The Great Gatsby- Contrasts

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Daisy and Myrtle

  • they are foils to eachother - not explicity dissimilar, in fact they share similar situations, but differe in their lifestyles and experience - Daisy and Gatsby's relationship is spiritual (he is associated with God) and emotional (light and love associations) is contrasted to Myrtle and Tom's relationship, which is physical
  • Daisy accidentally murders Myrtle via a hit and run - the Valley of Ashes supplanters are removed from their "vast, careless" lifestyle (Gatsby shot by George, who then shoots himself).
  • Emphasises the walls between new and old money keeping them separate
  • Myrtle puts on the airs that Daisy was raised with - pretending at being one of them, but both can be considered selfish and somewhat cruel to those around them, although its debateable whether Daisy means to be.
  • Daisy is protected from harm by her status while Myrtle is lower class and unimportant.
  • They are both viewed by their love interests less as people and more as commodities and objects to possess.
  • daisy - delicate white flower and 'fay' ethereal, siren-like description, symbolises glamour and upper class lifestyle, links to money ad has more symbolic power
  • myrtle - hardy shrub (life conditions) but also liked to love - tom's mistress. Physical description and associated with ambition and her own reaching for class and high social status
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Gatsby and Tom

  • both come from money, but major wealth divide - Gatsby from bootlegging and new rich, Tom from old money and landed gentry.
  • both are selfish - Tom starts his affair by physically assaulting Myrtle, who has almost no choice, while Gatsby thinks his feelings overcome the problem of Daisy already being married and demands she tell Tom she never loved him.
  • Tom needs to be in control directly, inserting himself into situations where he isn't wanted, while Gatsby prefers to be in control indirectly, e.g. having Nick arrange the meeting between him and Daisy and often attempts to remove himself from situations
  • Both "love" Daisy - Tom because she completes the image of his perfect upper class lifestyle and family, and he knows she is too weak to leave him - Tom is hurtful to her because he deies himself nothig but he knows her as a person. Gatsby idealises her as the pure fantasy and object of his American Dream - he hardly knows her as a person and asks too much of her
  • However we see both through the eyes of Nick, who we know is biased against Tom
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Setting - West and East Egg, Valley of Ashes

  • West Egg is the less fashionable, nouveau riche area, where people mimic European architecture in an attempt to fit in with society
  • East Egg is the old money, the landed gentry who despise the gaudy displays of wealth ad resent the newly rich and believe themselves superior.
  • they contrast eachother as they're dissimilar, even in their approaches to time (West Egg rushing through an evenig, loud and large parties versus East Egg having slow evenings as they know they have all the time, small parties - only exciting party Tom had was at Myrtle's apartment with other lower class people) East egg are more distant from normal people "What do people plan?" while West Egg are more personable - linking to "western" push in america of exploration versus the settled east of America.
  • The Valley of Ashes is the liminal space in between the city and the Eggs, a byproduct of corruption and materialistic consumer culture where they hold up the upper class societies. They often aspire to the new rich's positions but dont achieve anything, instead being overlooked.
  • Different from both as suggested it is a consequence of capitalist and classist society and could be a place in any major city due to oppression of the people.
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West versus East

  • Nick and Gatsby both come from the west and have a romanticised view of life - when Nick returns he describes it poetically and eventually he moves back West, having come to hate the East and its moral corruption
  • Tom and Daisy live in the east, where people are always obsessed with money and materialism - they like living there as it allows them to get away with anything.
  • Gatsby carries on the spirit of romantic wonder of those Dutch sailors who landed on western America as Nick carrawy descripes Gatsby in the end of the novel, but the time and place are against him, and they turn the romantic promises of the future an illusory reflection of the past. 
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Economic Boom of the 1920s versus Extreme Poverty

  • economic boom of the 1920s cultivated the flapper style and the sudden wealth increase of some people, making the myth of the America Dream seem more achievable to some - hence the parties and alcholism and excess as a cotrast to the death and dourness of WW1 
  • however, most people lived in relative povery in the failing industry of agriculture (James Gatz's - Jay Gatsby's parents.)
  • This was further exacerbated by the Dustbowl, a period of severe dust storrms that damaged agriculture on the America plains in the 1930s, which further worseed the effects fo the Great Depression.
  • Therrefore, Gatsby and the time period is set inbetwee these two egative events in an almost fantastically wealthy world, their excess contrasting to the later poverty.
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Tragedy and Romance

Tragedy

  • Gatsby's downfall is foreshadowed from the beginning, as well as by drip-feeding of information and rumours.
  • the symbolism of the car also effectively forebodes the climactic action.
  • Gatsby or anyone will ever be able to achieve the lie that is the American Dream, and the new rich do not belong in society. The antagonistic old money characters get away with their actions with their carelessness and vast money, they never answer for anything and despite the car accident being Daisy's fault, Gatsby is killed for it.
  • Nick falls into a depression at the end of the novel, and realising it was all worthless, goes back home
  • Daisy likely never loved Gatsby during the novels events, seeing him as a fantasy and perhaps payback for Tom's cheating.

Romance

  • He has accumulated all this wealth for Daisy and waited for her for years, separated by the war, eventually starting an affair with her 
  • the action of him reaching towards the green light and wanting to take her away from Tom
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