Comparative Analysis of Setting in The Great Gatsby and Paul's Case

This essay undertakes a detailed literary analysis of the settings in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' and Willa Cather's 'Paul's Case'. The analysis of 'The Great Gatsby' explores how the settings of Long Island, Manhattan, and the Valley of Ashes reflect themes of wealth, class, and the American Dream. It examines how the Roaring Twenties and the symbolism of summer contribute to the novel's atmosphere and character development. The analysis of 'Paul's Case' focuses on how different settings, including the school, Carnegie Hall, Paul's home, and New York City, shape the protagonist's behavior, desires, and ultimately, his tragic fate. The essay highlights how both authors use setting as a crucial literary device to influence character psychology, thematic exploration, and the overall narrative impact, demonstrating the setting's pivotal role in conveying the central conflicts and messages of each story. The essay concludes by drawing parallels between the two works, emphasizing the power of setting in reflecting the characters' inner worlds and the societal contexts in which they exist.

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Running Head: LITERARY ANALYSIS OF THE SETTING IN “THE GREAT GATSBY”
AND “PAUL’S CASE”
Literary analysis of the setting in “The Great Gatsby” and “Paul’s Case”
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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LITERARY ANALYSIS OF THE SETTING IN “THE GREAT GATSBY” AND “PAUL’S
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The setting of “The Great Gatsby”
“The Great Gatsby” becoming a byword for the East Coast during the Roaring ’20s along
with the decadence and luxury that United States had experienced during the post-World War II
era, was only because of the stunning setting that Fitzgerald had created in his novel. It was not a
single component that stood out as the symbol of the decadence, but an amalgamation of the
luxury that sprawled in the mansion of Gatsby, the apartment of Myrtle and its chaos in the state
of drunkenness, or the claustrophobic apartment in the Plaza Hotel of New York City. The
setting of the novel is perfectly instrumental in encapsulating the character, mood, emotions,
along with the atmosphere of the novel. The function of the setting is to make the readers
understand and place the characters in a comprehensible manner that increases the writability of
the text. The location of the novel in the United States of America and the characters hail from
the Midwest and the East Coast as the novel progresses. the readers are informed that the East
Coast is differentiated into three distinct areas- Long Island, Manhattan, and a part of Queen that
is an industrial area termed as the Valley of Ashes or even the ash heaps in the novel. Two
locations in Manhattan consist of Tom and Myrtle’s apartment situated in the uptown area of
Harlem, and an extremely posh suite in the Plaza Hotel that is situated beside the Central Park.
Long Island of Gatsby is also broken down into two extremely wealthy towns that are
situated opposite to each other, across a bay that is the West Egg, home to people with newly
acquired wealth. The East Egg, on the other hand, was the home to previously established
families who were inherently rich. Thus, West Egg is the home to Gatsby and his neighbor-
friend Nick Carraway, while the East Eggs’ red and white Georgian Mansion was the home to
Tom Buchanan and his lovely wife Daisy. The Queens version of the novel also shows how the
garage of George Wilson and the road right adjacent to it serves as a bridge between Manhattan

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LITERARY ANALYSIS OF THE SETTING IN “THE GREAT GATSBY” AND “PAUL’S
CASE”
and Long Island. In the same light, time as a setting is extremely significant for the novel as “The
Great Gatsby” is set in the summer of 1922, also known as the era of Roaring ’20s or the Jazz
Age. 1919 saw the end of World War I, along with the massive toll in the number of deaths
accompanied by the horror of trench warfare that stood as an extremely stark contrast to the
images of glorifying war and the bravery of soldiers. The years that followed the war in America
were named the Roaring 20’s as the country saw a sudden increase in the economy, along with
the growing influence of the States as a foreign influence.
The historical timeline of America showed the occurrence of a number of events during
the 20’s such as the prohibition of alcohol, introduction of women’s voting rights, and the
increase in the production and ownership of cars. The choice of season is interestingly summer
as numerous times the novel assigns a new meaning to summertime and hence establishes a
certain amount of contrast with the rest of the seasons of the year- the contrast at times extends to
itself. Again it is noteworthy that summer is considered to be a symbol of life, vigor, and a sense
of rebirth as Nick talks about summer with its traditional connotation –“And so with the sunshine
and the great burst of leaves growing on the trees- just as things grow fast in movies- I had that
familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer (Fitzgerald, 1995).”
Nevertheless, Jordan complains about summer for it being unfavorable to the potential of
positive changes than comes with fall – “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall
(Fitzgerald, 1995).” This difference in the attitude towards summer is of extreme significance as
it portrays one of the most important characteristics of the novel, the hope to move forward but
fighting against the past that only anchors and pulls us back. However, the readers witness
Nick’s gradual decrease in his affinity towards the disappointment of summer days that he

