Geography Matters and So Does Season. Literature & Language Essay

Geography Matters and So Does Season
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Geography In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, geography plays an important role, in the story set in Long Island, New York, where he mentions the East Egg, West Egg, New York City, as well as the Valley of Ashes. Both East Egg and the West Egg represent wealthy areas, but the former is related to “old money” upper class people, while West Egg is linked to “new money” people (Fitzgerald, 1925). Urban planning affects how people travel through locations and the type of houses there. Jay Gatsby who is the main character lives in West Egg, among the newly rich people. Geography then represents the different social classes, their social connections, morals and where they reside. Besides Gatsby in the novel set in the 1920s, there is Nick Carraway who came from the mid west considers New Yorkers as adventurous.
Besides the towns and residences and towns in New York, Gatsby focuses on America as location where Americans seek to get what they want. Gatsby and other residents of West Egg hope to be richer, but they do not have the social connections like people from the East Egg. Geography shows the social differences, but also how one group of people is ambitious. Gatsby invites guests to his home, and among them are ambitious like Gatsby himself. In the east, physical geography is linked to ‘moral geography’ where there is dangerous search for pleasure and wealthy unlike the west where there is emphasis on traditional moral values.
In 1920s America, there was growing prosperity, but growth was uneven and geography contrasts the locations and shows the differences between the areas and people. Residents from the east are respectable and elite, and Gatsby is a newcomer who lived in the less beautiful part of the rich area. However, the rich also...