The settings of The Great Gatsby represent aspects of the American Dream. How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of The Great Gatsby?
”The settings of The Great Gatsby represent aspects of the American Dream.” How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of The Great Gatsby?
When reading F.Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” for the first time, it may seem as a straightforward novel about all-consuming characters and symbolic themes. Settings appear to be unimportant. However they play a valuable part in the story. The settings are used by the author to emphasise the characters and themes.
The places Fitzgerald used in his novel epitomize various aspects of the American society in 1920’s. East Egg represents the old aristocracy – Tom and Daisy, whose families were “enormously wealthy” even before the war. The West Egg represents the newly rich – Gatsby. After the war Gatsby remained a poor soldier. He wanted to fulfil his dream and in order to achieve this, he had to become wealthy and have a high status in society. He became rich through bootlegging. Most newly rich earned money this way, as there was a big demand for alcohol because of The Prohibition. Through settings Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being rude, gaudy and lacking in social taste, while the old aristocracy were people who possessed taste, elegance and grace. Gatsby wore pink suits, lived in an ornament mansion and organized loud parties. Tom, on the other hand had a tasteful house with “a sunken Italian garden” and Daisy wore white, flowing dresses. Even though both Buchanans and Gatsby were very wealthy, there were still differences between them. The East Eggers proved themselves careless bullies, who are so used to money’s ability to ease their minds to not worry about hurting other people. They exemplify this in chapter 9, when they move to another city rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral. However Gatsby, whose wealth was derived from illegal bootlegging, has a loyal heart, as he takes the blame for killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy be punished.
