... were viewed with skepticism and thought to have gained their money through corruption. This social class division is further perpetuated in The Great Gatsby between those who live on West Egg versus those on East Egg. Those who lived on East Egg, Tom and Daisy, represent the American Aristocracy, they had established wealth and were known as "old money ". Contrary West ... Egg was home to, Gatsby and Nick, people who had recently acquired money. The people of West Egg were known as "new money ", and the "old money " inhabitants of West Egg looked down upon them. The location of the eggs...

• Word Count: 1603
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . Nick describes where he and the other affluent individuals live, in the towns of East and West Egg on Long Island, an area around New York City. East and West Egg are fictional places, but their names represent the affluence of their residents. The word "egg" suggests vitality and contrasts to Fitzgerald's description of "the valley of ashes," the ... area of New York where the poorer citizens live. The "Egg" and "ashes" contrast as the ashes represent death and decay. In this way, Fitzgerald shows us how different the wealthy elite were from normal people. This interpretation ... co...

• Word Count: 1663
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... The Great Gatsby, has attained the wealth that he so desired and lives in a gaudy mansion in New York's West Egg, where he practices a life of extravagance. New York's West Egg residential section in Contrast to its East Side is symbolic of the social hierarchies in America of the 1920's. The burgeoning economy ... 's library are actually real and not covers. Owl's statement is symbolic of the double standards and hypocrisy among the rich of the West and East Egg- how they use opulence to mask their moral depravity. Owls statements about Gatsby serves to show that there is something diffe...

• Word Count: 7760
• Approx Pages: 31
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... aristocrat; Nick's house, which was "squeezed between two huge places" and was "a weather-beaten carboard bungalow", suggests his position and his envy toward money when he first settled in West Egg. Gatsby's mansion was "sparking new under a thin beard of raw ivy", while Tom's had the lawn "drifting up the side in bright vines", subtly suggesting their common money-pursuit psychology ... dresses which are essentially void and empty despite their purity and beauty.The preclude of the second chapter offers an impressive picture of "a valley of ashes" located between East Egg and West Egg...

• Word Count: 1437
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , but is important to understand how important this second factor is. The separation of identity is actually outlined in the novel by the physical separation of the east and west egg in which exclusively the old and newly rich resigned respectably. Despite what the American dream had men like Gatsby believing it is actually impossible to truly make the leap between ... the two groups represented by the separation of east and west egg. No matter what happened Gatsby would never be a part of the truly upper-upper class as he so desired. In this sense it can be said that the cultural identi...

• Word Count: 1946
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... vast carelessness- (Yoder). Through this setting, Fitzgerald emphasized the decomposition of the American dream to greed and materialism during this time period. And with the distinct divisions between West Egg and East Egg, Fitzgerald shows the social divisions in American society, even at the upper class, a fact still relevant to today's America. New York itself symbolizes immigrant America, where immigrants used to ... ...

• Word Count: 1599
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens... of ash grey men". In contrast, there was Long Island which was divided into East Egg, home to the "old rich" where "white palaces glittered along the water" and West Egg, "the less fashionable of the two". This division among classes emphasizes the deterioration of an American dream and reinforces the significance of materialism ... ...

• Word Count: 715
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... "never loved Tom"(133), it unveils how meritocracy isn't existent at all in this novel. Gatsby plans for such a long period of time by buying a house in West Egg, arranging their nostalgic meeting, and reinventing himself from James Gatz into the idea of Jay Gatsby, which is a concept he is "faithful until the end"(98), but Gatsby ... ...

• Word Count: 1239
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... because he is not of the long-standing American upper class. Though Gatsby is fabulously wealthy, he is still regarded as socially inferior as part of the nouveau riche West Egg. Perhaps Nick sums Gatsby's fate well when he states, " So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (Fitzgerald 189). Here, Nick reveals Gatsby's lifelong ... ...

• Word Count: 1786
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate