Monty's Online Journal

The hope that anyone can earn success if they work hard enough. The American Dream. It is a fantasy put into peoples head in the 1920’s to give them hope and happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses setting to portray this unrealistic belief in his novel The Great Gatsby. East Egg, West Egg, and The Valley of Ashes, on the surface seem completely different but throughout the novel it shows how these places are not as different as they are originally portrayed. The people living here are all trying to succeed in living their perfect American Dream, but no one has it quite right.

The American Dream states that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, with enough hard work, can achieve their own version of success. By using the setting of East Egg, the American Dream is shown as a false achievement where they have not done anything to get to where they are. Nicks described the Buchanans house on East Egg as “Even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red and white colonial mansion overlooking the bay.” The Buchanan’s house would have been passed down or at least bought with their ‘old money’. The Buchanan’s would have been very proud of this and would also be accepted by everyone in East Egg because they believe you have to have ‘old money’ to be successful, if you earned most of money recently this would be frowned upon which is completely the opposite of the true American Dream. Near the end of the book Nick revealed how horrified he is about the way the Buchanans live. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” They do careless things and hide behind their money so they don’t have to deal with it. Because they are privileged with their ‘old money’ they are use to this and never have to work to attempt to fix it. If they were really living the American Dream they would do whatever they could to fix their situation.

West Egg is an accurate representation of the American Dream being unrealistic and instead of anyone being able to achieve it with hard work the only way to achieve it is corruptly. “I lived in West Egg – well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is the most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.” East Egg and West Egg are both very wealthy places to live, but Nick describes West Egg as the less fashionable one meaning they did not earn all of their wealth legitimately. The East Eggers look down on the West Egg people because they were not born with their money or status which just shows how wrong the society around American Dream is. Tom Buchanan said while in New York “Everyone in West Egg is a bootlegger.” Suggesting he thinks West Egg is full of people who’s hard work for their American Dream is actually illegal behaviour. Tom represents all of East Egg when he accused West Egg which shows how the East Eggers won’t accept the West Eggers because of factors they were born with and can’t change. This is completely wrong and is not what the American Dream represents.

The Valley of Ashes is a representation of the American dream failing those it was created to inspire hope for. The Valley of Ashes is a depressing industrial area of Queens between West Egg and Manhattan. “The motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land.” No ones preferred place to be is in The Valley of Ashes, even the motor road seems to want to get away and escape. The Valley of Ashes is corrupt and is full of people who have spent their whole lives living here and as a result break down. Everyday for them is the same thing which drains them mentally and physically. “I’ve been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go west.” Everyones dream is to earn enough money to get away and live in a nicer place more comfortably. But no matter how hard they work or how much. money they earn they still can’t get away. Although some still have hope, the reality is the American Dream has failed them.

In conclusion F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed the unrealistic idea of the American Dream through setting. The places he used were East Egg, West Egg, and The Valley of Ashes. None of these places successfully lived out the American Dream properly. They were either too wealthy to begin with, not wealthy enough or tried to achieve it by doing wrong. This shows how hard to American Dream is to achieve and how unrealistic it is.

Write down the definition we developed in class of ‘the golden girl’. What does this term refer to? If you can, list an example of a modern-day golden girl.

A golden girl is a successful girl who is high is society and is everything girls wish they were. This relates to Daisy as she is a high figure in society is gorgeous and wealthy. She seem successful because of her ranking in society. They are admired by most. The Kardashians are modern day golden girls, they seem to have a perfect life and is want everyone wants to be.

Explain how Daisy could be considered clever. Use at least one quote from the text to support your answer.

Daisy is very clever and good at manipulating others to make them see things like she does. She uses Gatsby’s feeling for her to manipulate him, she makes him believe she is involve with him. She was playing games with Tom and Gatsby when Gatsby tried to tell Tom how she felt about him in the hotel room. “I did love him once – but I loved you too.” Daisy manipulated Gatsby by making him believe there was actually a chance for them to be together. She manipulates most men in the novel, she makes herself defenceless and Tom protects her and convinces Nick to cover for her and Gatsby.

