Imagine a life with more mazuma than cognizance of what could be done with; lights, fashion, and fame is the dream of many. Now, imagine living in penuriousness with just enough mazuma to sanction one's’ citizenship. In the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are two sides of a city that are split by how long the money has been in the family, and how much work was put into earning the money.. Even though there are few people who opted to live differently when residing in one of the different eggs, the East Egg is for the old sophisticated mazuma while the West Egg is for the incipient upcoming mazuma because those who opted to reside in the East Egg have grown up with money and those who opt to reside in the West Egg have just founded their money.
In every situation there is more than one side to every story, and in this case, the economical level. A person who has grown up with mazuma look down on those who cerebrate that not having an abundance of mazuma is an issue. “I told that boy about the ice.” Myrtle raised her eyebrow in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. “These people! You have to keep after them all the time” (69-70). Myrtle cerebrates that acting like a snob makes her sound fancy, and sanctions her to coalesce in with those who she endeavors to hang around, the ‘old money’ affluent people. Fitzgerald integrates this to his story to show his readers that high class people treat the lower class with disdain and leave those of the lower class feeling unworthy. Even if the bank shows the mazuma, those involved in the higher class must dress accordingly, otherwise others will not grace them with their presence and the same amount of deference as others recieve. “About Gatsby! No, I...
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... have a little reflected glamour.
Even though having mazuma is on one terminus of a ladder, Fitzgerald shows his readers in his novel The Great Gatsby that even the richest of people can be disunited and treated differently just because of the way a person gains the mazuma. The East Egg may be for those people who have been around mazuma since they could ambulate, and those from West Egg have now just commenced to found their incipient source of mazuma, either way they are both gaining mazuma however, there is a fine line between the true definition of affluent and having an erroneous verbal expression of being affluent. Fitzgerald shows the readers that there are many different cull and factors to be considered ‘truly rich’. Therefore no one is authentically affluent or lives the life of a ‘rich’ person.
Works Cited
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Benjamin Franklin once said, “He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrates the idea of the quote from Benjamin Franklin. The Great Gatsby tells the story of a tragic war for love, wealth, and power which Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan explore on their own. Fitzgerald sets the scene of The Great Gatsby in East Egg and West Egg. Newly rich people live in West Egg while those who inherit “old money” live in East Egg. East Egg and West Egg contrast the angle of old and new wealth. They help the reader notice the different divisions of the upper-class and the theme of the American dream.
The first example of Gatsby's belief that money can buy his happiness is when Nick Carraway describes the subdivision in which he lives, West Egg. The subdivision across the water is East Egg. The houses are very luxurious to say the least. On the other hand, there is a distinction between the two. The West Egg house are more recently built and are elaborately decorated, where as the houses in East Egg are still as big but very conservative in architecture. The two neighborhoods represent the division in the upper class at this time in America. During the 1920's, the conservative "old rich" despised the "new rich". A good example of an "old rich" family would be the Rockefellers, where as a "new rich" family would be the Kennedys. The East Egg represented the conservative money of the "old rich". For generations their money passed down giving them the belief that the "new rich" with their newly acquired wealth were still lower and not equal to them. The "new rich" liked to display their wealth in lavish ways that the conservative wealthy did not approve. In addition, the "new rich" often did not earn their money in legitimate ways; most earned their money from boot legging. Carraway in an ironic way is neither "new rich" nor "old rich". He lives in a rather modest house compared to Gatsby's huge mansion. Gatsby owns a huge house but is the only person living there besides some servants. Gatsby tries to use the house to win the happiness and respect from others. Another reason for the house is to hide the way in which he really makes his money.
There are many themes that are implemented in the Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald uses as a technique to juxtapose two contrasting topics. During this time of the Roaring Twenties, business and economy was booming, however there’s still was a underlying hint of urban corruption and the gap between the rich and poor became greater. Through the technique of juxtaposition, Fitzgerald paints a detailed picture of society in the 1920’s and its cultural clashes. By comparing the characters living in the East and West Egg, Fitzgerald highlights the contrast between morality and corruption in society during the 1920’s. Additionally, his contrasting descriptions of Tom and Daisy’s house to the Valley of Ashes offers a juxtaposition of the rich and poor.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a jazz age novel demonstrating the corruption of humanity at the hands of material greed. Fitzgerald’s American classic is set on the opulent shores of Long Island Sound, where materialistic mansions pump out tainted souls like the not-so-distant factories spewing pollution into the city’s rivers. Whether new money or old money, Fitzgerald demonstrates that one is never free from the corruption that it brings. Jay Gatsby, a self-made man living on West Egg, lives his life in tireless pursuit of his dreams so that his material fulfillment will expunge years of poverty that his parents brought upon him. Gatsby lives the younger years
Many forms of literature portray conflicting or contrasting areas in which each place has a significant impact on the story. These opposing forces add to the overall theme, symbolism and meaning of the story. In the ‘Great Gatsby’, by F. Scott Fitzgerald these areas are the ‘East Egg’ and the ‘West Egg’. To illustrate the East Egg represents the former or classic establishment. It consists of wealthy families who have handed down money from generation to generation. However the West egg includes money or fortunes that recently have been acquired. The West Egg sets the standard of the American Dream theme; working hard to become successful. Notably, the Great Gatsby reveals characters that come from both areas and impact the story and other locations.
In Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the city of New York possesses a “transitory” and “enchanted” quantity, which “for the last time in history” rivaled man's “capacity for wonder” (182). New York City, a symbol of American greatness and the American dream, contains very unamerican class distinction: those whose families have been prominent and rich for decades function as a de facto aristocracy, looking down upon and controlling (through vast wealth) the poor. These class distinctions are mirrored by geography, dividing up the maps into regions by wealth. The parallelism of the region and the residents results in the region symbolizing the residents. Through analyzing both the residents and the description of the region, a holistic understanding can be gained about the residents of Valley of Ashes, East Egg, and West Egg.
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author tries to show you that wealthiness is a luxury not the American dream.
It’s been ingrained into the fabric of society that to be truly happy in life, one needs to be wealthy. The characters in The Great Gatsby show this is not always the case, and that wealth is not always as important as one would believe. Society has always placed a significant importance on being rich, being wealthy. It makes one believe that being wealthy is the only true way to live a happy and fulfilling life. With this in mind, many readers are going to look at the characters in The Great Gatsby, such as Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, and fantasize about one day living the lifestyle that they live. While many characters in The Great Gatsby would appear from the outside to be living the American Dream, it what lies underneath this image of
In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, all the characters are, in one way or another, attempting to become happier with their lives. The characters in the novel are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class(West egg and East egg) though the main characters only try to make their lives better, the American dream they are all trying to achieve is eventually ruined by the harsh reality or life.
Setting is essential to any good novel, it envelopes the entire work and pervades every scene and line for, as Jack M. Bickham said, “when you choose setting, you had better choose it wisely and well, because the very choice defines—and circumscribes—your story’s possibilities”. F. Scott Fitzgerald created a setting in The Great Gatsby that not only is an overarching motif in the story, but implants itself in each character that hails from West Egg, East Egg, and the Valley of Ashes. West Egg, symbolizing the new, opportunistic rich, representative of the American dream, East Egg, the established, aristocratic rich, and the Valley of Ashes, the crumbling decay of society, are linked together in the “haunted” image of the East, the hollow, shallow, and brutal land that Fitzgerald uses to illustrate the hollow, shallow, and brutal people living there (176).
In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald explores the idea of the American Dream as well as the portrayal of social classes. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct social groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating two distinct social classes ‘old money’ and ‘new money’, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism underlying and moral corruption society. The idea of the American dream is the ideal that opportunity is available to any American, allowing their highest aspirations and goals to be achieved. In the case of The Great Gatsby it centres on the attainment of wealth and status to reach certain positions in life,
Coming from a bird’s eye view, “twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by courtesy bay” was what they saw (9). From this point of view, the two areas of land are physically the same, with huge mansions and rich people. “They are not perfect ovals-like the egg in Columbus story they are both crushed flat at the contact end- but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead” (9). The only true difference among the Eggs lies in the minds of the people living in the East and West. Because they are separated by Courtesy Bay, no matter how hard Gatsby or Nick tries to become and East Egger, it will not happen. At one of Gatsby’s lavish parties, Nick met a professional golfer named Jordan Baker. ““You live in West Egg,” she remarked contemptuously (15). Jordan Baker shows contempt and already views Nick differently just because he lives in West Egg. This quote helps captures others in response to the American Dream. People that lived in East Egg did not think a person in West Egg’s wealth was legitimate. Most people that were born into wealth had a harsh perception among the people that wanted to be like
“Two unusual formations of land,” located not far from the bustling city of New York, “identical in contour” and yet differing in apparently all other aspects, provide the main setting for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby (4). On one side lies West Egg, the garish center for the newly rich, teeming with low-lifes and criminals. Across the bay lies East Egg, the more “fashionable” home of the idle rich, where the wealthy elite live in carefree luxury, safe from scandal and worry (5). At least, that is the image that Fitzgerald attempts to portray in his quest to reveal the corruption and infallibility of society. However, the discrepancies in his argument are obvious under further examination, for even while he labels West Egg inferior, highlighting the vulgarity in construction and society, Fitzgerald inadvertently reveals the inadequacies of East Egg, thus undermining his entire theory and leaving the reader wondering if all of society is corrupt or if there is some hope for the world.
“The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the vast social difference between the old aristocrats, the new self-made rich and the poor. He vividly interprets the social stratification during the roaring twenties as each group has their own problems to deal with. Old Money, who have fortunes dating from the 19th century, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The New Money made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth. As usual, the No Money gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving them forgotten or ignored. Such is exemplified by Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan. Their ambitions distinctly represent their class in which Fitzgerald implies strongly about.
The first location, West Egg, correlates to a person who is dazzling and extravagant. A person who became rich and possesses new money just like people who live there. The person who corresponds to West Egg is Jay Gatsby. Both the location and person symbolize the rise of the new rich alongside the conventional aristocracy of the 1920s. Previously, only people who were born into their riches were generally part of the upper class. Social mobility was difficult for those in lower classes because the “old rich” who maintained their prosperity across many generations retained control. During the 1920s however, people were starting to acquire their wealth within their own generations giving themselves the name “new rich”. Gatsby is an example of a person who constituting his own fortune after belonging to a lower social class and economic stratum. Gatsb...