Great Gatsby – Chapter 5

Hmph! I had a wrong interpretation in my mind this whole time and it just came to me how wrong I was.

West Egg versus the East Egg. What’s the symbolic difference. Well, having come far enough in the book to know the characters motives, feelings, and desires I managed to come up with a decent one. But it was proved in the end of the chapter.

I thought the West Egg represented emotion. Notice how those who live at the West Egg have emotion (Nick and Gatsby)? Conversely, Tom and Daisy from the East Egg seemed to have no emotion. Just their lust for more money and power. This lust that divides the two “eggs” is represented by the Long Island Sound that separates them. Sound decent enough, right?

Well, I never got the chance to develop it further because at the end of chapter 5, it was evident how much emotion Daisy still had. She hadn’t gone cold yet. There was still some young, ambitious, loving teenager from pre-Tom days inside her: “…they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life” (96). Clearly Daisy is at Gatsby’s level of infatuation and love. They are together “possessed” by emotion. If Daisy can match Gatsby’s emotional level, then my explanation of the East Egg cannot simply be, “it is a cold place.” However, I’m going to work on this further, because I think there is some truth to my theory. Maybe it needs fine tuning.

I plan to refurnish my idea and put it in my essay. It’s about the money aspect to American society. If I can somehow state accurately the difference between the East and West Eggs comes down to emotion versus wealth, then I can relate that to characters. By relation to American characters, I can inversely reflect the nature of American capitalism.