The first location brought up in the book is Midwest. Right from the first line you can assume that the midwest is a place where status is important and people are born into wealth there by the way Nick talks of it. "The Carraways are something of a clan and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch."
The second two locations are east of New York and are an unusual formation of land. They look like enormous eggs and are 20 miles away from the city. They are identical and are separated by a bay. West Egg and East Egg. So I kind of see it as fraternal twins by the way Nick describes the two land masses. The West Egg is the less fashionable of the twins and is where "new money", like Gatsby, live. Tom and Daisy are considered "old money" because status, appearance, and knowledge is very important to them. For example, Nick is told by Ms. Baker that Tom has a mistress, but Tom and Daisy are still together even though Daisy knows. They will not divorce most likely because there appearance will be tainted. You can also see that knowledge is important to them by how Tom is reading these deep books about the rise of other races.
I hope I didn't miss anything. Please let me know if I did. :)
6 comments:
Great job Jasmine!
Remember that the Midwest is going to represent home to Nick. He is trying to get away from the mundane and start a new, exciting life.
Nice analogy of twins (although fraternal twins don't look alike).
Tom's a definite racist. He is also an adulterer. And what did you think about Daisy and Jordan when you were introduced to them? What kind of commentary is this on the rich?
Yea, I completely agree. I especially like the way twins compare to the two types of money in the story. That was really clever.
I like that twin analogy too Jasmine. I thought of the midwest as representing home but I also agree with you. I also agree with what you said about the Eggs being all about status, money, and reputation. Daisy and Tom are definitely staying together just to keep up appearances.
Nice job. The analogy about the twins was a pretty cool way to look at East Egg and West Egg and how they're characterized by different traits.
Since Tom comes from "old money" and lives in the East Egg, it makes sense that he's a racist. I get the impression that racial prejudice comes from long traditions of racism, and since most of Tom's wealth is family-based (that's what "old money" means, right?), they sort of go hand in hand. That's how it appeared to me.
Forgot to comment this! Well, i have to add that I agree with the egg comparison. Very true and creative. Nice work!
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