The Great Gatsby
East Cost vs. Midwest/ West
At the commencement of the novel the reader is attune to the fact that the novel takes place in New York. New York is located on the Eastern Seaboard, wile many of the character’s in the novel made their starts in the Midwest. There is a great amount of contrast between the attitudes of the Northeasterners and the attitudes of the Midwesterners. The liberal thinking of New York sets the scene for opportunity, that is hoped for in the American Dream. New York also sets the scene for radicalism and change which is different from the traditional values of the Midwest.
“My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this middle-western city for three generations” Shows traditionalism in the Midwest
“The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and were dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile.” Shows the radicalism of New York
“That’s my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.” Shows the contrast between the two ways of life
“...I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes- a fresh, green breast of the new world.” Shows the opportunities made possible in New York
VS.
Works Cited:
30 Mar. 2007.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.
Oberlin College. 30 Mar. 2007.
East Cost vs. Midwest/ West
At the commencement of the novel the reader is attune to the fact that the novel takes place in New York. New York is located on the Eastern Seaboard, wile many of the character’s in the novel made their starts in the Midwest. There is a great amount of contrast between the attitudes of the Northeasterners and the attitudes of the Midwesterners. The liberal thinking of New York sets the scene for opportunity, that is hoped for in the American Dream. New York also sets the scene for radicalism and change which is different from the traditional values of the Midwest.
“My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this middle-western city for three generations” Shows traditionalism in the Midwest
“The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and were dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile.” Shows the radicalism of New York
“That’s my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.” Shows the contrast between the two ways of life
“...I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes- a fresh, green breast of the new world.” Shows the opportunities made possible in New York
VS.
Works Cited:
30 Mar. 2007
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.
Oberlin College. 30 Mar. 2007
3 comments:
I agree with the analysis that is given. The setting of Midwest/West and East coast do separate through the fact of culture. The only reason for this is because the Midwest/west has not yet gone through radical industrial change that New York would always faces.
I agree with the statements about the adaptability and the failure to do so by the main characters, specifically Gatsby.
-Andrew Llanes
I agree with this statement because it shows how the different attitude is in the characters from different points of New York
-Eveli. 6th
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