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Setting in the Great Gatsby

In: English and Literature

Submitted By meganwillis
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The setting in The Great Gatsby initially makes it appear as though West Egg and East Egg are completely different because Fitzgerald describes West Egg as ‘less fashionable’ and describes the houses in East Egg as ‘white palaces’ which makes it seem as though West Egg is not a very nice place when compared to East Egg. However when you look at Nicks description of his house on West Egg he says that it is ‘squeezed between two huge palaces’, palaces is used to describe both the houses on East Egg and on West Egg so possibly class divide between East Egg and West Egg isn’t as prominent as it is first made out. Palaces are usually seen as somewhere that royalty live in and so Fitzgerald is implying that Daisy and Tom are living a very luxurious and perfect life because of all their money and power but after reading the book the reader could argue that they don’t deserve the lifestyle and power that they have because of all the sins they have committed. Fitzgerald uses the word ‘white’ when describing the houses on East Egg and the colour white is usually associated with purity and innocence which is a juxtaposition to how Tom and Daisy actually are, perhaps Fitzgerald wants the reader to believe that the people who live on East Egg are innocent; alternatively the colour white can have the connotation of emptiness and loneliness so Fitzgerald may have used the adjective white to symbolise how empty the upper class people’s lives were in that time because often they had no role in society as their families had made their money a few generations ago so they just used to drift from place to place, Fitzgerald says that Tom and Daisy drift from place to place so perhaps he used the colour white to show how empty their lives are.

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