Preview

Great Gatsby Setting

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
926 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Great Gatsby Setting
"The Great Gatsby" Setting

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a popular novel that has remained one of the best-known literary works to this day. Set in the 1920s, the story is narrated by Nick Caraway, an easy-going bond salesman who lives next door to Jay Gatsby whom the story revolves around. Jay Gatsby is a man with a mysterious past, who lives in New York and is famous for his extravagant parties and fabulous wealth. The story is set during the summer in which Tom Buchannan, his wife, Daisy, Jordan Baker, (all three from West Egg in Long Island where all the "old rich" live) and Nick's lives intertwine with Gatsby's into a marvelous story of love, crime and lavish Jazz Age debauchery. In _The Great Gatsby_, the conflict and its resolution, as well as the main character, Mr. Gatsby, are all made possible because of the place and time where the story takes place.

The physical setting of the story has a large effect on the conflict that takes place. The main conflict is Gatsby trying to change himself into what he thinks Daisy wants and the events occurring as he tries to win her back. The different settings are greatly related to the events occurring in the story. As the social setting varies, many other things change like the atmosphere, mood and the themes of the story; examples of this are West Egg, East Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and New York City. For example, East Egg and West Egg are both places in which people of great wealth live but Nick clearly states that East Egg is where the "classier" people live. He says, "Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere... I lived at West Egg, the - well, the less fashionable of the two." This indicated that even though Gatsby is really wealthy, there still exists a distinction of class between Gatsby and Daisy, which he is never going to be able to ignore. New

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby, a classic written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, exposes the frailty of humanity. Fitzgerald’s narrator, Nick Carraway, tells a gritty story in which he learns about the corruption of money. Though Nicks strives for perfection, he is a failure because he fails to become the savior he aspires to be, cope with city life, and realize that people are humans and not perfect.…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    F Scott. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby follows narrator Nick Carraway's life after meeting Jay Gatsby, an extravagant man with an unknown past. By comparing and contrasting Nick Carraway’s interactions with people of different wealth, social class, and background, Fitzgerald explores the differences between those with different backgrounds and current wealth along with the role that it play in their social interactions and marriages.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is perhaps one of the most recognized authors associated with the literary flowering of the 1920’s in America. The concern of most authors during this time was of the materialism that had suddenly swept the country. Credit was easy, interest rates were low, and corruption abounded. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays how the American dream of success was extinguished until it was nothing more than greedy desire. The sanguine American dream that had turned no one away and had given all an equal opportunity for happiness and success was no longer. Through use of his main character, Jay Gatsby,…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald makes trouble now seem a little less worrisome. Gatsby, the main character, must deal with war, betrayal of love, and illegal acts. Nick Carraway, the narrator, takes the reader on a journey not only through the novel but also his own life. He starts by saying that his father taught him to never hold people to the personal standards of one's self in fear of misinterpreting the person as a whole. This advice is carried throughout the novel and is by far one of the most notable aspects within the story. The Great Gatsby is a delicately written story of a young man trying to fight his way through the 1920’s with the issues of prohibition, which lead into organized crime, and the forthcoming of the second industrial…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby, which was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story that reflects the life of the 1920's in New York. The 1920's was a decade of prosperity and opportunity, but also of prohibition and organized crime. The life in the 1920's was filled with moral decay (immoral decisions) and corruptness. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows how the American Dream is dead through immoral decisions and corruptness in Gatsby's and Myrtle's life.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby by Scott F Fitzgerald is a book about a millionaire named Jay Gatsby who seeks to be with his lover, Daisy, even though she is already married. The book is narrated by Gatsby’s neighbor Nick Caraway, who observes Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy and the conflicts Gatsby faces along the way. Gatsby lives the American dream of being popular and wealthy, while Nick is a shadow who watches Gatsby’s and the other characters’ actions. As an outsider, Nick is able to observe the main characters of the book and use descriptions of the setting, contradictions, and ellipses to prove the main idea that Gatsby is great.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Jay Gatsby, is a rich man originally from North Dakota. Before fighting in World War I, he meets a young girl named Daisy, and the two fall in love. Daisy says she will wait for him, but marries Tom Buchanan and moves to Long Island, New York. This prompts Gatsby to relocate to West Egg in Long Island to be close to Daisy. The narrator, Nick Carraway, reveals that Gatsby acquired his wealth dishonestly and harbors an unhealthy obsession for Daisy. Gatsby’s upbringing as a poor Midwesterner, along with his teenage love for Daisy, motivates his future actions and shapes his character.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby is F. Scott Fitzgerald's most renowned book, and still one of the most read novels in American literature. A book with this much success was obviously was a product of great influence. The Great Gatsby draws many extensive parallels between F. Scott Fitzgerald's life and this novel. These similarities range from basing characters off important people from his personal life to interweaving intricate love relationships he went through into the novel to recreating the American Dream. The book comes as a direct result of many of the events in Fitzgerald's early life.First off, are the most noticeable parallels, the character he chooses. Fitzgerald parallels himself in two of the main characters in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, and Nick Carraway. Nick represents Fitzgerald's passive, or indecisive, and observant characteristics. On the other hand, Gatsby shows Fitzgerald's passionate and active attributes.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story set in the 1920’s in New York City. It tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a young man who bootlegs and gambles to achieve wealth, only to impress his first love, a materialistic spoiled girl named Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy went their separate ways when Gatsby joined the war. Now Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan and Gatsby is trying to win her back through wealth. Gatsby’s one goal is to have Daisy; despite her marriage he believes that he can recreate his past with her. Fitzgerald, paints the picture of the of Gatsby’s dream with symbolism, by using the colors gold/yellow, white sliver, and green, the reader comprehends the true contrast in characters and the American dream.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a tragic American literature novel that represents the hopeful American dream. Fitzgerald throughout the entire book uses certain literary devices that add onto the sophistication of the novel. In the last passage of The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys Nick Caraway’s perspective and attitude towards Gatsby through imagery, symbolism and irony.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gatsby Vs Buchanan

