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Clash of social classes in the great gatsby
Clash of social classes in the great gatsby
The great gatsby west egg analysis
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The Houses of West and East Egg
The houses in West Egg, were owned by people of new money. Lottery winners, young gamblers, and even smart men with low paying jobs in the bonds industry. There are two men that we get to know in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that live in West Egg. First, the man himself, Mr. Jay Gatsby. His house is known for the most lavishes parties, filled with only the most prestigious people in town. Gatsby made sure everyone knew his name, and knew that it was his house. Although anyone barely even knew Gatsby, they knew of him. But most would wonder why he had the parties weekend after weekend, but hardly engaged into them himself.
Jay Gatsby meticulously placed his house across the bay; when looking across you could see another, more sophisticated home. This belonged to Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby wanted his home, so that Daisy would fall in love with it. He wanted these parties so that daisy would come to them. Gatsby was in love with daisy, and proved it with his house.
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Which is known to be full of people who have inherited family money, also known as old money. Now the Buchanan's house was nothing like Gatsby’s. It gave the vibes of a great colonial family palace. It was modern, with a georgian feel to it. Everything was calm, and elegant in the home. The Buchanan’s home is a symbol of the simple kind of girl Daisy is. It is built with enough yard for their daughter to play in aswell. The inside was very bright and had a hallway full of Tom’s trophies, jerseys, and prizes from back in his football days. If these two houses were placed next to each other, the two extremely different houses would clash, just like Daisy and Gatsby do when he tries to get her back. The two homes are a symbol of how different the two once lovers truly are. They might think at first they can just jump right back to where they left off, but time will tell that this is not the
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores the issues of society and the hierarchy of social class. The three homes belonging to Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway, are all in the vicinity of each other, which illustrates the close proximity of their three lives, and foreshadows how they end up intertwining. Myrtle and George Wilson’s home is between the Buchanan’s and Gatsby’s, in the Valley of Ashes, and eventually comes to represent the failure of the American Dream. The homes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby represent the different characteristics of their dwellers. Gatsby is a man with a one track mind, while Nick is simple and sensible. The Buchanan 's are unashamedly opulent, while the Wilson 's are poor
Homes can say many things about their owners and how they are in terms of their social position, life style, and their personality. There is Tom and Daisy Buchannan which live in East Egg and are new money and they have a very large house l. There is also Nick who lives in a very small house compared to the two houses on the left and right of his house and he lives in West Egg like Gatsby. Gatsby has a gargantuan house and unlike the Buchanan's, Gatsby has many parties for anyone to come. Everybody's own home describes their life style, social position and their personality.
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.
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 The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents three women in an especially bad light. Daisy Fay Buchanan, the narrator's cousin, is the most obvious. Daisy is selfish and materialistic. She married her husband, Tom, because he was wealthy when he proposed to her. She ignored her true love, Jay Gatsby, because he was poor; this fact is evident when the two meet again after years apart and Daisy sees that Gatsby is rich now. Gatsby bought the house right across the bay from Daisy so he could be near her (Fitzgerald 83). Daisy admires all of his possessions and even considers leaving her husband for him, but in the end remains with Tom. This action is evidence of Daisy's selfishness; the moment of their reunion means everything to Gatsby and nothing to Daisy, except for a game to help Daisy pass the time during her idle days (Magill 1144). The selfishness of Daisy is a detail that thrusts her into the role of a villain in the novel.
Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are very similar; they are both put in the position of being with Daisy. Gatsby tries to win her over while her husband, Tom, tries to turn her away from Jay Gatsby in order to have her for himself. However, despite the fact that they are both very wealthy, well settled and living very luxurious lives Daisy chooses to be with Tom over her long lost love; Gatsby, because she and he are better suited for e...
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald gives insight into Nick’s new perspective, a disgust of the East and his realization that he was utterly out of place there.
