the great gatsby map

IMPORTANT PLACES

In The Great Gatsby

East Egg

West Egg and East Egg:

Gatsby's house is symbolically important for its location. A large part of the book takes place on the twin peninsulas of West Egg, where Gatsby and Nick live, and East Egg, where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live. Though Fitzgerald gives them fictional names, they are based on real locations, the peninsulas of Cow Neck and Great Neck on Long Island, approximately 30 miles from New York City. Nick describes West Egg as 'the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.'

Tom and Daisy's Mansion:

Tom’s mansion is not only expensive but classic representing his status as a member of the ‘old money’ community.

The phrase "indiscernible barbed wire" used in chapter eight sums up the social barrier between the two 'Eggs' which even money can't penetrate. While East Egg is also expensive and luxurious, it is beautiful:

'the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water...'

The word 'palaces' evokes connotations of royalty, and although they have no titles, the Buchanans are the American equivalent of aristocrats. 'Glittered' perhaps suggests hardness and impenetrability as well as beauty. The use of plurals suggests that with the Buchanans, money is no object: following on from a huge lawn are "sundials and brick walks and burning gardens". Nick is enchanted by his first view of their house: "the front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold."

Most significantly, Daisy's house has a private dock on the water with a "green light". It is this which comes to symbolise Gatsby's dream.

WEST EGG

Gatsby's Mansion:

Gatsby's house is memorably described by Nick, who lives in a much smaller house next door: 'The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard--it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.' Gatsby's house is notorious for its lavish and raucous parties: 'There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue garden men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.'

Nick Carraway's house:

By living in a little cottage that was “squeezed between two huge places” and “had been overlooked” (5), Nick’s home remains unseen. This is important, for Nick’s home is parallel to Nick’s character and inner self. Most importantly, Nick’s home gives him the opportunity to be an anonymous observer of the world around him. Nobody is looking for him or at him; he, like his house, is overlooked. By being this anonymous watcher, Nick is able to find the truth in everything he sees and be honest in his portrayal of this world. There is no pressure or pre-conceived notion of what Nick should do, thereby he has the freedom to do and write what he pleases.