"[We] were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life"
In the book most of the people that are mentioned come from somewhere in the mid-west to west coast and decided to come east to New York. In the 1920's, New York was big in the sense that people wanted to go there to start new lives and make a new name of themselves. Since prohibition was put into place many people, such as Gatsby, resorted to illegal means of getting rich just to live the good life, and since New York was one of the more popular cities doing illegal things could get you money fast. Nick went East in order to get into the bond business which was a well known business during this time period. Many people were not use to living in a city with such corruptness and illegal means going on that many did not know what to do because of the fact they were not used to seeing it occur. Many fell into this trap because they wanted to "fit" in with the rest of the crowd and tried to adapt to the Eastern way of living, but it was hard for mid-west/ west coasters to change. This quote sums up how many people felt in the 1920's because a lot of people went from the west to the east in hope for a better life.
In my lifetime so far I have lived in the East but not for the same reasons as people before chose to. I did not pick this area because I knew I could get rich quick, or live the good life. The American Dream has long since changed and instead of it being get rich as quickly as possible, have a big house, and a fancy car, I believe we should live for a better reason. Living on the East or West does not make a big difference anymore since on either side you can find many of the same jobs, houses, and futures that once were never thought to be able to be sought after. Now the thought is go west to places like Hollywood, Las Vegas, and Las Angeles to make money quickly and in some cases illegally.
Very well put, I agree with your idea. The time period of this novel gives us some insight into new life and second chances. And what was important to those people such as money, status, business and the "good life". I too feel that some of the characters fell into this trap as the novel progressed and they had to adapt to this new and roaring culture of the 1920s.
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