The "Valley of Ashes" from The Great Gatsby
Posted Apr 27, 2013, 2:58 AM UTC
5114
I read this book before I'd ever been to New York or Long island and didn't understand the geography of it at all. Then I read it after living there for seven years and it made a lot more sense.
3
I've never been to New York so I have no sense of the geography, although I can see how that would be nice because he talks about a lot of different locations by name.
For me, I really didn't understand the true size of the mansions in the book until I saw pictures of some from the era (1, 2). But I think not having any actual image in mind of what Gatsby's mansion is like made Fitzgerald's vague/abstract descriptions of it and it's parties much more fantastic.
2
Link to Google Maps as it is today.
Somehow I never realized they were the same place!
2
Very cool! There are even a bunch of garages there.
edit: I've been looking at the area for a few minutes now; it's neat that I can practically trace out the exact route they took between East/West Egg and the city.
1
I am from Long Island and it is my understanding that the story is set on the North Shore of Long Island in Great Neck/Manhasset area.
1
Fellow Long Islander here, there is a lot of speculation for people on the island. I posted and image farther up showing the spots thought to possibly where it takes place
1
I just finished reading The Great Gatsby again, in anticipation of the movie that comes out in two weeks. I came across this picture, which is taken from the same time-period that the book is set in. Today it's called Flushing Meadows--Corona Park, and is more than just ash heaps now.
There is a decent amount of argument about where on Long Island it actually is set. More from Islanders themselves, but there is argument
The explanation on wikipedia makes a good deal of sense (that there's a bay with "new money" on one side and "old money" on the other), but it's the only one I've heard. I'd say that I'm interested in hearing the different arguments, but I've never been to New York so really it's all lost on me.
I want to read up a bit on the people that many of the characters are supposedly based on, like Fitzgerald's relationships with Ginevra King and William Mitchell.
I understand that, for Long Island though there are many places on the North Shore that have wealth on both sides. Many different places where east egg and west egg are just because of how LI is shaped.
http://imgur.com/6KKo4Sf
The reason that there is speculation for the Huntington/Northport area is that in Centerport, down on the water, is one of the Vanderbuilt summer houses which still stands and is thought to be one of the buildings he designed Gatsby's House on
Oh, that makes a lot of sense then. I guess the beauty of it is that it isn't any specific place, but all of them -- Fitzgerald could have easily picked one specific location, but instead he characterized all of Long Island with a single stroke.
This is all just from wikipedia so far, but here's the Plaza Hotel, which is where Not much of a spoiler.
Wow, drove right by that park and didn't even realize what it was last time I was in NYC. Thanks!