Difference Between East Egg and West Egg

East Egg vs West Egg

“The Great Gatsby” is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald which was published in 1925. It is a literary classic and is a standard text in high school, college, and university courses in American literature. It has been adapted in films, television, theater, radio, and even in computer games.

It is a love story, but it is also a story about American life in the 1920s, a time when the American dream disintegrated after a period of prosperity and success. It was a time of the rise of several people into wealth and fortune through bootlegging and their desire to be accepted by those who are considered as part of the American aristocracy.
It showcased the clash between old money and new money as shown by the geographical distinction between the residences of the two groups. The East Egg is where those with old money live, and the West Egg is where the self-made, rich people live.

While people living in the East Egg acquired their money through inheritance and with ease, those living in the West Egg acquired theirs through hard work. Although they might have gotten wealthy through illegal means, they have retained their values.
Both the East Egg and the West Egg are places where rich people reside, but they differ on how their wealth was acquired and how they were influenced by their fortune. It showed how they were shaped as persons which is shown by how they treat other people and live their lives.
People on the East Egg were very materialistic, shallow, and superficial. They were self-centered and careless, oblivious to the needs and feelings of those around them. Still, people on the West Egg tried to imitate those who lived on the East Egg by being too gaudy and ostentatious. They also may lack taste and social graces which people on the East Egg possessed yet they were more humane and morally upright. The East Egg further symbolizes social and moral decay in society while the West Egg symbolizes social values.
Summary:

1.The West Egg and the East Egg are the settings of the novel “The Great Gatsby” with the East Egg as the place where people who were born rich live, and the West Egg as the place where people who have recently become rich live.
2.People living on the East Egg acquired their wealth through inheritance and with ease while people on the West Egg acquired their wealth through hard work.
3.People on the East Egg were depicted as shallow, materialistic, careless, and self-possessed while those on the West Egg were more morally upright and humane.
4.Although West Egg residents made their wealth through illegal means, their place symbolizes social values while the East Egg symbolizes the moral and social decay of society.
5.The East Egg showcased superficiality and carelessness while the West Egg showcased gaudiness and vulgarity which people resort to in their desire to fit into certain social circles.

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