The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces each level of society in Long Island during the 1920’s by describing the house of each main character. By explaining the lifestyle of these people, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives readers a glimpse of the social position of each character. Nick Carraway, the narrator, does not come from old or new money, but lives in the stable part of Long Island and was born into a family line of wholesale hardware businessmen. His neighbor, also known to him as “The Great Gatsby,” has made his own money and lives a wealthy and leisurely life. Another main character discussed is Tom Buchanan. Tom comes from new money and receives everything his heart desires, especially Nick’s cousin Daisy. When comparing old money to new money, the comparison is usually implying that one man has made his own money, whereas the other was born with that money and does not work for what he or she has currently. As the narrator expresses himself with his descriptions of other people, he slowly unfolds his own personality without really introducing himself. Within his writing, the narrator describes the home of each character in order to correspond to their social position, lifestyle, and personality and to create his own identity through others.

Nick Carraway is a man of youth who describes the place he lives as one of the strangest communities in North America. His point of view on this community is that the two sides known as the East Egg and the West Egg are only similar in shape and size. A phenomenon is the dissimilarity between the two.

Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, just out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They are not perfect ovals-like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end-but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead. (Fitzgerald, p. 5)

In this quotation, Nick illustrates the differences between the East and the West, while describing the physical similarities as well. In relating the confusion of the gulls that fly overhead to the unusual separation of the east and the west, the narrator paints a mental picture for the readers in order to link the strange contrast of the two eggs as if all knew it. When referring to the dissimilarities of the eggs, Nick struggles to show the real controversy. The East is known for its pride and the wealth of its ancestors while it’s white palaces glitter along with the water, while the West is known for being the less fashionable of the two just across the courtesy bay. The West Egg is where Nick Carraway lives, at the very tip of the egg squeezed between two very high-priced large houses. Nick portrays himself as the neutral young successful type who has never touched a penny that belonged to previous generations in his life.

When describing Tom Buchanans house, Nick tries to keep the readers occupied with the fact that they are both complete opposites. While Nick has to work to get his life under control, Tom was born with his life inheriting in his pocket. Nick met Tom in college, and was distant cousins with Daisy, his wife. He makes Tom seem high maintenance and very powerful. Tom Buchanan played football at New Haven, and became a national figure in a way in Tom’s eyes. It was difficult for Nick to comprehend that a man his own age could do the things Tom did with his money. For example, he brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest to Long Island.

Unlike Tom Buchanan, Gatsby did not have an enormously wealthy family. As the descriptions of each house and economic status of each character creates a large impact on each characters’ social standing, The Great Gatsby is no competition in the eyes of Nick Carraway. Mr. Gatsby is next-door neighbors with Nick and owns a large mansion. He lives to the right of Nick and lives in a mansion that is a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy. There is a tower on one side, a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of garden and lawn on his property. He comes from what is called “new money,” and created the life he now has on his own. He has parties filled with anonymous guests, has rumors about his presence in the war spreading around as if they were true, and owns a library filled with unread books.

Gatsby is a very fascinating character and is awfully different from Tom and Nick in many ways. As the narrator expresses the home of each character, he keeps up a correspondence to their social position, lifestyle, and personality creating his own identity through them. Each character complements themselves with their financial standards very intriguingly, and creates a special appearance through levels of money.