Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby is set during the 1920s and vividly captures the essence of the era and the carefree, immoral nature of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald's story is set in New York City on Long Island, in two affluent communities known as the East Egg and West Egg.

Inhabitants of the East Egg, like Tom and Daisy Buchanan, come from "old money" and are depicted as selfish, greedy individuals who are immoral to the core yet appear to be refined and civilized. Tom and Daisy are both products of their environment and are primarily concerned with their financial stability and social status. Tom takes advantage of George Wilson in order to carry on an affair with his wife, while Daisy refuses to be with Gatsby after she discovers that he is a bootlegger.

Jay Gatsby lives in the West Egg, where residents come from "new money" and are less established than the austere East Eggers. Jay Gatsby and his magnificent, over-the-top parties epitomize the Jazz Age, and his financial prosperity accurately reflects the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties. Jay Gatsby has also acquired his money through illegal means and has climbed the social ladder as a successful bootlegger. Although Gatsby has attained the American Dream, he has compromised his morals and fabricated his identity.

Fitzgerald also illustrates the dark side of the 1920s through his description of the valley of ashes, where dreams go to die and residents struggle to make ends meet. George and Myrtle Wilson live in the valley of ashes, which represents the futility of the American Dream. They are unhappy, desperate individuals who both die in the story.

Overall, Fitzgerald brilliantly utilizes the setting to influence the behaviors of his unforgettable characters. His classic novel captures the mood and atmosphere of the 1920s by accurately depicting the positive and negative aspects of the decade while simultaneously creating realistic characters and locations, which give the story an authentic feel.

This particular setting, New York City and its environs, permits the juxtaposition of specific, individual places because they are all in such close proximity to one another. For example, East Egg is right across the bay from West Egg, and both are separated from the city proper by the valley of ashes.

In East Egg, we see how those people with old money, those who have inherited their vast fortunes, live, people like Tom Buchanan; in West Egg, we get a glimpse of how those people with new money, the nouveau riche, live. We get to see Tom's behavior in West Egg, when he attends one of Gatsby's parties. He's a total "prig," as Nick calls him: a smug jerk who thinks himself above everyone else. 

More to the point, perhaps, when Tom Buchanan visits the valley of ashes to speak with his mistress, we get a sense of what life is like for people like George Wilson. He works so hard, he tries so hard, and yet he simply cannot get ahead. Tom even dangles the prospect of the car in front of George, and so we see how people like Tom are responsible for the sad fate of people like George. We also see how Tom is responsible for Gatsby's fate as well. In bringing together so many different places, Fitzgerald permits us to see how truly terrible Tom is, a picture that would be less complete if we only saw him in his own home on East Egg. Tom has more opportunity to act terribly, to be smug and superior, because of the various settings.

Critics agree that no American novel captures the Roaring 20s as well as The Great Gatsby. The setting is integral to Fitzgerald's theme in regard to the corruption of the American Dream, and the characters are products of their times. In his essay, "Echoes of the Jazz Age," Fitzgerald wrote that during the 1920s, the country went on a "spree." This can be seen vividly in the parties Gatsby threw in the summer of 1922. His guests, most of whom show up without invitation, descend upon his estate, drink, dance, argue, fight, wreck their cars, put on personal performances, and, as Nick observed, "conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks." The excess of the times determined this conduct.

The Roaring 20s was also a time when the traditional social structure collided with new money. Great fortunes were made seemingly overnight. Gatsby illustrates this social phenomenon, building his fortune through bootlegging and other criminal activities. Tom tells Daisy that Gatsby's money came from his "drug stores" which sold alcohol, outlawed during Prohibition in the 1920s. 

Those who enjoyed inherited wealth looked with disdain upon those who had wealth without family background. Tom Buchanan feels smug and superior to Gatsby who drives a "circus wagon" and doesn't understand how Gatsby came to know Daisy, "unless [he] brought the groceries to the back door." 

Not everyone in the Roaring 20s, however, enjoyed wealth. Another element of the time can be seen in the Valley of Ashes, a place of grinding poverty and ugliness. These surroundings and her life there motivate Myrtle to engage in her affair with Tom as a way out of the life she has lived with George Wilson for eleven years, her home an apartment over a dingy garage. When she first meets Tom on the train into New York, she goes with him at once, thinking "You can't live forever, you can't live forever."

Whether Fitzgerald's characters came from old money or lived with new money or no money, all were influenced by their time and place in American history.

How is the setting of The Great Gatsby influenced by Fitzgerald's life?

While it is always a bit tricky to assume what does or doesn't come from an author's life, there are many obvious similarities. For instance, as the author of the previous post points out, Fitzgerald was very much involved in the culture and wildness of the Jazz Age. Additionally, like Nick, Fitzgerald spent part of his childhood in the Midwest. He then moved East to attend Princeton. Here he would have encountered the same over-ripe, privileged society that Nick does. Maybe the shock Nick feels is inspired by a similar shock that Fitzgerald experienced when he encountered the super wealthy.

Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald joined the army, and also found himself enamored by a young socialite. Some scholars think this woman could be the inspiration for Daisy.

Daisy might also be inspired by Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda. Zelda also had some similarities to Daisy. She came from a wealthy Alabama family. At first she refused Fitzgerald. He had to prove his ability to provide for her  financially through the success of his first novel. The idea of Gatsby chasing wealth for Daisy's sake could potentially be inspired by Fitzgerald's relationship with Zelda.

How is the setting of The Great Gatsby influenced by Fitzgerald's life?

The setting of The Great Gatsby is informed by the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, for it was he who named the time period the Jazz Age. In addition, there is much that is autobiographical in the character of Jay Gatsby, who aspires to live with the rich, whom he feels hold magical qualities, just as did Fitzgerald himself. Certainly, the decadent lifestyle of those with whom Fitzgerald associated at times is illustrated in the parties given by Jay Gatsby and the irresponsible strangers who attend.

Further, the luxurious homes and cars and lifestyles of those in East Egg are created from the memory of Fitzgerald, who for a time lived in the East and, with his wife Zelda, associated with the wealthy as he pursued his American Dream.

Fitzgerald once wrote,

The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there is any other way.

East Egg of The Great Gatsby is peopled with those who have forgotten that "there is any other way" to work and live. Indeed, Jay Gatsby believes that money is all he needs in order to win back his idealized Daisy and achieve his American Dream.