Free Great Gatsby Essays: East and West :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Division between eastmost and westward in The Great Gatsby The division between East and West is a significant theme in The Great Gatsby. The author has project the historical East/West division of the States on the division of illuminate and society in the 20th century. The Mid-West, which wreaks the new territory of hope and the gray(a) pioneer spirit, corresponds to West Egg in new-made York. For Fitzgerald, there was a certain old-fashioned stability resting on the old, unchanging determine and next relationships. Some of these values atomic number 18 honesty, human respect, divinity, idealism, romanticism, faith, ambition, community, and other spiritual values which are all personified in Gatsby. The novel mirrors the East-West divide of the whole outlandish in the division between West Egg and East Egg. cut and Gatsby live on West Egg, which means that they have retained their casualness to western values. The Buchanans on the other hand have become Easterne rs, they represent the corruption of the East. The main characters, Daisy, mountain pass, Gatsby, and turkey cock are all from the Mid-west. While Tom and Daisy Buchanan live an East Egg, being attracted by its glamour, excitement and promise of success, Nick enjoys living on West Egg. He mentions the friendship between Mid-Westerners, who are brought together by their extremely long and cold winters (in contrast to the New York summers heat). Nicks neighbor Gatsby is a wealthy person, who spends a lot of notes plentiful parties for strangers only to meet Daisy, the dream of his life. He is seen as representing new specie because he has no good education and no family background all over several generations, he is self-made, invented by himself. For this reason, he is not accepted as being dignified enough to enter the exclusive old money upper class. Tom and Daisy are old money, rich and from old established families living on East Egg, which the millionaires inhabit. The East symbolizes fashionable life, sophistication, the youthful society and the land where anything can happen. This is the world of brutality, corruption, carelessness, materialism and failure of emotion. By moving to the East, the Buchanans lose contact with the deeper values. They are superficial, aimless, irresponsible, empty and lonely. They have no desires, their talks are meaningless and their spiritual values are forgotten or dumped. Another symbol of the East is the Centre of New York.