The notes above talk about how Gatsby views Daisy as a possession to be collected. Explain this further. Find a quote from the text to support your answer and explain how the quote supports your ideas.

Gatsby has been trying to get Daisys attention for years, Daisy is a very high person in society and Gatsby treats her like an object and not a person. Jordan tells Nick about how Daisy and Gatsby met and how popular Daisy was. “She was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville.” Daisy had dated a lot of boys when she was young and that made Gatsby think this increased her value. Gatsby also says that her voice is full of money. Men ten to talk about her as just an object, Tom Buchanan’s wife, and how beautiful she is instead of being her own person and how intelligent she is.

Describe what life was like in the 1920’s for women. After you have done so, explain why you think Daisy wants her daughter to be a ‘fool’ in this world.

The 1920’s were a time where woman were starting to have more rights. Flappers were woman who were seen as immoral, energetic, and embraced their outrageous freedom. Daisy wants her daughter to be a fool because if she was a really smart and individual society might not accept her which will make her life very hard. She also hopes if she is a fool she will not realise all of her limited opportunities she has as a woman.

Towards the end of the novel, Nick says that Daisy and Tom were “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”. Explain what Daisy ‘smashes up’ (figuratively speaking) in this story.

Daisy breaker a lot of people without ever trying to fix them after she is finished. She completely breaks both Myrtle and George Wilson by murdering Myrtle. This breaks George so much it lead him to commit suicide. She also makes Gatsby suffer, she broke his heart by leading him on and he ends up dead because of her. He was short by heart broken George after Myrtles death. Nick ends up falling apart after the summer from all of the stress he had been through and Daisy never reached out to him once it was over.

Explain how Daisy could be considered ‘amoral’. Use at least two quotes from the text to support your answer.

A person who is amoral is someone who is lacking in moral sense and is unconcerned with the rightness and wrongness of something. Daisy is compared to a rose by Nick meaning from first glance she is perfect and everything people want but she has sharp edges that hurt if you aren’t careful. She hurts a lot of people close to her, she hurt her husband when she cheated on him. She hurt Nick by putting him through so much and never. bothering to give him a call once the summer was over. She hurt Gatsby by leading him on for so long and hurt George by killing his wife. She thinks she is above everyone and someone will come along and pick up all of the pieces of mistakes she has made.

I am inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”- Chapter One

Nick believes he is very tolerant and is non-judgemental towards others. He doesn’t want to look at someone and automatically dismiss them, he wants to talk to people first and get to know them first. They tell him about their stories and problems bu sometimes he gets bored of it and of the people. He feels like he is trapped talking to people who are boring and who he doesn’t want to talk to. But because he spends automatically dismiss them he does this he does talk to. some interesting people as well. Nick should be a good narrator for this as he gets lots of peoples different stories and supposedly doesn’t judge them.

Nick Carraway is the narrator of the book, he believes he is un-judgemental and tolerant towards others. Nick is 29 years old and currently lives in west egg. He studied at Yale before moving to New York to join the bonds business.

“When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. “ – Chapter One

Nick wanted everything to go back to the ‘normal’ that it was before he had left. He wants the world to all have the same morals and wants people to stick to them and obey by them. He didn’t want to go on anymore crazy trips and experience any of the things he has again. Like Daisy and Gatsby thing or Tom and Myrtles. He had had enough of that side of his life and of the people and didn’t want to go back to it.

“…wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.”- Chapter One


Tom forces Nick to go around with him, he literally picks him up and moves him from place to place like a chess piece. Because Nick listens to everyone and doesn’t tend to give his judgement input on the things people tell him others find it easy to get him to follow and do want they want him to.

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – Chapter Two

Nick is there but not present. He is in with the crowd but doesn’t really fit in with them. He is in the story but is also telling it as an observer. Nick is mesmerised by the lives these people are living but doesn’t exactly approve of it.

