Symbolic Setting in The Great gatsby Within the novel of the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses a symbolic setting to contribute to the novel's overall purpose. Right in the beginning of the great Gatsby, he introduces the idea of West Egg and East Egg. East Egg being where Tom Buchanan and Daisy reside, among other people who live lavishly off of their inherited family money,”across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”(Pg.8). This part of the two eggs represents “old money,” which is the way the author calls wealth that has been passed on through generations within families.West Egg being the location where the narrator, Nick Carraway, and Jay Gatsby reside, represents “new money,”or people who are new to wealth, as opposed to people who have had it in their families,”West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two”(Pg.7). Fitzgerald sets this sort of tension between the West and East Eggers. Many of the East Eggers thought the entrepreneurs living on the West were shady, “A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers…”(114). Between West Egg and East Egg, there is a place the author calls the Valley of Ashes, “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like …show more content…
This hopeless place provides a stark contrast between the low-status people living here and the high-status people living in West Egg and East Egg. In the end, Myrtle’s death in her home in the Valley of Ashes further associates the place with pain, misfortune, and despair, a place where nothing ever good
Who builds his own wealth and therefore builds his superiority. With a lack of family wealth and self-earned fortune, he represents the opposite from Tom and Daisy Buchanan. While the Buchanans seem to live without goals or ambition, Gatsby has a one track mind – to become wealthy to win back Daisy. Fitzgerald shows Gatsby’s ambitions with the schedule of his daily activities written in his childhood novel (Fitzgerald 164). Gatsby’s father say to Nick “It just shows you…[He] was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this” (Fitzgerald 164). This quote is what separates the East eggers (old money) from the West eggers (new money). Gatsby has earned his social superiority through his drive and ambition. The house symbolizes Gatsby 's upbringing from a poor farm boy to a rich, wealthy New Yorker. His flashy and superficial personality comes from the importance he puts on material items. “[an] imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side,…a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald 11), all suggest Gatsby 's desire to be perceived as
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic, The Great Gatsby, tells a story of how love and greed lead to death. The narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway, tells of his unusual summer after meeting the main character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s intense love makes him attempt anything to win the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan. All the love in the world, however, cannot spare Gatsby from his unfortunate yet inevitable death. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald utilizes the contrasting locations of East Egg and West Egg to represent opposing forces vital to the novel.
At the start of the song, we are provided with the lines, “And the saints we see Are all made of gold”. These lines work together to provide context to the rest of the song, and explain that the “saints” seen are far from perfect and are only supported by “gold” or wealth. This theme of the people that are “looked up to” being hollowed out by money, is also shared in the opening chapters of “The Great Gatsby” as we are introduced to West Egg and East Egg. Both sides of the bay share a common interest in wealth but the people in East egg were born into fortune, while the people from West Egg marveled across the blue waves, wishing that the roles could be reversed. I think this division between the two cities helps to display the distinction between
Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses an ensemble of characters to portray different aspects of the 1920s. The characters’ occupations and lifestyles represent the corruption, carefreeness, and prosperity of the Roaring Twenties. Perhaps most striking of this ensemble is the pompous bigot Tom Buchanan and the novel’s namesake Jay Gatsby. Set in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on Long Island, New York, in the summer of 1922, the novel revolves around the protagonist Nick Carraway when he moves to West Egg. Upon arriving, he reconnects with his cousin Daisy Buchanan, and her husband Tom. He also encounters his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, and eventually learns that Gatsby is an admirer of Daisy who tries at all costs to win over from her husband. Both of Daisy’s love interests are dimensional characters whose personalities are seemingly opposite; while Tom and Gatsby are contrastive, Daisy is one of the few common interests of the two men.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel was written in the 1920's and during that time society had no civilized manners, they only cared about money. Because the society has no ethics they hurt others and do not realize how greedy they are. The author uses different characters throughout the novel to present his theme. Symbols can also be found in The Great Gatsby. An example would be West Egg which represents the recent rich and East Egg which represents the established upper classes. The West Egg and East Egg symbolize the different social status of society.
