The Concept of West and East
in Fitzgerald’s novel Great
Gatsby
م.م .نمحرلادبع ناميلس ليلخ ميهاربا
هيلك بادلآا ةعماجلا ةيقارعلا
Abdul rahman Sulieman Kaleel
م .م .تكوش ميهاربا تيخب
هيلك ملاسلا ةعماجلا
Showket Ibraheem Bakheet
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The Concept of West and East in Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, Lecture notes of Literature
This document analyzes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the concept of West and East in his novel Great Gatsby. The East Egg represents old money, sophistication, and materialism, while the West Egg symbolizes new money, hard work, and moral values. the characters’ struggles to adapt to the different lifestyles and the impact of the East on their lives.
What you will learn
- What is the impact of the East on the characters' lives in Great Gatsby?
- How do the characters struggle to adapt to the different lifestyles in the East?
- What do the East Egg and West Egg symbolize in the novel?
- How does Fitzgerald portray the concept of West and East in Great Gatsby?
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The Concept of West and East
in Fitzgerald’s novel Great
Gatsby
Abdul rahman Sulieman Kaleel
Showket Ibraheem Bakheet
Abstract The aim of this research is to highlight the symbolic meaning of east and west in Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The West Egg is the home of Gatsby and those who are like him, who gain huge wealth but they lack the traditions associated with inherited property and therefore are uncouth, and because they do not have any traditions of their own, they try to copy those of others.The East Eggers, like Tom and Daisy, have the inherited traditions but they have been corrupted by the purposelessness and ease their money has provided.Class and Socioeconomic status is one of the most important themes in the novel. It is clear in almost every character. The East and West represent a symbol of this in their physical structure. The Bachanans live on the East Egg which is far more civilized and "well educated ". Nick and Gatsby are from the West Egg who do not have any real status, even though they have money. The green light glows from the East Egg tempting Gatsby for what he wants. Daisy, the woman that Gatsby wants but will never get, lives on the East Egg. The barricade that the water creates between these worlds is symbolic of the limit that separates these people from one another and from what they want.
ملخص البحث ان هدف هذا البحث هو القاء الضوء على المعنى الرمزي للعالمين الشرقي و الغربي في رواية " و"كاتسبي العظيم " للكاتب فتزجيرالد.فان الغرب الذي يطلق عليه"ويست اك"هو موطن "كاتسبي الذين على شاكلته الذين يمتلكون ثروة هائلة ولكن تنقصهم التقاليد التي لها عالقة باالملك الموروثة و لذلك فهم ال يتسمون بالتهذيب و بسبب ذلك ليس لهم اي صلة بالتقاليد االصيلة بل انهم يحاولون ان يتمثلوا بما لدى االخرين من تقاليد. ّبائهممن سكنة منطقة "ايست أك" فلديهم التقاليد التي ورثوها عن ا اما "توم و ديزي" و امثالهما اال ان الفساد قد اصابهم نتيجة غياب الهدف و سهولة الحصول على اموالهم التي جعلتهم في بحبوحة من العيش. ان الطبقة و المكانة االقتصادية و االجتماعية هم السمتان االكثر اهمية في الرواية و تتضحان في لغالب في كل شخصية من شخصيات الرواية و يمثل الشرق و الغرب رمزا ً لكل منهما في تركيبتها.ا على الرغم ان "نك" و "كاتسبي"يمتلكان المال لكنهما ال يتمتعان بأي مكانة كما تتمتع بها عائلة "بوكانن" اه بما تهفو له نفسه ُيفي منطقة "ايست أك" يتوهج الضوء االخضر الذي يشد اليه "كاتسبي" مغرياً ا "ايست تعيش في منطقة-المراة التي يتلهف الى لقائها "كاتسبي" و ال يفوز منها بنصيب–ف "ديزي" ّق هؤالء الناس عنو إنّ الحاجز الذي خلقته المياه بين هذين العالمين ما هو اال رمز للحد الذي يفر أك" بعضهم و عما هم فيه يرغبون. F. Scott Fitzgerald is a standout amongst the greatest figures in American literature and social history. His books and short stories give a portion of the best experiences into the ways of life of the rich amid America's most prosperous time while in the meantime looking at major literary topics, for example, disappointment and the concept of the American Dream. The life of F. Scott Fitzgerald was indicated by as much sentimentalism and tragedy as could be found in his books and stories. For the duration of his life, he
Fitzgerald utilizes the different methods of expression to stress the complexities inside the novel. The Great Gatsby is rich in variance. There is the ethical decay of Tom and Daisy against the honourable and sentimental dream of Gatsby. There are the old traditional family estimations of the West and the advanced lifestyle of the East. Nick fills in as a somewhat included narrator and he is plainly torn between these differences. He is a member in the story but at the same time ready to keep distance in any event till Gatsby's demise when he understands that he needs to choose whether to be within or without in the story or out. Regardless of the amount he may differ with Gatsby and his mission to rehash the past, despite everything he regards him. Nick feels that it is his commitment to say that Gatsby does not need to go alone through his dream. He gives himself a chance to admit that what Gatsby believes and feels