'Examine Fitzgerald's use of time and place in The Great Gatsby'.

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English                                                                                 James Heim

Essay                                                                                        May 2003

MYP English Assessment:  The Great Gatsby

‘Examine Fitzgerald’s use of time and place in The Great Gatsby’

        In the novel The Great Gatsby, the use of time a place is an important factor in the story, which relates to the different themes of the story.  Fitzgerald uses a certain setting throughout the book to try and express his fundamental and universal ideas.  It is quite clear that Fitzgerald also uses the setting to establish the mood of the story along with revealing the different characters.  The choice of his setting directly affects the development of the plot of the story and helps reveal the various motifs and symbols within the text.

        The story of The Great Gatsby takes place in the1920s time period, in a fictional area of Long Island, New York.  Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era in America, of decayed social and moral values.  The evidence of this being the fact that he describes the time period as a time of greed and empty quest of pleasure.  The Great Gatsby as a whole symbolizes the decline of the American dream in the 1920s through the era of unique prosperity and desire for money.  After World War I ended in 1918, the sudden rise of the stock market in America, led to the unexpected increase of national wealth and a newfound materialism.  People in The U.S. began to spend and consume at very high levels.  This was the American dream, the pursuit of happiness.  At this time it was possible for anyone to come to America and make a fortune.  In the story, Fitzgerald uses the characters as symbols of this time period.  Two obvious characters that represent this time are Nick and Gatsby, both of whom had enlisted in the army during World War I.  In the book Nick and Gatsby exhibit the sarcasm that resulted from the war.  Other characters who attended Gatsby’s parties portray the time of the greedy scramble for wealth.  Meyer Wolfsheim and Gatsby’s fortune symbolize the rise of organised crime during this time.  Also the geography of the story is symbolic to this period.  The area of East Egg represents the established aristocracy as the West Egg corresponds to the self-made rich society.

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        Besides the theme of the American dream during the 1920s, another topic explored in The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, is the sociology of wealth and how the millionaires or upper class of the 1920s differed from the old aristocracy of the country’s richest families.  As said in the previous paragraph, the West Egg represented the newly rich people of the 1920s, whilst the East Egg, along with Tom and Daisy who live there, represent the old aristocracy.  Fitzgerald portrays the old aristocracy as stylish, elegant, and charmful.  In contrast he describes the newly rich society in the West Egg as ...

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