Coose a novel or short story in which the writer's use of setting in time and/or place has a significant part to play in your appreciation of the text as a whole.
Give relevant details of the setting and then discuss fully why it has such significance.
Within any novel, the setting holds a great deal of importance in defining what the novel is. Upon learning of the setting, the reader can immediately begin to build up a picture of what the novel is likely to contain and feature. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald has skillfully chosen a rich setting in both time and place which allows him to deliver the message he wishes to send as effectively as possible. In using the time and place setting of the book, plus the large amount of symbolism and imagery he conveys in using setting, Fitzgerald has greatly increased my appreciation and admiration of the text.
"I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life."
In the novel, all of the main characters are originally from the Western side of America, past the Appalachians and amongst the midwestern plains and the northern states. The West Egg area of New York is where all these newly rich Westerners have flocked with their wealth. The West Egg has been created and chosen to represent the new America; the America of celebrities, alchohol, parties and huge new degrees of freedom for women. The hedonism featured within the actions of those who live in the West Egg is clearly a representation of the parallel decadence, materialism and corruption which was taking place in America at that time. The above quote states that, in going to live in the West Egg, the main characters all exposed themselves to the corruption of the East which is awed and addicted to the new ways of a consumer existance and worth is measured in posessions - a contrast to the Midwest which represents traditional moral values, the main characters eagerly leaving to come to New York. Standing opposite the new wealth of the West Egg is that of the East Egg, a representation of the old rich and the relative aristocracy of America. The established business families live there and look down with contempt upon these 'common upstarts' who do not posess the long standing wealthy history of these families but are instead newly wealthy and therefore lack the necessary attributes which are required for acceptance into their fold. In using these contrasts with which to illustrate the difference between the newly rich and the established rich, Fitzgerald has increased my appreciation of the text by making such an understandable symbol.
