and making a name for himself.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, tells the story of Jay Gatz and his life into the world of the social elite as he works to gain Daisy's love. Fitzgerald focuses on the change money and wealth, or lack thereof, can create in people. Throughout the novel, the geography represents part of this metaphorical message, each location representing a different social class and caste. Whether it be the East Egg's complacent luxury, the West Egg's rash extravagance, or the Valley of Ashes' decaying monotony, each area has its own particular characteristics. The East Egg, jutting off of New York, symbolizes unbelievable wealth, which seems to sink its possessors into apathy.
The Great Gatsby is frequently split between East Egg, West Egg, and Valley Of Ashes. East Egg represents the old money, West Egg represents new money, and the Valley Of Ashes shows the social decline and failure of the American Dream. Though some characters of higher class display that the “American Dream” is attainable in “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it ultimately proves itself impossible for the mainstream public and other key characters, due to the lengths of which that the wealthy had to go through, just to end up in considerably worse situations than standard citizens. In contrast to the American Dream being unattainable, Fitzgerald shows that it is possible for anyone to access and achieve the American Dream, if they
Gatsby could go for any girl that is considered old money, but he only has eyes for Daisy because that’s the only girl he has ever gone for. While he was in the war, Daisy was the only girl he had ever loved, therefore, she was the only girl that he has ever tried to be with. Due to this, he has consumed his life around her and does not want to change his ways. “‘ Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly.” (The Great Gatsby page 120).
Long Island, New York North Shore, commonly referred to as Long Island, is the actual name of the setting in The Great Gatsby. The term “East Egg” refers to the North Shore village, Kings Point. The real name of the fictional area, “West Egg”, is Sands Point.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby follows this idea through the life and actions of Jay Gatsby, who is a thirty-year-old man in the 1920s. He has poor Midwestern roots and works hard to obtain a lavish lifestyle on the East Coast. Gatsby and his neighbor Nick Carraway both live in luxurious houses in a rich neighborhood near New York City, known as West Egg, since they have graduated from Ivy League schools to afford such prosperous
Important Concepts in The Great Gatsby In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there were a few noticeable themes throughout the duration of the novel. Important themes include the ranking of social classes, the passage of time, and the ideas of honesty and morality. The most significant was wealth. There were many leitmotifs described in the novel, like the leitmotif of wealth and possessions, and the how passage of time develops the theme of wealth.
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows that the situation that one in born into determines many aspects of his or her life and one can never truly transcend these circumstances. One aspect of life that birth affects is social status. In the book, the nouveau riche inhabitants of West Egg can never truly fit in with the ancestral East Egg families. Daisy Buchanan, an East Egg woman, is “appalled by West Egg,” and her husband Tom believes that the “newly rich people are just big bootleggers” (107). They believe that they are superior to the West Egg people because, as East Eggers, they were born into wealth, while the West Egg people needed to work to earn it for themselves because they were not born into luxurious lives.
F. Scott Fitzgerald has created settings and characters in his novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), to establish his purpose, critiquing the American Dream and it’s corruption, the greed of individuals consumed by their desires and the consequence of illusions as opposed to reality. His creation of locations, East & West Egg and the Valley of Ashes as well as creation of fictional characters, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby aid to achieve these purposes. Fitzgerald has created settings in order to achieve his purpose. The East and West Eggs are situated in Long Island, New York, in which most of the characters live in. Nick and Gatsby both reside in West Egg, known to be the home of ‘new money’ individuals, as their wealth is more recently acquired through success and business.