29.5.15

East Egg vs West Egg


In The Great Gatsby, there are two cities, East Egg and West Egg, which are separated by the Valley of Ashes. East Egg represents the established aristocracy, West Egg the self-made rich.

Long Island : East Egg to Manhattan

[...] « One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country’s richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce, and does not pick up on subtle social signals, such as the insincerity of the Sloanes’ invitation to lunch. In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, epitomized by the Buchanans’ tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker. » [...]
More and analysis

The Great Gatsby
Novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
Adaptations in movie : 1926, 1949, 1974, 2013


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