The Great Gatsby and Vile Bodies

            In The Great Gatsby, a theme widely explored by Fitzgerald is how class divisions that separate the wealthy from everyone else are presented. Considering that American society was supposed to be classless, Fitzgerald highlights all of the distinctions between those who had money and those who didn't. Moreover, he highlights the differences between people who had just made their money, and those who had it all along - the distinction between old and new money. Indeed, although the culture and society of America were different to the United Kingdom's, Waugh shows similar distinctions in British Society throughout Vile Bodies. Both do this through various techniques, descriptions and effective imagery, presenting a varied insight into the lives of the wealthy.
             The wealthy elite are first presented in the first chapter of the Great Gatsby. Nick describes where he and the other affluent individuals live, in the towns of East and West Egg on Long Island, an area around New York City. East and West Egg are fictional places, but their names represent the affluence of their residents. The word "egg" suggests vitality and contrasts to Fitzgerald's description of "the valley of ashes," the area of New York where the poorer citizens live. The "Egg" and "ashes" contrast as the ashes represent death and decay. In this way, Fitzgerald shows us how different the wealthy elite were from normal people. This interpretation is reinforced by how Fitzgerald describes each place through color. He describes Tom and Daisy's house as "a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial Mansion" in contrast to the valley of ashes, which is a "grey land." Through the absence of color in the valley in comparison to the colorful towns of East and West Egg, Fitzgerald suggests that everything seemed to be perfect, but only for the wealthy. Similarly in Vile Bodies, in chapter ten (p132) Adam "looked out and saw a grey sky, some kind of factory and the canal from whose shallow waters rose little islands of scrap-iron and bottles.