Great Gatsby Nature Vs Nurture Analysis

There has been a centuries-long debate about the influence of nature versus nurture and the conclusion is that both influence a person. This age-old argument is seen in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the geography surrounding the characters would create vastly different personalities if set somewhere else. Not only does the state The Great Gatsby is set in impact the whole story, but also the location of where the characters live and, as Thomas C. Foster mentions in How To Read Literature Like A Professor, how “humans inhabiting space. . . the spaces inhabiting humans” (Foster 174) have a profound effect. Set in the city of New York, The Great Gatsby has the perfect location to create an influence on the flow of events, that would not be there if set in another state or area. Placing the story in New York City gives the impression of glitz and glamour, which goes …show more content…
Originally Gatsby, and the enigma he appeared as, captivated Nick, but eventually that glamour faded away - “So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate road-house next door” (64). Nick realized that even though Gatsby had all these extravagant things, the only thing he really cared about was that Daisy was on the other side of the bay. Later, Tom unravels Gatsby’s lies causing Daisy and Gatsby to storm out of the room and rush home. When Tom, Nick, and Jordan Baker make the same trip, they find Myrtle Wilson dead, ran over by a car. Myrtle and her husband George lived in between the city and the East/West Egg; described as being “. . . a valley of ashes. . . bounded on one side by a small foul river” (23-4). The area where Myrtle resides is essentially a gray, bleak place – forgettable. This place can be seen as an extension of Myrtle herself in the eyes of Tom and