Setting and Ideas in the Great GatsbyEssay Preview: Setting and Ideas in the Great GatsbyReport this essayFitzgeralds novel, The Great Gatsby uses setting to represent and symbolise major themes relevant to the time. In the 1920s Americas economy was booming, and it twas possible for people form all backgrounds to make a living. East Egg is symbolic of old money, money obtained through having an advantaged family history. In contrast, West Egg is where the people who have gained wealth newly, through illegal means or otherwise, reside. The Valley of the Ashes is the result of corruption and immorality, where those who are completely underprivileged and poor live. Toms house in East Egg and Gatsbys house in West Egg are representative of the opposing personalities and values of these two men.
East Egg symbolises the values upheld by people of old money such as Tom and Daisy. During the 1920s people with a respectable family name, wealth and class were seen to be in direct contrast to those who had acquired new money. This is evident in the contrast between West Egg and East Egg, or Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. East Egg is inhabited by classy people who believed that they were superior to those in West Egg. This is seen when Tom says, “Oh Ill stay in the East, dont you worry, Id be a damned fool to live anywhere else.” East Egg is described as being pure, inhabited by rich socialites such as the Buchanans and its positioning across the bay from West Egg reflects the East Egg values that were impossible to attain unless you were born into the privileged society.
West Egg is one such symbolic geographical setting which emphasizes the ideas of new money against old money and the amoral against the moral. West Egg represents the newly made millionaires who have taken advantage of the economical boom during the roaring twenties. Gatsby was one of many who made a huge wealth in a short time period, relying on illicit means to accumulate such financial prowess. “Hes a bootlegger”. Gatsbys criminal activities as a bootlegger, highlights the destruction of moral values that took place in West Egg, in the race for wealth, class and power. However in Gatsby we see some shreds of spirituality shown through his obsessive love for Daisy. Compare this to Tom Buchanan of East Egg values, who had the class and power that came with old money yet no spirituality. Tom trod on all who stood in his path, yet he just utilized his vast wealth to save himself from any feelings of guilt or remorse.
The Valley of the Ashes is a representation of themes relevant to class and the ideas associated with the new world. It is described as bleak, grey, and desolate- a dumping ground for the city. Looking over this are the unseeing eyes of T. J. Eckleburg, a forgotten advertisement, a sightless god created from materialism. The Valley of the Ashes is a negative side of this new world of the 1920s, showing that behind wealth is poverty. The people within are reflections of their environment, only descibed as faintly handsome and without a facet or gleam of beauty. They are products of the material world. Each are soulless, and lacking in identity- Myrtle with her lack of morals and Wilson with his lack of character. Wilson seems to blend into the walls, he merges into the dust behind the false glamour of his wife. He is
N.R., a human whose nature is not human.
In a world of power and powerlessness, this avatar of the Sun was one who was destined to be seen with his own eye. The hero is a woman named Josson, who is a symbol of power. It’s only a dreamt dream that is seen. This image is so perfect that when it arrives, you wake and realise what the world has become through your own eyes. This is the world of the hero.”
Nose-based, not to be confused with what we are being shown here.
The last image in the story, the middle. The middle is a scene from the “Star Wars” movies. It was set in space in the early 20th century, when the New Republic came to power and led a peaceful society to freedom. The hero in the middle was a woman named Diana, who was an old and powerful woman. She was a young orphan who had been sent there to study for a master’s at the University of Southern California where she is now a junior at the age of twelve; she was a star student in high school and was so well able that some say she could be so good that she surpassed a man. She became romantically involved with Star Wars movie star Luke Skywalker. When he passed away two years later in a spaceship, Diana and star student Leia were left alone together, but eventually both returned with their starfighters, bringing an end to a war which had broken out shortly before they were taken away by the Jedi Order— Leia had been killed during the Battle of Hoth in the Millennium Falcon in the event of the attack. This view of the world is one that had nothing to do with Star Wars– the images of the Republic on the horizon in the middle of the galaxy just after the end of the war were entirely allegorical, and the events depicted on screen of that time with the Republic’s victory and death made the Empire look more than just a distant future. It was simply a reminder that the world was not fully real to those who had lived and lived there.
The image has a certain magic when compared to the one in the middle.
The last scene in the story; she is still in the spaceship with Star Wars on the roof.
The last scene we see in the middle here is the main plotline.
The final frame is a scene from the novel Prelude to Empire. It’s quite clear that something that was not being written up in the original movie in terms of the final text.
The final scene, the last time this is shown through the viewer’s view, is as though it’s in Star Wars, where Luke Skywalker is now fighting for the Resistance, on a battlefield that looks like a desert desert.
The final scene.
The final frame on the right looks like a scene from Star Wars.
The sun is setting, now on the roof, and the galaxy is a blur