The Great Gatsby- midwest to east
In "Chapter 9" of The Great Gatsby, Nick decides to move back to the Midwest. Before he leaves, he sees Tom and asks him what he had told Wilson after Myrtle's death. Tom admits he told Wilson that Gatsby owned the yellow car which causes Wilson to shoot Gatsby and then himself. Nick comes to terms with Tom and Daisy when he realizes that they represent all that he feels disdain for. Fitzgerald uses diction and imagery in this scene to suggest that location shapes the behavior and the morals of his main characters that all have moved from the Mid-west to the East in order to express his own opinion of wealth and opportunity. Fitzgerald's imagery contrasts the nature of the East to the Midwest. The Midwest is a symbol of morality, conservatism, and pragmatism. Nick describes the west as a "winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and ... a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air . . . We drew in deep breaths of it . . . unutterably aware of our identity with this country for one strange hour before we melted indistinguishably into it again. That's my middle-west" (184). Snow represents purity and integrity. Fitzgerald clarifies that in the Midwest one knows thei
The twenties was considered a lost generation in both its values and its instability. r uniqueness and purpose in relation to America. He shows the hypocrisy of the East because it tries to appear conventional but it really is an unusual place. He uses morose images such as "lusterless moon," "sullen" sky and "grotesque" houses to show that the East has lost its appeal for Nick. Nick is part of the same generation as Tom, Daisy and Gatsby but he has maintained the morals of the previous generation because he symbolizes the Mid-west. They are able to create a false impression of the East. All of the main characters: Tom, Nick, and Daisy "were Westerners" (184). Nick maintains the ethics of the Mid-west while he lives in the East. Nick is able to see the morality that East lacks when he realizes that "they were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (187-188). In contrast, the East is a symbol of shallowness, carelessness and corruption. The American Dream with all its promise and opportunity is portrayed as false. Fitzgerald's comparison of the East and West describes the real world implication of the changing generation of the 1920's. Fitzgerald uses the word "provincial" to suggest Nick's Mid-west values. His opinion of the immoral East which represents opportunity stems from his distrust in the American dream.
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