East Egg is home to the more prominent established wealth families. Tom's and Daisy's home is on the East Egg. Their house, a "red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay" with its "wine-colored rug[s]" is just as impressive as Gatsby's house but much more low-key (Fitzgerald 11)(13). East egg and Tom's home represents the established wealth and traditions. Their stable wealth, although lacking the vulgarity of new wealth, is symbolic of their empty future and now purposelessness lives together. The House also has a cold sense to it according to Nick. This sense symbolizes Tom's brutality, and as Perkins's says in his manuscript to Fitzgerald "I would know...Buchanan if I met him and would avoid him," because Tom is so cold and brute (Perkins 199).
Jay Gatsby is a wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg, where the New Money live. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night and represents the...
While The Great Gatsby is a highly specific portrait of American society during the Roaring Twenties, its story is also one that has been told hundreds of times, and is perhaps as old as America itself: a man claws his way from rags to riches, only to find that his wealth cannot afford him the privileges enjoyed by those born into the upper class. The central character is Jay Gatsby, a wealthy New Yorker of indeterminate occupation. Gatsby is primarily known for the lavish parties he throws every weekend at his ostentatious Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is suspected of being involved in illegal bootlegging and other underworld activities.
Think about being separated from the one you love. You thought this person would be in your life forever and always. You may have spent days and weeks thinking and planning your future together, but then one day they disappear from your life. That person has moved on, and chose to live a life that no longer including you. It would be assumed in most cases that the love of your life is no longer the person they were before, so should you stick around and try to win them back? In the case of Gatsby and Daisy, Gatsby did not realize Daisy would be different, and although he still thinks he is in love with Daisy, is he in love with her for who she is now, or the idea of everything she used to be the answer may shock you, and this is all due to the unreal expectations he has for her to fill. Because Gatsby is not in love with who she is at the time they are reunited. Instead, he is caught up in the idea of who she used to be. The actions of Gatsby, how he talks about her, and the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy once they are back together again show who Gatsby is really in love with, and that is the old Daisy.
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...
Gatsby, as a child, had a daily schedule that he followed. He knew from childhood that he had to work for his fame. "Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something" (175). Gatsby's ambition lay not only in his future, but as he grew older it would be found in his love. He had an obsession with Daisy Buchanan and tried everything in his power to bring things back to they way they used to be when they first met. He thought he could relive the past. He threw lavish parties to get her attention. He did everything in his power to be near her. " ‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay' " (79) He earned his wealth so that they could finally be together.
...and the upper middle class members mixed in the neighborhood, creating a disturbing mix. West Egg provided a direct confrontation to the establishment that disturbed the rich such as Daisy Buchanan (107). The residents of the city have foreign names like “Joens”, “Muldoon”, and “Eckheart” with uncouth professions such as actors and politicians (63). Epitomizing the qualities of the people and the buildings of West Egg is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby possesses a house designed to imitate royalty. However, Gatsby fills that very house with the risque parties, juxtaposing the old idea of wealth with a new one. The juxtaposition between the two ideas strongly characterizes the West Egg resident.
Gatsby has an uncanny devotion for the things and people he desires. Gatsby is a poor man who feels that he can win his love Daisy back, if he achieves enough material wealth. When he first meets Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby commits "himself to the following of a grail" (156). After five years of separation, he will do anything in his power to win her love back. Everything he does, up to this point is directed toward winning Daisy's favor and having her back in his life. The greatest example of his devotion towards Daisy is the mansion he constructs, "a colossal affair by any standard...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" (9). Once a "penniless young man without a past" (156), he transforms himself into a self-made millionaire and builds an extravagant mansion without having any history of family wealth. He also strategically places the mansion across the lake from Daisy's house. From his window, Gatsby can see the blue colored lights of her house. Even though she is marries to Tom Buchanan and has a daughter, he "revalues everything in his house according to the amount of response it draws from her well loved eyes" (96). But in the end, Gatsby's insurmountable devotion to Daisy won't be enough to win her over. He dedicates so much of his life just to be with her and ultimately it won't make any difference in the long run.