East and West in the Great Gatsby Essay Example
In the 1920’s, when this novel takes place, many people were only focused on money. Women wanted to marry into families of men that had wealth that had been passed down for generations, otherwise known as “old money,” and deemed the men of “new money,” newly earned wealth, unworthy. However, they did not take into consideration that the men coming from a poor family that worked very hard to attain their wealth, may have been better suited for them, all because of where they were from, and their social status. In the novel “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald decided to make geography determine the social status of the characters. In the novel the characters living in east egg: Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Jordan Baker, come from families that’s wealth has been passed down for many generations, also known as “Old money.” On the other hand, Jay Gatsby and Nick Caraway live on West Egg, where the people of “new money” reside. This sets up the contrast between Daisy and Gatsby, showing that they could never be together because of their difference in social status. In the novel Fitzgerald makes it very clear that the people of West Egg do not associate with the people of East Egg because they are too different. After attending one of Gatsby’s many parties at his mansion in west egg, the narrator makes the comment that "[Daisy] was appalled by West Egg... by its raw vigor that chafed... and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand." This shows that even though Gatsby now has the money that he lacked when they first loved each other, she can still never love him because he is “new money,” and she is “old money.” Daisy is disgusted by the party because it does not include the elite company that she is used to being around. The fact that wealth and social status have that much of an effect on a person definitely shows how corrupt this