Topic Tracking: East and West
East and West 1: Nick is originally from the West and having gone eastward to Europe for the war, he returns West to discover it to be suddenly unappealing. Thus he moves eastward to the coast of Long Island.
East and West 2: Long Island itself is divided into an East Egg and a West Egg. Nick settles in West Egg, the newer and less distinguished of the two sections, where Gatsby lives as well. His cousin Daisy lives in East Egg.
East and West 3: Even as the group sits and eats dinner at East Egg, Daisy fixes her eyes towards the setting sun in the west, towards West Egg. It is the end of the day and she remains focused ahead on the end of the day after saying that she always misses seeing the end of the longest day of the year. Nick also feels distant from this wealthy atmosphere on the eastern coast, recalling what things were like back home in the Mid West where he had grown up.
East and West 4: As Daisy had stared out into the sun setting at West Egg, Gatsby now stares out from West Egg towards East Egg at a green light glowing at the edge of a dock near the Buchanan home.
East and West 5: Between East Egg and West Egg there is nothing but an empty wasteland as a dividing line with the great empty eyes of Eckleburg staring out across it. As Daisy had gazed towards the West, Gatsby had stared towards the East. Now this ominous face sits between the two poles of Long Island and stares out across this ash heap in the middle as people come and go off to New York City.
East and West 6: Gatsby of West Egg flees from Tom of East Egg. Nick himself remains caught in the middle of these two men in his failed attempt at introducing them. Being from the West originally, he continues to be maladjusted to this way of life in the East
East and West 7: Jay tells Daisy about the green light on her dock as he stared at East Egg yearning for her. He also talks about many things in the past and shows photographs and old newsclippings about Daisy. It is in the east that the sun rises and as such it is the beginning of things. Yet whereas Daisy had looked at the end of things, at the setting sun earlier, Gatsby insists on focusing on things that are in the past and already ended. He looks backwards rather than gazing ahead at what is to come.
East and West 8: The family beginnings of Gatsby lie in the West and yet he has moved East to be close to Daisy. Just as he had gazed at East Egg, so too had he come from West to East in pursuit of the woman from his past.
East and West 9: Daisy is unable to adjust to the energy and atmosphere of West Egg. Whereas she had come from the East and gone West, she is unable to enjoy herself or cope with this crowd of people. She is acclimated to the laid back and serene setting of those "white castles" at East Egg which is much in contrast to this place.
East and West 10: Carraway describes Gatsby as a man turning backwards to some point in his past to make himself content. Thus Gatsby came from the West to the East in search of this woman from five years before. Nature, as with the movement of the sun, moves from East to West. However he fights to move against this and insists that he shall simply recreate the past to have Daisy back again.
East and West 11: Just as Daisy had been uncomfortable when visiting West Egg, so too is Jay Gatsby unsettled after his visit to East Egg. It seems that neither one is able to find comfort in the other's way of life due to these differences. Daisy enjoys stiff luxury while Gatsby likes wild extravagance.
East and West 12: Nick's life is compared to the setting of the sun. As he ages and night approaches, he moves closer to death. Thus the west would mean the ending of things whereas the east would be the beginning. Unlike Gatsby, Nick looks ahead rather than lingering so much on what lies behind in the beginning of things, in the east.
East and West 13: As Gatsby had done in focusing so much on Daisy, now Mr. Gatz lingers on his son's childhood and past deeds. He carries an old book and things from long ago, just as his son had carried around his own photographs and kept newsclippings about Daisy. Living in the West, he comes East for Gatsby's funeral.
East and West 14: Nick compares moving westward as being the way of progress, as with the settling of a continent. Long Island in the East was actually discovered by settlers traveling west from Europe. It seems that when one cannot travel westward any longer however, as with the settling of a continent, and runs out of new experiences, it is natural to once again turn backwards to the east and rediscover things already past. It is a thing which "we" all do he declares, including himself as well.
