Examine the connotative language Fitzgerald uses to contrast West Egg and East Egg in The Great Gatsby.

East Egg and West Egg are two communities differentiated by the socioeconomic status of their residents. The connotations of "East" and "West" are also important here, for although these small towns are in New York, Fitzgerald intended the names and the divisive nature of their reputations to be references to the Eastern United States and the West: bastions of old money and family connections, and new industry and the frontier spirit, respectively. The East and...

East Egg and West Egg are two communities differentiated by the socioeconomic status of their residents. The connotations of "East" and "West" are also important here, for although these small towns are in New York, Fitzgerald intended the names and the divisive nature of their reputations to be references to the Eastern United States and the West: bastions of old money and family connections, and new industry and the frontier spirit, respectively. The East and West connotations also conjure up different ideas about morality, another theme in the novel: the West represents more traditional family values and the East a more sophisticated and perhaps decadent way of life. Gatsby's decision to build his grand mansion in West Egg is a tribute to his own Midwestern upbringing, but also a bit of a put down of the snobbery associated with the East. Narrator Nick Caraway says West Egg is "the less fashionable of the two," and describes the way that "the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water."

Fitzgerald, like Gatsby, was enamored of the wealthy classes, those with "old money," and it is a theme in many of his novels and short stories, perhaps nowhere more than in The Great Gatsby. It is also true that West Egg and East Egg are need for the Long Island communities Fitzgerald lived near; he rented a house in Great Neck, just  few mikes from Kings Point (West Egg) and across the bay from Sands Point (East Egg). Fitzgerald was friends with sportswriter Ring Lardner, and the two often drank together. They also spent time socializing with newspaper publish Herbert Swope, who was know for having loud raucous parties. The influence on the novel's characters, setting and events can clearly be seen in Fitzgerald's own life.