Long Island, from the air

Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound (4-5).

Little Neck Bay

Little Neck Bay Postcard – early 20th century

A contemporary picture of Little Neck Bay

Contemporary Pictures of Little Neck Bay To the east - sunrise To the west - sunset

Contemporary picture of Little Neck Bay, with coast of Great Neck in Background

Hotel de Ville – Normandy Contemporary picture – mayor’s offices…

A Possible Model for Gatsby’s Mansion

A Possible Model for Gatsby’s Mansion

“I lived at West Egg, the – well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them” (5).

Every Hierarchical system has its markers

rates/dptms /PublishingI mages/class -a-uniform- wearing- guide--- male.jpg

American society is a hierarchy, and it too has its markers, though their significance might not be as clear as a general’s stars. For each of the following pairs (or triplets) choose the marker that indicates the higher status. In other words, which is “classier” (or “classiest”) – which denotes a higher position on the hierarchy? Which is “less fashionable” (Fitzgerald 5)?

Deep Sea Fishing or Fly Fishing

Sailboat or Motorboat

Cadillac Escalade or Mercedes E Class $72, 970 $51, 800

Old Persian Carpet or Wall to wall carpeting

Gravel Driveway or Asphalt Driveway

Soccer Fans or Tennis Spectators

College professor or high school teacher

The Oboe or The Trumpet

Beacon Hill, Boston, MA or The Riverwalk, San Antonio, TX

Scotch or Bourbon

Metropolitan Opera or Disneyworld

East Egg or West Egg

“…I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (6).

1901 – Harvard – Yale Bowl

Yale Bowl – Nov

s – New Haven

New Haven s

Trench Warfare - WWI

Trench Warfare - WWI

“’Civilization’s going to pieces,’ broke out Tom violently. ‘I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read The Rise of the Colored Empire by this man Goddard?’” (12).

Northern Blvd – circa early 1930s

Little Neck Garage – 1920s

Northern Blvd

Little Neck LIRR Station – 1920s

“This was a permanent move, Daisy said over the telephone, but I didn’t believe it…” (6)

1922 Dodge (8)