In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby locations play an extremely large role in the telling of the story. They can indicate a character’s economic standing or make a poignant statement about the society of the 1920s. The three main locations in The Great Gatsby are the Valley of Ashes, the Eggs, and Manhattan. Each location sheds light into the various lifestyles of those that live there and how Fitzgerald perceives their actions and behaviors. Fitzgerald uses the Valley of Ashes to show the world how the pursuit of the American Dream will inevitably end in pain and suffering. Fitzgerald describes the valley as a desolate and dreary place with “ash-grey men” who are “crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 27). These men are the
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West Egg is more representative of new money, Jay Gatsby, while East Egg symbolizes old money, the Buchanans. The narrator, Nick Carraway, lives in West Egg, “the less fashionable of the two” (Fitzgerald 9) Eggs, despite the fact that he is not wealthy. His neighbor is Jay Gatsby, a young, wealthy entrepreneur whose history is shrouded in mystery for much of the book. His cousin, Daisy Buchanan, lives in East Egg with her husband Tom Buchanan and they both come from old money America. Those who live in the East Egg tend to have a negative, borderline hostile, attitude towards those who live in West Egg. Tom Buchanan is the epitome of the old money mentality believing that everyone who has recently earned their money does not deserve it because they were not born into it. He also believes that “a lot of [the] newly rich are just big bootleggers” (Fitzgerald 224) showing his negative inclination towards the newly rich but at the same time he shows his hypocrisy by criticising bootleggers despite the fact he is a heavy drinker and has probably bought illegal alcohol. West Egg is also characterized by a sense of excess and overconsumption. Jay Gatsby epitomizes that consumer attitude when he orders “five crates of oranges and lemons... [and] every monday these same oranges and lemons [leave] his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves” (Fitzgerald 43), thus exemplifying …show more content…
Manhattan is the perfect example of this. The first time the reader goes to Manhattan they are reading about Tom’s affair with his mistress, Myrtle (Fitzgerald 30) and how they and Nick all become intoxicated to the point that the story becomes unclear and spotty at best. On the second visit to Manhattan, the reader then joins Nick in meeting Meyer Wolfsheim, a notorious gangster in The Great Gatsby who fixed the 1919 World Series and sells illegal alcohol (Fitzgerald 78). Fitzgerald creates Wolfsheim to represent Arnold Rothstein, a real 20th century mobster who supposedly fixed the 1919 World Series and illegally sold alcohol during the prohibition. Wolfsheim represents an evil within Manhattan that will never leave. Manhattan is also a place of conflict. At one point “Tom Buchanan broke [Myrtle’s] nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 41) over a fight about his wife. Later Tom has a heated argument with Gatsby and his wife Daisy that would most likely have ended in an exchange of blows between Tom and Gatsby if not for the intervention of Daisy. The Great Gatsby is a brilliant and engaging novel that provides an eye opening commentary on the 1920s. The common impression of the “roaring twenties” being a time for cultural and economic revitalization is by F. Scott Fitzgerald and is portrayed as a time of decadence and depravity.
West Egg is more representative of new money, Jay Gatsby, while East Egg symbolizes old money, the Buchanans. The narrator, Nick Carraway, lives in West Egg, “the less fashionable of the two” (Fitzgerald 9) Eggs, despite the fact that he is not wealthy. His neighbor is Jay Gatsby, a young, wealthy entrepreneur whose history is shrouded in mystery for much of the book. His cousin, Daisy Buchanan, lives in East Egg with her husband Tom Buchanan and they both come from old money America. Those who live in the East Egg tend to have a negative, borderline hostile, attitude towards those who live in West Egg. Tom Buchanan is the epitome of the old money mentality believing that everyone who has recently earned their money does not deserve it because they were not born into it. He also believes that “a lot of [the] newly rich are just big bootleggers” (Fitzgerald 224) showing his negative inclination towards the newly rich but at the same time he shows his hypocrisy by criticising bootleggers despite the fact he is a heavy drinker and has probably bought illegal alcohol. West Egg is also characterized by a sense of excess and overconsumption. Jay Gatsby epitomizes that consumer attitude when he orders “five crates of oranges and lemons... [and] every monday these same oranges and lemons [leave] his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves” (Fitzgerald 43), thus exemplifying …show more content…
Manhattan is the perfect example of this. The first time the reader goes to Manhattan they are reading about Tom’s affair with his mistress, Myrtle (Fitzgerald 30) and how they and Nick all become intoxicated to the point that the story becomes unclear and spotty at best. On the second visit to Manhattan, the reader then joins Nick in meeting Meyer Wolfsheim, a notorious gangster in The Great Gatsby who fixed the 1919 World Series and sells illegal alcohol (Fitzgerald 78). Fitzgerald creates Wolfsheim to represent Arnold Rothstein, a real 20th century mobster who supposedly fixed the 1919 World Series and illegally sold alcohol during the prohibition. Wolfsheim represents an evil within Manhattan that will never leave. Manhattan is also a place of conflict. At one point “Tom Buchanan broke [Myrtle’s] nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 41) over a fight about his wife. Later Tom has a heated argument with Gatsby and his wife Daisy that would most likely have ended in an exchange of blows between Tom and Gatsby if not for the intervention of Daisy. The Great Gatsby is a brilliant and engaging novel that provides an eye opening commentary on the 1920s. The common impression of the “roaring twenties” being a time for cultural and economic revitalization is by F. Scott Fitzgerald and is portrayed as a time of decadence and depravity.