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel exploring the roaring twenties and the American Dream. The story is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway during the summer of 1922. The novel explores the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful and fickle Daisy Buchanan and how it affects the characters around them, including the also wealthy Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. Marrying him allowed Daisy to be as rich as Gatsby, but it also revealed that she and Tom had fundamentally different values than Gatsby. Although Gatsby’s and the Buchanans’ home lives appear similar, the small variances represent the fundamental differences between the occupants. Gatsby and the Buchanans both hold grand parties, but while…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby Theme

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel relating to his short story of Winter Dreams. The main character is Jay Gatsby. He is a wealthy man who lives in a mansion in West Egg of New York. Nick Carraway is the narrator of the story and is Gatsby’s neighbor. Gatsby is in love with Daisy Buchanan. He will do anything to get her attention again, but it’s difficult because she is married to Tom Buchanan. Tom is very wealthy and powerful. He lives with Daisy on the East Egg side across the bay from Gatsby. The Great Gatsby presents many themes throughout the novel. One of the themes is wealth and how it takes place in society. The location of where the characters live, how Gatsby’s portrays his life and the actions of the characters and…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a romantic tragedy about a man named Nick Carraway who gets involved with the life of Jay Gatsby and his not-so secretive love for Daisy Buchanan. A critic named Lionel Trilling once said, “Jay Gatsby is to be thought of as standing for America itself.” This is proven to be true because Gatsby moves up in life and pursues his dream. He is an example for the American way because he fails at certain things and succeeds at others.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Great Gatsby Daisy

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald is a critique of American prosperity, and the endless drive for wealth brought on by the economic growth against the background of Long Island, New York City. The Great Gatsby critiques materialism and the new American Dream, no longer defined by prosperity for equality, but by prosperity for the goal of excess wealth. Nick Carraway, the protagonist, views Jay Gatsby’s disillusionment about Daisy Buchanan, the object of his affection. The tale is not a story about past lovers, but instead represents a cast of characters chasing the American Dream which destroys them. The theme suggests that Americans have created a second form of aristocracy that the original founding fathers tried to escape. Each character…

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The setting of The Great Gatsby is divided into four major areas: West and East Egg, the valley of ashes, and New York City. West Egg is a representation of people who would not be accepted in East Egg because they are newly rich and are not yet socially adapted to the lifestyle. East Egg is where people who are not strangers to wealth live; therefore, they do not need to be pretentious with there money. Tom and Daisy Buchanan support the East Egg theory because they are accustomed to the lavish lifestyle money offers and are comfortable in their financial situation whereas Gatsby supports the contrasted West Egg where he shows off his money to try and win Daisy’s love. New York City is where affairs, making money through bootlegging, and wild parties thrive. The apartment Tom rents out for his affair with Myrtle is here and is home to characters, such as Owl Eyes, who attend Gatsby’s parties. New York is also where Gatsby made his fortune bootlegging liquor. It is for these reasons that New York symbolizes the decay of the American Dream. The valley of ashes is a grey area between the traditions of the Midwest and the moral decay of the East. George lives in the valley of ashes and works so he and Myrtle can have a better life, but it is in the valley of ashes where Tom and Myrtle have their affair, Daisy kills Myrtle while driving Gatsby’s car, and where George decides to kill Gatsby.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays