Comparison Of Gatsby And West Egg

The two Eggs in Long Island symbolize two types of wealth. The West Egg contains residents who gained their wealth through hard work, investments, and savings. Its residents grew up not originally in the upper class but climbed their way there as opposed to those in East Egg who inherited their wealth from the previous generations’ labor. Two of the main characters live in these Eggs in enormous houses that embody the social differences of these two societies. The contrasts between the two houses, internally and externally, vividly demonstrate these differences, which to many people outside of that society may very well go unnoticed.
The geographical location of the Eggs plays a key role in Fitzgerald illustrating these differences of fundamental

The homes of Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby sit directly across from each other in the opposite Eggs. Gatsby “lived at West Egg, the – well, the less fashionable of the two though this is a most superficial to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them” (Fitzgerald 5). Through Fitzgerald’s diction, beauty masks the underlying ugliness in West Egg. Although West Egg’s residents have “new money” wealth, they do not have the “proper” etiquette or background of those in East Egg, who “observe the rules of formality and tradition, at least on the surface” (Parkinson 35). Those in East Egg have generations of training in proper society and the importance of it, creating a barrier to those who did not grow up with such lineage of wealth. This perception

As Nick observes, Gatsby’s house has “a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool” (Fitzgerald 5). “New” towers, no doubt, earmarked for West Egg homes and their new wealth. The ivy’s thin rawness that ran up the new tower represents the young plant still trying to root itself, just like Gatsby who did not inherit his wealth but wanted so badly to participate in the “rooted” society. The ivy also symbolizes how Gatsby continues to seek to find his place in society through his lifestyle (Parkinson 56). Like the ivy, Gatsby lives in this “new” society, “new” to wealth and not established. Attempting to create a façade of established ivy, Gatsby uses a vast, thick amount to make this appearance of rooted, old ivy. The ivy’s entanglement resembles the twisted conflict in the wealthy class in the Eggs and also the conflict that exist in Gatsby’s and Daisy’s relationship. Gatsby consistently misrepresents his “true” self. The ivy foreshadows the “vulnerable with age-is made to seem spurious and a failure by the phrase ‘a thick beard of ivy’” (Fitzgerald 5) (Parkinson