3. How does the Long Island landscape parallel the internal struggles of the main characters? Read Handout Two

The setting of The Great Gatsby consists of two neighbourhoods separated by the lavish filthy rich and the upper middle class. Consider Nick's description of his own neighbourhood,

I lived at West Egg, the—well, 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... My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore... Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water...

East Egg is a world of stuffy mansions and intricately manicured land. This is the land of Tom Buchanan. Although Gatsby lives there, he doesn't necessarily belong there. In between is the Valley of ashes and the chaotic dusty world of Myrtle and George Wilson.