we should sympathize with him. Motifs, themes, and images have an essential impact in the story. They refer to something more profound which exists in the plot. Since Fitzgerald's style is full of images that hold second or even third concealed meaning it is particularly essential that the reader comprehends them. The way the American East and West are displayed in The Great Gatsby likewise fortifies the legendary dimension of the novel. Indeed, the differentiation between the American East and West turns out to be extremely huge in clarifying the fundamental theme of the novel, which is the sentimental journey of Gatsby. Its importance is that of an allegorical portrayal of two places of ethical values. At the point when the early explorers (the Dutch sailors) first came to America, to escape from moral decay of their old world to establish a new ideal, they travelled from east to west. Presently, America itself is corrupted, so the characters in The Great Gatsby fly out from west to east - looking for riches and complexity - leaving the ethical values and steadiness of the West behind. Fitzgerald utilizes this adjustment to present an image for the collapse of American standards and the American Dream, demonstrating that our journey for riches and complexity is tainting our way of life, and making us live in a wasteland of ethics or an ash heap of society. (Smiljanić 3) The famous picture of the Valley of Ashes is not just an image for the degenerated society of the East Egg. It also symbolizes the wasteland of mankind in an impious age. This is clear from the image of the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which is in a way an analogy for God who observes human who have descended from his grace. The Wilsons illustrate the fate of the common man in the waste land. They represent the working class who tries to climb the social ladder. They live in the Valley of Ashes which represents the modern world. This valley poisons the landscape and people. At the center of the novel is the imperative complexity between America's sentimental Western past and the unromantic Eastern present. Both
Nick Carraway and Gatsby represent the West, and both think that it is hard to adjust to the lifestyle in the East. They live in the West Egg, which is somewhat the unfashionable area of Long Island. Tom and Daisy live in the East Egg, which is rich, stylish, and materialistic in spirit. Commenting on the Buchanans, Nick says “Why they came East I don't know”. (Fitzgerald 3).Tom declares that "I'd be a God damned fool to live anywhere else."(ibid 5). Tom and Daisy represent the East’s hard materialism and absence of the romantic spirit. The thought that the stream of history can be captured, may be even switched, repeats in The Great Gatsby as an outcome of all the inclusive human limits with regard to lament and the associative inclination to wish for something better. Nick Carraway has come to the East not just for the bond business, but rather in light of the fact that his wartime encounters made him discontented with his Midwestern main residence, and in light of the fact that he wishes to make a total separation in his relationship with a lady whom he loves but he does not want to marry her. The overwhelming attributes of Nick's character-persistence, trustworthiness, and prudence get from his doubt of history and social position, but then in the sequence of the story he is first to surrender to life is liable to persistent recharging. Of his foundations in time and place, he speaks about his family: My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day.( Fitzgerald 4) The traveled new beginning Nick looks for in the East reflects not so much denial of his legacy as an affirmation of its insufficiency to fulfill the fairly questionable desires of the post-war era stimulated by his contact with the overflowing city and the innovation of his conditions of West Egg, Nick surrender to a most convincing deception. According to Robert Ornstein, The novel Great Gatsby is the story of displaced people who have travelled Eastward looking for the bigger experience of life. Further, he goes ahead to state, that to Fitzgerald the bait of the East is a significant uprooting of the American dream, a turning back to the notable journey towards the frontier which made and supported that dream. In Gatsby, the once boundless western skyline is surrounded by the exhausted, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio. (Ornstein 63) The East, where Gatsby sees the green light, rouses in him a sentimental desire for promised future. In any case, it just smashes his fantasy and prompts his disastrous end. The East Egg seems alluring as "the city seen
