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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EAST EGG AND WEST EGG

East Egg & West Egg Explained
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In The Great Gatsby, a novel by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald which is set in Long Island, NY during the Roaring Twenties, specifically summer of 1922; there are two cities that are separated by the Valley of Ashes. These two cities are known as East Egg and West Egg, and there are two different classes of wealth in these cities. They are new wealth against old wealth. The two cities represent the vastly different lifestyles of Daisy and Jay, and sets up the tragic events of the story.
The East Egg is where all the ‘Old Money’ families live. These are old established and extremely wealthy families. Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom are from old money and live in East Egg. The people in East Egg are known for being well educated usually at Ivy League (A league of universities and colleges in the North-Eastern United States that have a reputation for scholastic achievement and social prestige) colleges, such as Yale and Harvard. Whereas, the West Egg, or ‘New Money’, are the people that have recently come into money, mainly due to the economic boom. These people are who have worked hard and earned their own money. They haven’t depended on inheriting money and just worked hard. They have not had Ivy League educations and some of them didn’t even go to college. However, there is this huge gap separating the two classes, symbolized in the book by the bay located between the Eggs. The people in East Egg are seen as corrupt and mean spirited because they have always had money and never had to work for anything. They are more concerned about material things. The people in West Egg are seen as less sophisticated and more innocent about how the elite live their lives. Nick Carraway comes from old money, but decides to live in West Egg.

Throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters and one of ‘New Money’, tries to reach out and be equal to the Buchanans, one of the old families. However, they always look down upon Gatsby, mainly due to the fact that he is new money and is flashy with his money. This is despite the fact that over the course of the novel, Gatsby is proven to be a better person than the Buchanans. However, Gatsby is blinded by Daisy Buchanan, i.e. the allure of aristocracy, and pays for this with his life.
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