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LITERARY ANALYSIS OF THE SETTING IN “THE GREAT GATSBY” AND “PAUL’S
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spends in the Long Island, and his growing association with the winter of Midwest that brings
with it a sense of being wholesome and good.
The Valley of Ashes as serves as a symbol and a setting that becomes the sight of the
climatic event in the novel. It is an object, that is concrete, and represents an abstract idea that is
intrinsically connected to the various themes of the novel. This place is also significant as it is
dropped from the list of the cutthroat world that defines the capitalistic nature of the East Coast.
The Valley of Ashes is both literally and figuratively that fallout of the East Egg and the West
Egg.
The function of setting in “Paul’s Case”
Willa Cather, in her story “Paul’s Case,” uses various settings in order to demonstrate
how setting functions in affecting the behavior of the protagonist. As the story begins with Paul
being assessed by the faculty of the school,the reader gets to have the first glimpse of the
character of Paul. He is shown to be an illustration of the environment around him. He is restless,
defiant in nature, and ostracized. He is also shown to be repulsive of the authoritarian and
institutional character of the school. He does not display any remorse for lying and
inappropriateness of behavior. This setting is also useful to bring out the hostile atmosphere that
envelops the central character of the story – “His teachers felt this afternoon that his whole
attitude was symbolized by his shrug and his flippantly red carnation flower, and they fell upon
him without mercy, his English Teacher leading the pack (Rosowski, 2017).”
This behavior of the faculty only increased Paul’s sense of hostility towards school as
well as authority. The only place that is capable of providing a sense of being comfortable is
Carnegie Hall. The grandiose of theatre performance is an outlet for him that brings him

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LITERARY ANALYSIS OF THE SETTING IN “THE GREAT GATSBY” AND “PAUL’S
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immense pleasure – “He is always considerably excited while he dressed, twanging all over to
the tuning of the strings and the preliminary flourishes of the horns in the music-room
(Rosowski, 2017)”. The escape that is available to Paul from the immense bleakness in his life
set in Pittsburg also brings with it a sense of belonging among his fellow actors. However, the
irony lies in the fact that he derives greater pleasure out of being a part of the audience than
being a part of the performance.
The physical setting that follows the previous one is that of his father’s house, located in
Cordelia Street, Pittsburg. Paul is a staunch believer that he has an entitlement towards leading
an immensely luxurious life outside Pittsburg. His repulsion is evident as Cather writes – “The
nearer he approached the house, the more absolutely unequal Paul felt to the sight of it all; his
ugly sleeping chamber; the cold bathroom with grimy zinc tub, the cracked mirror, the dripping
spigots; his father, at the top of stairs, his hairy legs sticking out from his night-shirt, his feet
thrust into carpet slippers (Rosowski, 2017).” Such is Paul's hatred towards the setting, that he
imagines his father mistaking him for a burglar and shooting him dead. The reason behind the
strong repulsion is Paul being misunderstood by father and being abandoned by his mother on
her death.
The most impactful setting in the story of “Paul’s case” is the setting of New York City.
The sense of greed and self-destruction becomes the ultimate reason for his death. Being shut out
of school, and Carnegie Hall, he seeks various ways of temporary forms of self-gratification in a
new city. Nevertheless, these joys are nothing but short-lived. Once the fuzzy moments of
pleasure pass away like a morning fog, he finds himself being gripped by thoughts of suicide due
to extreme dissatisfaction in life. As the moment of death inches closer to him, he experiences a

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brief flare of life and wants to live. The end of the story makes the character of Paul a tragic hero
(Vanderlaan, 2016).
Thus it is extremely clear evidence that the setting in Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” is
instrumental in influencing the protagonist to a great extent. Every setting adds to another layer
of Paul’s psyche that Cather wants her readers to explore and perhaps sympathize with. The story
of “Paul’s Case” has a stark resemblance with the of the novel J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the
Rye” (1951), where the protagonist finds himself in a very similar situation of immense
psychological turmoil that leads to his expulsion from school. He also goes on to abandon his
home but lingers for some time with his little sister, whom he was extremely fond of. His sister
was the only soul on earth who could fathom some of his pain and fatigue that he used to face on
a daily basis.

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Reference
Fitzgerald, F. S. (1995). The Great Gatsby (1925). na.
Gale, C. L. (2016). A Study Guide for Gina Ochsner's" The Necessary Grace to Fall". Gale,
Cengage Learning.
Hones, S. (2011). Literary geography: setting and narrative space. Social & Cultural
Geography, 12(7), 685-699.
Jiang, J. (2019, July). The Analysis of the tragic reality of The Great Gatsby. In 2019 4th
International Conference on Humanities Science and Society Development (ICHSSD
2019). Atlantis Press.
Rosowski, S. J. (2017). Cather, Willa. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.
Vanderlaan, K. (2016). Having it in Reserve: Secret Love and a Way Out in Willa Cather's"
Paul's Gase" and Ernest Hemingway's" The Three-Day Blow". The Journal of American
Culture, 39(4), 426.