The Great Gatsby Report

Superior Essays
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 …show more content…
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.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The valley of the ashes is an extremely poor industrial area that is primarily used as a dumping ground. This area of economic depression embodies the corruption of American morals. The fact that the wealthy inhabitants of West and East Egg must travel through the “spasms of bleak dust” represents the shady materialistic pursuits of wealth that connect both areas both symbolically and literally (23). Inhabitants of the “Long Island Sound” are too focused on the shallow accumulation of money, leading to their moral corruption (5). The fact that the “ash-gray men stir up an impenetrable cloud” that “screens then obscure observations from your sight” insinuates that the rich use their money to shroud the corruption of their character (23).…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Great Gatsby the American dream is full of corruption. It lacks morality, God, and has a high demand of materialistic things. Jay Gatsby symbolizes the idea of the American dream, yet, people like Daisy did not know he was corrupt. Gatsby was a self- made man who was successful financially and socially. However, he is different than the other newly rich people because he didn’t earn his money the honorable way.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel follows Gatsby’s journey as a secret moonshiner and bootlegger to achieving high wealth status. Gatsby is notorious for throwing wild and lavish parties all in the hopes of getting back the woman he lost. With Gatsby’s story narrated by writer Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald gives readers a love themed plot that is absolutely relatable within the context of this decade. The novel is so relatable that it has been printed into millions of copies and translated into different languages worldwide (Meehan,…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Introduction The social writer F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to touch upon many social issues, such as the ever-prevalent American Dream, and human pursuits such as the need for love, power, social recognition, and purpose. Set in the Jazz Age, themes such as how money and greed destroy people are brought forth. In The Great Gatsby, the characters are hedonistic and decadent; just like some people in today’s society. Fitzgerald questions this self-seeking mentality: Is it worth it? Will it lead you anywhere?…

    • 3694 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The old saying goes, it is only illegal if you get caught. Throughout the 1920’s, organized crime leaders took this to the extreme thus, violence and corruption increased rampantly. While many straightforward Americans viewed the American dream as a stable economic state some viewed it as a method to get rich quick. The corruption of this era rose to unparalleled heights with some people losing faith in police officers, judges, and anyone in government. Prohibition only added to the chaos of the decade, with many ordinary citizens becoming criminals simply because they wished to consume alcohol.…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jay Gatsby Flaws

    • 1995 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Part of the reason that so many rumors about Gatsby are born is because he is of new money. Those of old money are suspicious of new money regardless of its origin. They believe that their wealth should not be matched and that economic inequality should be maintained. In addition to inequality, there are several accounts of selfishness and dishonesty throughout Fitzgerald’s work. The American Dream promotes unity within communities, but the aforementioned characteristics are incredibly divisive.…

    • 1995 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Not only did the Dream get corrupted, but the people attempting to fulfill their dreams of wealth became corrupted too. This was exemplified in the way Gatsby achieved his wealth. While just becoming wealthy was not his ultimate goal, it was necessary to complete it. It is insinuated that Gatsby achieved his wealth through illicit sell of alcohol through his connections with the mob. “A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know” (Fitzgerald 114) said Tom about Gatsby.…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fitzgerald takes what the 1920’s appeared to provide others, and tells a story which not only teaches a powerful lesson, but sheds light on how corrupt this time period really was. The Great Gatsby serves as an accurate representation of the 1920s through the author’s life as well as through fashion, prohibition, and most importantly, wealth in the 1920s. Fitzgerald truly understood the 1920s…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Shlaes, “The government modified taxes to tap wealthy people the most, who could take it in stride easily. The rich, conservatives, numerous businessmen- and those who were all 3- vigorously opposed the New Deal”(2). The New Deal was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “unprecedented number of reforms addressing the catastrophic effects of the Great Depression” (PBS,1). The New Deal interfered with the business of the rich businessmen, and they were not happy about that. The wealthy businessmen argued that they had worked hard for their wealth and deserved to be rich, they refused to pay their fair share of taxes to help out the rest of the American people and the American economy.…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This form of organized crime took over during the Prohibition era as seen through the amount of alcohol still being consumed during parties or at speakeasies. Furthermore, bribery and corruption were another typical form of organized crime that increased in the 1920s. In The Great Gatsby, Wolfsheim served as the gangster figure and represented the corruption that embodied the 1920s as an era of not just Prohibition, but also of organized crime. In the text, readers are first introduced to Wolfsheim as the man who fixed the World Series in 1919 and a gambler (Fitzgerald 73). These traits implied that Wolfsheim was associated with organized crime and that he was almost proud of his achievements.…

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays