The Great Gatsby; Fitzgerald`s Masterfully Crafted Settings And Their Implications.

The most memorable and immediately striking setting in the first three chapters of the novel is undoubtedly Gatsby's elaborate, alluring party. The mysterious Jay Gatsby is gradually revealed to us through a barrage of gossip, imagery, themes and ideas crafted by Fitzgerald into the party itself. The illuminations in his garden are said to attract guests "like moths", which mirrors Gatsby's own alluring nature. The idea of his guests dashing to him like moths to a flame (positioned cleverly at the very start of the party scene) paints Gatsby as an absorbing character and subtly guides the reader into a fascination; one that is continually built upon throughout the chapter. The imagery used to describe the party is often dreamlike and otherworldly, "bewitched turkey", "yellow cocktail music" "swirls and eddies of people", and helps to reinforce the fascination with Gatsby by creating a setting based around illusion and perception - the very characteristics Jay Gatz is using himself to create the façade he has made. This elaborate illusionary setting created around Gatsby ultimately helps to paint his character, as Gatsby's detachment from the party (his refusal to drink, use his own pool, and introduce himself as a host) builds up a mysterious aura around him. The goings on at the party are also used to mirror ideas and themes about new and old money at the time. Bold colours are seen throughout with dresses of "gas blue" and "bright yellow", gaudy bold colours used to imply a gaiety to the "new money" east eggers that the class obsessed west eggers don't posses. This setting heavily contrasts that of the dinner party in the first chapter where Jordan baker yawns 9 times and Nick "just wants to talk about corn". These contrasting ideas grapple with the idea of "having taste" vs. "having a good time", in an era where new freedoms were emerging and older class style and taste was rapidly changing. The repetitive nature of the party creates a sort of painful pointlessness to the glamour, and this mood is emphasised through some of the descri ptions of the party itself. Nick is held by Jordan "impersonally" and she responds "absently" in a seemingly normal conversation. Introductions are "forgotten immediately." Couples dance around them "fashionably" but also "torturously", and the grim imagery of WW1, "wet, grey little villages" creates a permeating undertone through the party of dissatisfaction, a shallow affair attended by people with nothing better to do. This impersonal aspect is seen again and again, no more than when Nick references men at his table as the "Mr Grumbles". The shallow nature of the party reflects Gatsby's "incorruptible" dream and his hopeless wish to recreate the past; the dream itself is really hopeless underneath all of the romanticism, much a kin to his parties. The upbeat jazz music, drinking and dancing at Gatsby's party is underpinned by a gross American consumerism, one that is hinted at as unsustainable by Fitzgerald, for example the amazing waste of the fruit pulp or the immediate purchase of a new dress for Lucille's fiend. The synecdoche of the Butler's thumb "pushing the little button" to make the fruit juice presents a scene where those who serve the new rich are seen in the same light as those who served the old (the butler's silver damaged nose) implying there perhaps isn't that much difference in morality between the two classes, simply their perceived boundaries surrounding taste and class. The two different subcultures are undoubtedly different but in contrast to the poor in the valley of the ashes are grotesquely similar in their principals. After all both commute on the same train that snakes away from the Valley of ashes and both seem just as disenchanted with the idea as the other.

Nick's disbelief at the poor little garage that Wilson owns is palpable, "I assumed there must be some lavish apartment upstairs" states Nick, surely that cannot be all this man owns! Nick's belief is representative of a larger quality of every upper class character n the book - All eggers posses an inherent supercilious nature when around in the valley of ashes. This is exemplified by Tom's toying with Wilson over car sales, sleeping with his wife, and no more than when Daisy runs over Myrtle without even stopping. This higher opinion of themselves is what makes so many characters so unlikeable in the novel, and the setting of the valley is where this superiority is expressed (Tom's physical superiority is also demonstrated against Myrtle when he hits her). The Valley of ashes is of course used to communicate many ideas about America in the twenties, perhaps more so than any other setting in the novel. The roaring twenties were a boom time for the American economy but the valley works to show that this rapid industrialisation wasn't beneficial for all. The discarded ashes form "grotesque gardens" and "fantastic farms", an allusion to the former agrarian nation that was envisioned by the early settlers, a Jeffersonian idealism that is dwelled upon later on in the novel too, when Nick wonders about the Dutch settlers sighting this "huge new continent". The irony here is that these farms are formed from the literal waste of the new industry, a resonating image of the ways in which America was changing so rapidly in the twenties. Of course those living in this ashen land are those discarded from the boom time in America. The main street even has a shop for rent, and Wilson's business seems to rely on a single car sale from Tom Buchanan - hardly the economic prosperity that the twenties are normally associated with. The wreck of the Ford car in Wilson's garage is a potent symbol in that the Ford car was one of the major images of the twenties and is now left discarded "covered in dust" in the corner of this desolate garage. Prosperity didn't reach everyone in the twenties and Fitzgerald highlights this inequality to convey themes about American wealth and her principles as a country, which Fitzgerald was publicly cynical of. The most memorable image from the Valley of Ashes is the eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg, his rimmed golden glasses looking down at the valley "with a persistent stare". Eckleburg can be interpreted many ways, one of which being as a symbol of, or a replacement for God. The idea of an advertisement taking the place of a Godlike figure is a highly cynical view of American consumerism in the twenties however is understandable given the huge rate of growth of consumer products; people literally worship the market. Fitzgerald could be implying this is a bad turn for the US; under the stare of this billboard lays the ashen remains of an overly capitalist America, and it is also where Myrtle's untimely car crash death occurs. Another interpretation could be that Eckleburg is indeed a symbol of God and morality, but with an emphasis on how only the poorest posses such a figure. Fitzgerald could have placed the billboard across the bay from the eggs, or in New York, but he chose to place this symbol here. When Tom Buchanan enters the valley of ashes he receives an "uneasy stare" from TJ Eckleburg as if he is being judged for his wrong doing, and it could be seen as a judgement on the higher class in the novel and their destructive ways, "retreating back into their money and carelessness". Whatever interpretation you take of Eckleburg he is undoubtedly one of the most prominent images in the novel, helping to convey some of the novels most important commentary on the USA. Setting is used by Fitzgerald throughout to shape and reflect our opinions of characters, and help us to infer ideas about larger thematic and contextual issues. Fitzgerald's rather unique writing style ensures that the likes of Gatsby's party remain a dream like façade, and the ashes remain a desolate wasteland, all too real in their ideas about America.