The Mysterious Green Light

As we begin our journey into the novel The Great Gatsby, one of the main ideas introduced is the difference between West Egg and East Egg. West Egg was the area of New Money and the "less fashionable of the two." The people tend to be lavish, flashy, yet innocent in the material world. On the other hand, East Egg was the area of Old Money. They were the aristocrats who were more formal and absorbed in the material corruption. Then there is the Valley of Ashes which runs between the two sectors. The Valley of Ashes represents the corruptness of society where the outcasts are pushed down from the ongoing consumerism and modernism. The people there have not yet found their proper place or rather can't find their proper place. That is also where Tom Buchanan met Myrtle and began their love affair. As people pass through this valley, especially from the West Egg, they experience and learn of this darkness. It seems as if the Valley is the bridge the humans cross through their lives, through the peril and evil. As they reach the end of the bridge and step onto the East Egg, they will have become a new person with blinded by the greed and no longer possess true morals and a sense of humanity. People like Nick and Gatsby are now naive characters just introduced into this world of wealth and economy. However, pretty soon they will be driven by greed and the widening gap between the rich and poor to embark further in their economic gains. In addition to this, at the end of first chapter, the mysterious man, Gatsby, was "trembling" while staring out at a "single green light" across the dark waters. He may have been looking out at the East Egg from his land. This foreshadows how the green light may be the material and corruption beckoning him to cross over the dark waters to the other side, or the East Egg.