East Egg vs. West Egg

In The Great Gatsby' social status is an extremely significant element as it distinguishes geographical locations in the novel but more importantly, portrays the mentalities of people belonging to different social class' which affects the events that occur and moulds many of the characters.

The characters in the novel are distinguished by their wealth and where they live or work and are separated by the different settings within the novel.

East Egg reflects high class society where the inhabitants are inherently wealthy, referred to as "old money". The inhabitants are highly educated and they feel contempt towards the "new money", this is, West Egg. The people of West Egg are wealthy but have only become rich recently. The inhabitants live here mostly because they cannot afford to live in East Egg, namely Jay Gatsby and Nick. The Valley of Ashes is inhabited by people who are poorer, and can be seen as the victims of the rich.

The way wealth affects the social status is illustrated by Jay Gatsby. He does not come from a wealthy background but is self-taught in business and becomes wealthy, and is therefore able to mingle with people of higher class. Although he cannot fit into East Egg his object of affection Daisy will not even attend his parties, he is still accepted in a level of society who never would have accepted him in his poorer days.

Gatsby thinks he can impress Daisy with his house and collection of clothes and Daisy does become impressed with this which shows that even though she would deem herself as upper class, she loves wealth, be it old or new.

Old Money Vs. New Money

Old Money refers to families who have had massive accumulations of wealth for generations. An example of an Old Money family would be the Carnegies, who started in the steel industry or the Rockefellers. Old money families are usually wary of new things and tend to want to separate themselves from the common people.

New Money families are families who have recently gained a lot of money, usually through the drug or alcohol business. These families tend to like new things unlike the Old Money families. An example of a new money individual would be Jay Gatsby from the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby gained all of his money from selling alcohol during the 1920's, a time where alcohol was outlawed.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940, American novelist and short-story writer, b. St. Paul, Minn. He is ranked among the great American writers of the 20th cent. Fitzgerald is widely considered the literary spokesman of the "jazz age" —the decade of the 1920s. Part of the interest of his work derives from the fact that the mad, gin-drinking, morally and spiritually bankrupt men and women he wrote about led lives that closely resembled his own.

Born of middle-class parents, Fitzgerald attended private schools, entering Princeton in 1913. He was placed on academic probation in his junior year, and in 1917 he left Princeton to join the army. While stationed in Montgomery, Ala., he met and fell in love with Zelda Sayre, the daughter of a local judge. During this time, he also began working on his first novel, This Side of Paradise, which describes life at Princeton among the glittering, bored, and disillusioned, postwar generation. Published in 1920, the novel was an instant success and brought Fitzgerald enough money to marry Zelda that same year.

The young couple moved to New York City, where they became notorious for their madcap lifestyle. Fitzgerald made money by writing stories for various magazines. In 1922 he published his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, about an artist and his wife who are ruined by their dissipated way of life. After the birth of their daughter, Frances Scott, in 1921 the Fitzgeralds spent much time in Paris and the French Riviera, becoming part of a celebrated circle of American expatriates.

Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, appeared in 1925. It is the story of a bootlegger, Jay Gatsby, whose obsessive dream of wealth and lost love is destroyed by a corrupt reality. Cynical yet poignant, the novel is a devastating portrait of the so-called American Dream, which measures success and love in terms of money. The author's long-awaited novel Tender is the Night (1934), a complex study of the spiritual depletion of a psychiatrist who marries a wealthy former patient, although later regarded highly, was initially received.

Fitzgerald's later years were plagued by financial worries and his wife's progressive insanity. The author spent his last years as a scriptwriter in Hollywood, California. He died of a heart attack in 1940 at the age of 44.

the Characters of Gatsby

MALE

Jay Gatsby- the protagonist of the novel, very wealthy, known for the parties he throws at his mansion, although no one knows about his past.

Nick Carraway- Narrator of the novel, educated at Yale, fought in WWI, struggles to sell bonds.

Tom Buchanan- husband to Daisy, sees no problem with his affair with Myrtle, but becomes very upset when he finds out about Daisy and Gatsby.

George Wilson- husband to Myrtle, owner of a run-down auto shop and is overwhelmed with sorrow when myrtle dies.

FEMALE

Daisy Buchanan- Nick’s cousin, married to Tom, the women who Mr. Gatsby is in love with.

Jordan Baker- A friend of Daisy’s, becomes involved with Nick as the story progresses.

Myrtle Wilson- Tom’s lover, married to George, who owns a garage in the Valley of Ashes.

Mafia/Gangsters

Al Capone is America's best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city.Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. Baptized "Alphonsus Capone," he grew up in a rough neighborhood and was a member of two "kid gangs," the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Although he was bright, Capone quit school in the sixth grade at age fourteen. Between scams he was a clerk in a candy store, a pinboy in a bowling alley, and a cutter in a book bindery. He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender. While working at the Inn, Capone received his infamous facial scars and the resulting nickname "Scarface" when he insulted a patron and was attacked by her brother.

