Question

Read the excerpt from The Great Gatsby.

My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month.

Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there.

What message do phrases such as “the consoling proximity of millionaires” and “white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered” convey to the reader?



Everyone in East Egg lives in a palace.

Financial wealth is desirable to the narrator.

The narrator despises people who live in large homes.

Financial wealth has no relevance in this novel.

Answer 1

Financial wealth is desirable to the narrator.

Answer 2

The phrases such as "the consoling proximity of millionaires" and "white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered" convey to the reader that financial wealth is desirable to the narrator. This can be seen in the narrator's word choices.

"Consoling" means "intended to make someone feel better when they are sad or disappointed". Nick lives in West Egg, the place where people are looked down upon because their money is new money. He does not have enough money to live in East Egg, where the real rich people live, but he really desires that. When he talks about his place, the adjectives he choses are neutral "small", "partial". Yet, when he describes East Egg, the images are quite positive "fashionable", "glittered".