Compare the Use of Location and the Environment in the Great Gatsby and the Go-Between
Compare the use of location and the environment in The Great Gatsby and The Go-Between F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and L.P. Hartley’s The Go-Between are two novels set in very different places in the world, but both show how love between different classes is doomed to failure. The environment is used to depict the lives of the people around it, such as the opulence and decadence in East Egg, and a dull, lifeless place in the valley of ashes. Both Fitzgerald and Hartley use the environment and location to show how the class system and the American dream have failed. Despite, 1920’s America being seen as free, it is also seen as being morally corrupt, with parties celebrating sumptuousness. A key idea of The Great Gatsby is how despite the wonderful settings Gatsby and Myrtle (sometimes) live in; they are still no way near achieving the dream life the Buchanans have. Fitzgerald opens The Great Gatsby with his overriding point about the failure of the American dream. This is symbolized with the stark contrast between East and West Egg; East Egg represents aristocracy, and leisure with the old money, while West Egg represents ostentation, garishness, and the flashy manners of the new money. Although separated by a small expanse of water, East Egg is the glitzier one with “white palaces”, whilst Nick’s own house in West Egg is described as a “small eyesore”. The ironic description of “white palaces” is particularly important throughout the novel because the inhabitants of East Egg are anything but pure and innocent, highlighted by the Bucahnan’s and Jordan. The difference between the fictitious places in New York and real locations is also partly interesting as in the ordinary world the east end is usually the poorer side, which suggests that Fitzgerald believes that it makes no difference either way. The Maudsley residence “Brandham Hall” in The Go-Between is depicted as the upper-middle class “Georgian mansion”, however the architectural