Giacomo Colosimo emigrated from Calabria, Italy, arriving in Chicago in the 1890s. Giacomo, or Jim, was at first a pickpocket, a pimp, and a Black Hand extortionist, while working the occasional honest job as a street sweeper. When he became a foreman, he was noticed by "Hinky Dink" Kenna and "Bathhouse" John Coughlin, First Ward aldermen. He worked for them as a Democratic precinct captain and thug, collecting tribute for the corrupt aldermen.

In 1902 "Big Jim" married Victoria Moresco, a madam and much older than Colosimo. They opened a second whorehouse and soon gained control of several others. Big Jim organized a white slavery ring, where young girls would be lured to the city with promises of good jobs, imprisoned, raped, and, their spirits broken, sold to other whorehouse keepers. Within a few years Big Jim owned 200 brothels, and was also involved in gambling, extortion, and numerous other criminal activities.

Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci had the shortest tenure of any of Chicago’s North Side gang leaders. An Italian, he headed a gang that was dominated by Irish, German and Polish criminals. A mob rarity, he was given a 21-gun salute at his funeral. But most notably, he may have been the only mob boss ever to be killed by a law enforcement officer.

The leaders of the North Side Gang during the 1920s were Dion O’Bannion, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Drucci, and George "Bugs" Moran. Of the four, Drucci was said to be the least known and least influential. The "Schemer" got his nickname from his ability to come up with hare-brained, "hits, heists and kidnappings." Early in his criminal career he gained a reputation for breaking into public pay phones. Laurence Bergreen, in his book, Capone: The Man and the Era, describes Drucci: "He had a streak of recklessness and daring, and he looked the part of a gangster – tough, dark, and menacing, his expression frozen in a tragic mask topped by wild unkempt hair (and) a face to haunt the dreams of his enemies."

1920's

Since the 1920s was a time of celebration, there were many fads. People loved to dance, especially the Charleston, Fox-trot, and the shimmy. Dance marathons were something everyone went to every weekend. The longest dance record ever recorded was a record of 3 weeks of dancing. Another fad of the 1920's was the radio. People "tuned" in every day to listen to music, as jazz, sports, and live events. A favorite for listening to jazz was "the king of jazz", Louie Armstrong. The latest fashon fad was the flapper, a fad for women. The movie was also the latest thing. The start of 3-D movies was in the 1920's. The average American had a lot to look forward to, in the 1920's.

Radio was a popular fad. Mostly because there was no Tv. If you tuned in at the right time, you could catch comedy shows, news live events, jazz, variety shows, drama, opera, you name it, the radio had it. Discovered in the 1920's were penicillin and the discovery of insulin for diabetics. This decade had some major breakthroughs in medicine and science.

The 1920's was the decade of entertainment. Rin-Tin-Tin, the movie dog, used to be a starving German Shepherd dog during the Great War. He became most famous dog ever to star in the movies in 1923. The first radio broadcast ever came out in November of 1920. The first Miss America contest was held on September 8, 1921. Metro Goldwyn Mayer film making studio was founded. A new Pooh Bear story by A.A. Milne was a big hit for little children. Mickey Mouse became everyone's favorite cartoon character in Steamboat Willie.

On October 24, 1929, later to be known as Black Thursday, the stock market began its downhill drop. After the first hour, the prices had gone down at an amazing speed. Some people thought that after that day, the prices would rise again just as it had done before. But it didn’t. Prices kept dropping, and on October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, more than 16 million shares were sold, but by the end of the day, most stocks ended below their previous value, and some stocks became totally worthless. Because of that, some people became homeless and penniless, all because of the Stock Market Crash. By November 13, the prices had hit rock bottom. The stock AT&T had gone from $304, to the price of $197. America had celebrated for eight years, but now, everything was wasted in just a few weeks, by the Stock Market. It was a sad ending to this glorious decade!

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Flappers

Several factors were in play in the 1920s for the emergance of what came to know as flappers. Flappers are teenagers and young women who flouted covention and spent their time pursuing fun instead of settling down to raise children in the prime of their lives. Many flappers went to college or entered a workforce and felt entitled to make their own decisions about how to live their lives.



World War I caused a lot of young men not to return home, which left many women without enough men to marry. The horror of the war also impressed young people with the knowledge that life is short and could end at any moment. Many women would spend their time doing what they enjoyed instead of getting married.



Movies made it acceptable to be a fun-loving and free-thinking woman throughout the US and Europe. The 1920 movie The Flapper introduced the term in the United States.

Automobiles were a big factor in the rise of the flapper culture. Cars gave women the freedom to do what they want, where they want. These young women had plent of opportunities for fun, even though there was Prohibition they still found ways to drink.