Sunday, November 11, 2012

Open Prompt 11/11/2012


1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

     A contrast between two places is significantly evident in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. The characters in this novel are settled either in East or West egg which represent two distinct forces. East Egg is established with individuals who are wealthy from the roots, while the West Egg is known as "new money", a place that attracts un-original wealthy people-- people who desire to be like the East Egg. The two places in this novel contribute to the flow of Jay Gatsby's ambition to become wealthy and win his first love, Daisy Buchanan, back.
     Fitzgerald represents the East Egg and West Egg as two different classes of  social status and wealth. This is shown when despite Gatsby's lie to Daisy about his prosperous family, she gives up waiting for him  and chooses to marry Tom, a wealthy man from East Egg because East Egg has been home to the elites and upper class. On the other hand, West Egg is consisted with lower/middle class people who made their own fortune and money without being born with it. The people from the West are new to this wealth and they look up to the stable social standings of the East. This sparks Gatsby to work and reinvent himself to get Daisy back; he settles in the West across the bay from Daisy's home.
     While these two cities symbolize the difference in society, Fitzgerald also incorporates the past with East Egg and the present with West Egg. As mentioned before, the East and West are also known as new money and old money. Daisy and Tom who live in the old money, are fixed in the past. When Gatsby throws lavishing consistent parties at his mansion in hopes to attract Daisy; people in the East Egg don't make their way to his party. It takes Nick and Jordan to persuade Daisy and Tom to visit the West. While Tom and Daisy are absorbed to the past traditions and aristocratic values of East, Nick and Gatsby who live in the West, are ready to change and reform from their past; they live in present time and work for the future.
     Throughout The Great Gatsby, readers are able to see the difference in wealth, status, and attitude between the East and the West Egg. Fitzgerald creates Tension between the two contrasting places  to represent opposing ideas to the plot. In doing so, the story not only gets interesting, but it connects to past American history and literature. The way Fitzgerald portrayed the West in comparison to the east showed the opportunities provided in both places. It's obvious to see that Gatsby followed the American Dream towards the West to seek fortune. The divided setting of the novel contributes to the symbolic meaning and theme of Fitzgerald's story as a whole.



3 comments:

  1. Gloria, I think this is a well written essay and you definitely understand what points are being made in the novel. However, it got a little bit confusing when you kept going back and forth between east and west egg and their differences. I had to re read a few things to understand what points you were trying to prove. I think to make this a little bit easier on the reader, maybe you should have everything you want to say about east egg in one paragraph, and then everything you want to say about west egg in another. That is the only thing i would consider though, because all the points you made were really good. Overall, good essay!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gloria, this is a great essay and answers the prompt well, something that seems to cause trouble for a lot of people. There are a few places that you could improve, though. The first paragraph seems like you skipped a thesis and just jumped right into answering the question of how East and West Egg differ from each other, but as a reader it is helpful to read a thesis paragraph that serves as a sort of guide to the points that will be made in the rest of the essay.

    I also think you could expand a little bit more on the meaning of the work, because I think the question implies that you define what the meaning is and support your interpretation(based on the sentence "how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work"). You covered HOW it contributes to the meaning, but it is a little unclear exactly what it is contributing as the meaning isn't directly addressed (though it is mentioned throughout your essay).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Like Julia said, separating East and West Egg into two different paragraphs would definitely make the whole piece more clear. If you did this it would probably help do what Chris was saying about expanding on the meaning of the two cities and how that affects the work. Also, you get a bit repetitive, which I think happened because you kept switching from East to West. If you had two paragraphs you wouldn't have to re-explain things like, "As mentioned before, the East and West are also known as new money and old money." Of course this restatement doesn't ruin the whole essay but taking out sentences like this can clean it up. You clearly have a good understanding of the book and did a great job showing it!

    ReplyDelete