The setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is crucial to understanding the novel's themes. Set in the 1920s, primarily on Long Island's North Shore and New York City, the setting vividly captures the extravagance and moral decay of the Jazz Age. East Egg and West Egg, fictional communitRead more
The setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is crucial to understanding the novel’s themes. Set in the 1920s, primarily on Long Island’s North Shore and New York City, the setting vividly captures the extravagance and moral decay of the Jazz Age. East Egg and West Egg, fictional communities representing old money and new money respectively, highlight the social divide and the superficial nature of the American Dream.
East Egg, home to Tom and Daisy Buchanan, symbolizes the established aristocracy and its inherited wealth, while West Egg, where Jay Gatsby resides, represents self-made fortunes and the nouveau riche. This geographic distinction underscores the theme of social stratification and the elusive nature of Gatsby’s dream to be accepted by the old money class.
New York City, with its frenetic energy and moral laxity, serves as a backdrop for the characters’ reckless pursuits and infidelities. The valley of ashes, an industrial wasteland between the Eggs and the city, symbolizes the moral and social decay resulting from the pursuit of wealth.
The setting in “The Great Gatsby” enhances the novel’s themes by providing a stark contrast between the glittering facades of wealth and the grim realities underneath, thereby critiquing the hollow pursuit of the American Dream and the inherent corruption within.
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I have dedicated five years of my life to studying literature, and I vividly remember what my professor said on the last day of my class "Literature is the only medium through which you can live more than once and the study of literature makes you tolerant towards others". When we read a literary teRead more
I have dedicated five years of my life to studying literature, and I vividly remember what my professor said on the last day of my class “Literature is the only medium through which you can live more than once and the study of literature makes you tolerant towards others”.
When we read a literary text, we’re not simply reading it, but living the life of someone else through the words written on the pages. You experience emotions such as grief, sadness, anger and happiness for characters that aren’t even real, you feel for them and that makes you tolerant towards people in real life.
All those famous writers we read, wrote during different times, under different political and cultural circumstances, many even faced exile and persecution for the simple act of writing what’s on their mind. Literature has a lot of power, it can shape the society and make it a better place but that would only be possible if people start giving literature the importance it deserves.
You read novels like Beloved, Things Fall Apart, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Hungry Tide etc., and realize that life is not all about you. These novels gave me the chance to recognize my privilege and feel for the slaves that were treated like animals in the US, or how European Colonizers ruined perfectly well civilizations for their own gain. Reading these novels made me thankful that I didn’t have to endure such difficulties but it also helped me to see things from a different perspective.
When I’m sad, I pick up a copy of my favourite novel and it makes me realize that I’m not alone, the characters too are suffering and it indirectly means that the writer too, suffered, and that’s why he/she was able to write something so devastatingly beautiful. Literature makes me feel less lonely in an otherwise lonely world of mine.
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