The Great Gatsby takes place in New York City and on Long Island, in the two places known as “West Egg” and “East Egg”. East Egg is where the aristocrats, who have money from generations, live. West Egg contains the lower and middle class people who earned money during their lifetime. They are despised on by the East Eggers, including Daisy, who is an East Egger, never attends Gatsby parties, who is a West Egger. One of the most important places in the novel is the “Valley of Ashes”, a desolate wasteland on the way from New York and Long Island. The valley where “motor road hastily joins the railroad,” and sometimes has “a ghastly creak” (Fitzgerald Gatsby 23). It represents the destruction of the modern society as they byproducts of the trains go there. However, it is also the place where Myrtle dies, which indicating how the moral bankruptcy of big cities ends up in the smaller cities. Through this Fitzgerald portrays what New York symbolizes – a place when match fixing can occur, where lavish parties happen, and where money is used ruthlessly by bizarre and wealthy people. The setting allows Fitzgerald to portray the wealthy society of 1920s and the destruction it
The major settings are East Egg, West Egg, Valley of Ashes, and New York City. East Egg, which represents old money, includes Daisy’s house where Daisy lives with her husband Tom. At the end of the bay on the East Egg side, there is a green light that represents Gatsby’s future dreams which involves Daisy, but also symbolizes Daisy’s constant attachment to money and greed. Old money consists of sophisicated individuals who have had their money for a long period of time and are comfortable with the amount that they have secured. West Egg, which represents new money, includes Gatsby’s mansion and Nick’s house. Since Gatsby’s money is “new,” he doesn’t have the correct social reputation that would make him be accepted in East Egg. Since Gatsby
Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, there is a constant theme present: social class. Fitzgerald makes a connection between the theme of social class, and the settings in the novel for example The Valley of Ashes which is described as a “desolate area of land” (p.21) and a “solemn dumping ground” (p.21) which is where the poor people live. The Valley of Ashes is situated between West Egg and New York, West Egg being the place where the aspiring classes are situated, which is the “less fashionable of the two” (p.8), this is where Gatsby lives. West Egg is the place of ‘new money’, Fitzgerald shows this by the idea of the main character Jay Gatsby, rumoured to be selling illegal alcohol (prohibition) which means he is quickly making vast amounts of money.” Who is this Gatsby anyhow? Some big bootlegger?”(p.86) Gatsby shows off the amount of wealth he has by his fabulous parties and oversized mansion. “There was music from my neighbour's house through those summer nights. In his enchanted gardens, men and girls came and went like moths, among the whispering and the champagne and the stars.”(p.33) Fitzgerald uses the word ‘enchanted’ to paint a visual picture of what the house and the scene looks like, a magical and enchanted castle, with elegant furniture. This is in comparison to East Egg where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live, in a house where “The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside” (p.10). East Egg being the place of ‘old money’ which is made from the inheritance of their past generations, the people who live it East Egg are mainly well educated, historically wealthy and live quite elegantly, but they are also quite ‘snobbish’. Gatsby’s background does not fit into the social standards of East Egg...
In the novel “Great Gatsby,” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many characters work towards their dreams in order to escape from their current lives and origin. The novel takes place in Long Island and New York during the 1920’s. The narrator of this novel is a man named Nick Carraway, who moves to a place called “West Egg” and becomes neighbors with a rich man named Jay Gatsby. Across the bay is another place called “East Egg,” where Nick’s cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom Buchanan live. During this time, wealth and class were a prominent part of a person’s identity. Without wealth or class, a person is restricted from certain privileges. Throughout the novel, Myrtle Wilson, and Jay Gatsby both are trying to reach their goals, but are faced with obstacles and barriers due to their lack of wealth and social status.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby and displayed the emptiness of the “Gilded Age” of America, that is the wealthy and affluent attempting to cover the poverty of those who couldn’t enjoy their luxury by excessive decadence during the 1920s, and just as the “Gilded Age’s” name holds more meaning that its nine letters conveys, there is a wealth of symbolism and dual-meaning in his book. To begin, Fitzgerald chose to use colors to convey meaning, such as the green light as a symbol of rebirth, or goodness, or the gold flowers around Gatsby’ house to represent his wealth; furthermore, the use of grey of in the Valley of Ashes conveys the dreariness of the area. The green light of Daisy’ dock hold meaning beyond its color choice, and the
Fitzgerald’s uses setting to describe how West Egg and East Egg represent new money and old money. West Egg represents the new money and East Egg, the old money. While they seem quite similar at first, because they are expensive places to live. West Egg is described as “the less fashionable of the two, although there is little contrast between them.” But, yet there are many differences. Such as when Nick describes his own house as "an eyesore" that is "squeezed between
Symbolism in The Great Gatsby Symbolism is what makes a story complete. In "The Great Gatsby" Fitzgerald cleverly uses symbolism. Virtually anything in the novel can be taken as a symbol, from the weather, to the colors of clothing. characters wear. There are three main symbols used in The Great Gatsby, they are The East and West Egg, the green light at the end of Daisy's dock, and the eyes of Dr.T.J. Eckleburg.
In The Valley of Ashes live Wilson and his wife Myrtle. The Valley of Ashes resembles something dark and lifeless. As a result of fire, ashes stand for destruction and death. Furthermore, the death of Myrtle Wilson in the Valley of Ashes stands for the pain and the corruption associated with this valley and the death of Myrtle Wilson. Also, the fact that the Wilsons live in the valley shows that they are not of such high social standards as the other characters in the novel....
In The Great Gatsby, George and Myrtle Wilson live in the Valley of Ashes because they can not afford to live any place else. “This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 22). F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces the reader to the desolation of the forgotten poor people to show the difference between the rich and the poor. Fitzgerald uses imagery to show the reader how inferior people’s lives are in the Valley of Ashes compared to the superior lives of the rich. Fitzgerald uses imagery to also show the symbolism beneath the gray ashes of machinery. “Wilson’s glazed eyes turned out to the ashheaps, where small gray clouds took on fantastic shapes and scurried here and there in the faint dawn wind” (Fitzgerald 120). Fitzgerald shows through the Valley of Ashes that everyone who lives there will eventually give up and accept their fate of being poor for their entire lives. George Wilson gives up when Myrtle, his wife, dies and he has no one left in the
The East and West Egg are two opposite parts of Long Island. The East Egg is where people of old money reside, like Daisy and Tom, who have inherited the riches of the aristocracy. However, the West Egg is the home of the nouveau riche or new money. It is where Gatsby and Nick reside, who have accumulated great wealth on their own. Fitzgerald contrasts these two places and the characters from each Egg to highlight the cultural clash in the 1920’s between old and new money and the contrasting theme of corruption and morality.