Most of the time I worked…I knew the other clerks and young bond salesmen by their first names…I even had a short affair with a girl who lived in Jersey City and worked in the accounting department, but her brother began throwing mean looks in my direction…” – Chapter Three


Nick cares about others opinions of him, he doesn’t want trouble its anyone so he backed down. He makes an effort to be friendly and cares for people. He is very job driven, and maybe not financially stable.

“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”– Chapter Three

Nick thinks very highly of himself and not heaps of others. He thinks is a very very good person. He thinks he is pretty perfect and compared to some his is good but he also isn’t as honest as he makes himself out to be.

They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!’ I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.”- Chapter Eight

Nick tells us he won’t judge people but this was a pretty big judgemental statement. Gatsby does a lot of illegal things to impress somebody and his morals were’t in line. He is not much better than Tom and Daisy, he is not as selfish but he still does some questionable things. Nick does judge people although he says he doesn’t. He contradicts himself and gets sucked into other peoples worlds.

“I shook hands with him. It seemed silly not to for I felt suddenly as though I was talking to a child.”- Chapter Nine

He moves on and takes the easy road out instead of making a big deal about it and giving Tom his opinion. He try to reduce any conflict that may form.

“I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” –Chapter Nine


Nick has deep thoughts about the world and if he could go back to what it was.

Nick doesn’t stay the same throughout the story. At the beginning he says how un judgemental he is but throughout the book he gives very strong opinions about others. Nick is involved with a lot of other people business and is told to keep it a secret. This would be very hard on him because of all of the lies he has to tell.

James Gatz turned himself into Jay Gatsby by….

Costume – While James was growing up his family wasn’t wealthy and were considered part of the lower class. Fashion would have been a luxury to them so when James changed himself into Gatsby he changed his clothes, they make him look more expensive and worthy. The type of expensive clothes he now wears are suits, bowties, shirts, vests, shoes, and hats. ‘They’re such beautiful shirts… It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.’

Props – Gatsby’s yellow car shows his wealth and attention his is trying to draw to himself. He wants people, especially Daisy, to know he is wealthy. On the drive to New York Gatsby gets pulled up by the police but after his white card is flashed he is let off without any punishment. He says to Nick ‘I was able to do the commissioner favour once, he sends me a Christmas card every year.’ At Nicks house when he invited Daisy and Gatsby over for lunch, Gatsby arranged to have dozens of flowers sent over to display at Nicks house. He went very overboard with this just to impress Daisy. Gatsby also keeps a lot of photos around of Daisy, Dan Cody, and a photo from his days at Oxford. I think he keeps these to remember the past with Daisy, and to show how far he has come.

Setting of the ‘Stage’ – Gatsby throws massive parties in his huge elegant house in East Egg. Owl eyes calls him a ‘regular Belasco’. He puts a lot of effort into his house and sets everything out perfectly. He goes to extreme measures to make sure it is believable and that anyone will believe the things he tells. Gatsby’s house was a giant symbol of success but now it is just a symbol of his loneliness without Daisy.

Speech and dialogue – When Gatsby speaks he is very formal which sometimes will make his words sound forced and unnatural. ‘…before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care.’ It was obvious to Nick he wasn’t being natural and trying very hard to sound important/impressive. In the time table James Gatz wrote as a kid, he put ‘practice poise and elocution.’ Elocution is the skill of clear and expressive speech. Gatsby trained himself to succeed at this skill which he thought would make him more successful.

Backstory – There are a lot of different rumours going. around about Gatsby like where he has came from and what he has done. We only hear the whole story when Gatsby tells Nick about it in the car on the way to lunch in New York. Parts of his story still sounds like rumours and the way he tells it is very suspicious. He has props on hand to show Nick to prove his point. ‘A souvenir of Oxford days. It was taken in Trinity Quad…’ A photo from his days at Oxford is just one of the objects he tends to carry around with him. Usually you would not have such an precise backstory unless there was someone you didn’t particularly want people to know about you.