life through hard working for those who migrated to America. Later on, it would incorporate goals towards a superior life for those who already live in America too (Therése 2). Gatsby has a sentimental perspective of wealth and is ignorant of the realities of the American society where wealth is, by all accounts, not the only prospect with regards to social class (Bewley 28). There is a link more grounded than wealth between people like Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and despite the fact that Gatsby has made an extraordinary fortune it is insufficient to have a place with an indistinguishable social class from Tom and Daisy. Tom and Daisy's scorn against individuals like Gatsby, affluent people however with a different socioeconomic status, is shown by Daisy's hating of West Egg, where Gatsby lives. This disdain, and additionally the bond amongst Tom and Daisy Buchanan, can be clarified with their same social status and education. That additionally confirms that regardless of how hard Gatsby tries, he cannot change his past and he cannot change other people’s past. Since status is, more than social class, depending on things from the past, for example, upbringing, it is likewise an impossible thing to change: “About Gatsby! No, I haven’t. I said I’d been making a small investigation of his past." "And you found he was an Oxford man," said Jordan helpfully. "An Oxford man!" He was incredulous. "Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit."(Fitzgerald 66) At first glance, The Great Gatsby may appear to be a heartbreaking romantic tale between a brilliant young lady and a poor youthful soldier going to war. The fundamental theme of the novel is that as it may, works on a substantially bigger scale and it would be wrong not to identify it. The novel offers a story of an entire era. It is a story of an entire generation, the Jazz Age. All through American history, the 1920s have dependably been remarked as the brilliant age. It was a period of prosperity and material abundance. Everyone could accomplish the American dream by hard working and by investing sufficient effort. It was likewise a period of a great hope. The American dream was suddenly changed to be something that everyone struggle for. Fitzgerald encountered his American dream likewise when he became very famous after publishing his first novel. To a few, the 1920s appeared to be practically similar to a dream. It was a thoughtless time of living like there will be no tomorrow: They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. (Fitzgerald 98) In any case the dream has been ruined. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920s as a period of corrupted social and ethical standards, time of selfishness and pessimism. people were interested just in quest for the material belonging and sexual
delight. Furthermore, it was altogether joined by the sound of the wild jazz music. After the war people returned obsessed by the war experiences. They were called the lost generation. As a result there was nothing more important than the enjoinment and happiness. This causes the crash in stock market in
With the two extravagant neighborhoods, West Egg and East Egg, Fitzgerald depicts the separated society. The two Eggs, despite the fact that they may resemble each other, are diverse in conduct and social standard. East Egg and West Egg symbolize old money and new money. People who live in East Egg are more sophisticated and come from old money they inherited from their parents while people in West Egg comes from new money, and who gained their money from hard working and they have more moral values in comparison to people in East Egg. ( Fälth 16). East Eggers are superficial people and look down upon others and they are careless as well. The best example of this is Tom and Daisy. “Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the country−side_East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety”.(Fitzgerald 23) With an attention on their financial and social backgrounds, Fitzgerald clarifies in many cases, the life of both East and West Egg inhabitants. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are the inhabitants of East Egg as they have great wealth and have prosperous life that accompanies it. They are depicted as shallow persons whose life is purposeless: “Why they came East I don't know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together” (Fitzgerald 3). To them, there is nothing more to life than existing in this perspective (Claudia 70). Gatsby, then again, is the typical inhabitant of West Egg. With his absence of inherited wealth and his self-earned fortune, he is the opposite of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. While the Buchanans appear to live without aim or aspiration, Fitzgerald presents Gatsby's desire with the agenda over his every day exercises (162). Nick depicts in a few lines the geographical atmosphere of the novel “I see now that this has been the 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” (Fitzgerald 97). All through the novel, places are related with subjects, characters, and thoughts. The East is related with a fashionable lifestyle, luxurious parties, collapsed ethical values, and materialistic world. While the West and the Midwest are related with more traditional ethical values. At this time, Nick
