The Great Gatsby- 3

"Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you worry," he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more. "I'd be a God damned fool to live anywhere else." page 10


I think the setting and time period of this book plays an important part to the theme and conflict. The book takes place in the early 1920's. It's after the war and people are obsessed with this idea of the American dream. Everyone wants to be rich and successful and be associated with rich and successful people. However, this leads to a lot of people hiding things, like Jordan's lies and Tom cheating on Daisy. The setting is also important. I sense almost a rivalry between people that live in the West and East Egg. More rich people seem to live in the East egg. I think they are more of the people who have become successful through business and are seen as a higher class. The West Egg people aren't poor, but I feel like they are on a lower scale. Gatsby appears to be the only rich and successful person living in the West Egg. I think this setting plays into the fact that people think they are better than others and keep trying to upstage one another, like Tom's comment above hints at the fact that he thinks he is better than West Egg residents.