toward the end of the dock. It is an image of the American Dream. While Gatsby symbolizes it with Daisy since she is his definitive dream, Nick can associate it to American past. ( Píchová pp.33,34) Conclusion The degradation of the promise of the American Dream is very clear in the historical reversal of east and west. When the early explorers (the Dutch sailors) escaped the corruption of the old world to establish a new ideal, they travelled from east to west. But now that the ideal has been corrupted, people travel from east to west, attracted by the wealth and complexity that cover the moral decline of their goal Tom, Gatsby, Daisy, Nick and Jordan were all westerners .but in moving to the east they move from a world of stable values into a moral emptiness symbolized by the Valley of Ashes.They are aliens to the east which Nick believes, is a false ,absurd place. American idealism has been corrupted by adopting materialism as its means. The substitution of attractive but false goals, represented by Daisy, has changed the new world (the east) from a fresh, “green breast” to waste land where only the morally irresponsible can hope to survive. Gatsby’s destruction shows that those who try to maintain idealism based on materialistic values are doomed by their self-delusion.the word “breast” suggests that for the early explorers the province of America was like that of a woman , just as Gatsby’s personal dream is found in a woman.The main theme is elucidated in the final paragraph when the green light is compared to the “green breast” of the new world, which makes a moral Valley of Ashes of the green freshness of America a waste land where only the morally irresponsible can hope to survive.Nick’s responsibility is in contrast with the responsibility of Tom and Daisy who have fled East Egg to leave others deal with the destruction they caused.Nick realizes that the carelessness of the Buchanans is the general carelessness of the East Egg. This is why he longs for the moral traditions and ordered society of the Midwest. He proves that he is completely different from the Buchanans and others, the parasites, who used to attend Gatsby parties, when he had something to give them. References
Bewley, Marius. Scott Fitzgerald ‟ s Criticism of America .” 1954. The Great
Gatsby: A Study. Ed. Frederick J. Hoffman. New York: Scribner‟ s, 1962. Emma, Johansson_. Old Money versus New:Class Identity as a Motivational Force in The Great Gatsby_. Linnuas University. 2011 Jeffrey Steinbrink Source "Boats Against the Current": Mortality and the Myth of Renewal in The Great GatsbyAuthor(s):: Twentieth Century Literature , Vol. 26, No. 2, F. Scott Fitzgerald Issue (Summer,), New York,: Hofstra University, 1980. pp. 157-
Jeremy, Reed. The American Dream and the Margins in Twentieth Century Fiction. Columbia: University of Missouri,2009.print Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1968. 54-60. Scott Fitzgerald’s Fable of East and West ," A Collection of critical essays, ed. Kenneth Eble 63. Joanna, Stolarek. The Beautiful and the Damned”—The Influence of Zelda Fitzgerald On F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Life And Literary Output .In .Muses, Mistresses and Mates. Creative Collaborations in Literature, Art and Life, Edited by Izabela Penier & Anna Suwalska-Kołecka Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Oct 2013 pp. 51- 59 Johansson, Therése. The Broken Dream: The Failure of the American Dream in The Grapes of Wrath from a Caste and Class perspective. Linnaeus University, 2010. John ,F. Callahan. F. Scott Fitzgerald's Evolving American Dream: The "Pursuit of Happiness" in Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon. Hofstra University, 1996. Johnson, Claudia Durst,. Class conflict in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The great Gatsby. Detroit : Greenhaven Press, ©. Lena, Alberto. Deceitful Traces of Power: An Analysis of the Decadence of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby .” Canadian Review of American Studies. Makowsky, Veronica. Among the Ash-heaps and Millionaires. Approaches to teaching Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Ed. Jackson R. Bryer & Nancy P. Vanarsdale. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009. 75- Marren, Susan Marie. Passing for American: Establishing American Identity in the Work of James Weldon Johnson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nella Larsen, and Gertrude Stein.. University of Michigan, 1995. Print. Michaela, Píchová. Comparative Analysis of Two Czech translations of Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Czech: Masaryk University,2014. Robert, Ornstein. “ Scott Fitzgerald’s fable of East and West.” Twentieth century interpretations of The Great Gatsby. Ed. Ernest Lockridge. Englewood Cliffs, New Sebastian, Fälth. Social Class and Status in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Sweden: Halmstad University,2013. Siniša, Smiljanić. The American Dream in The Great Gatsby. Rijeka: University Of Rijeka, Tom, Burnam. The Eyes of Dr. Eckleburg: A re-Examination of "The Great Gatsby. Englewood Cliffs : Prentice Hall,1963. P 9 Turner, Fredrick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. New York: H. Holt and Company, 1920. Print