The Impact Of Setting On Wealth And Power

The setting of a novel impacts everything in a story. Settings have a strong influence on the characters’ moods and behavior, they reflect what kind of society the story is surrounded by, and they affect the dialogue of the novel. Without setting, the characters do not have a reason to do anything or care about what is happening. Without setting, there is no story. The setting often amplifies the characters’ emotions. Setting is never merely “scenery.” The two novels, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, have extremely different settings.

A Raisin in the Sun is set in the 1950s in the slums of Chicago’s South Side. The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s in Long Island, New York in “West Egg” and “East Egg,” which are very rich areas. These settings have a great impact on the characters, themselves, and their social status. Characters in A Raisin in the Sun are very poor and have been situated in one place for the entire duration of their lives. Characters in The Great Gatsby are very rich and are free to go anywhere they want and do anything their hearts desire. Because of where the characters in each of the novels are located, their perception of life, their dreams, and their personalities contrast one another immensely. The possession of power plays a large role in where a character is situated. Characters with great sums of money have far more power than those with little to no money. People with little money are not free to do whatever they want or be associated with people with power because they have none. In both A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby, the setting has a great deal to do with the distribution of wealth and power.

In A Raisin in the Sun, the Younger family has been living in the same apartment since they were born. It is very small and cramped, considering there are five people living in it. “Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years - and they are tired” (Hansberry, 23). There are currently three generations of the Younger family living in the apartment. The apartment is not worn down from lack of attention or care, but from being used so many times. “Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room” (Hansberry, 23-24). The Youngers do not have the money to buy new items for their apartment, so they just have to deal with and take care of the ones they currently have to the best of their abilities. The family is even being overcharged for their rent.

Conditions are much better on the Northside of Chicago, but any African Americans who live there face prejudice and hate due to the color of their skin. The houses in North Chicago are much cheaper, but most African Americans do not want to move there because of the challenges and hostility they would face. White society makes it very hard for African Americans to escape the cockroach-infested, cramped, depressing apartments in the Southside. There are no segregation laws at this time, but segregation is still very much present. Much progress has been made by this point in time, but A Raisin in the Sun shows that America still has a very long way to go in order to achieve equality. It is apparent that white power is very much in play during this time. White families have all the wealth and power and do not share it with African Americans. Having wealth and power would make it much easier for the Younger family to achieve each of their dreams. Living in a gloomy apartment makes it hard to be optimistic about each character’s dreams.

After living in the same little apartment their whole lives, it seems as if their dreams have been stepped on like the worn-out carpet on the floor. Figuring out how to spend money is a big problem in this story. Mama’s husband dies, and she receives a check for $10,000. “THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH-” (Hansberry, 128). This money is portraying the worth of an African American man’s life. The worth of a white man’s life would be worth much more due to their wealth, power, living situation, and position in society. Eventually, the Youngers get tired of living in the slums, and decide to use the money to buy a new home in a white neighborhood. Karl Lindner, a white representative of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, offers to buy the house the Youngers are going to move into because he does not want African Americans moving into a white neighborhood. Despite this, the Youngers make the decision to carry forth with buying the house and moving in. They are aware that it will not be easy living in Clybourne Park, but they are willing to take this step in order to better all of their lives. By living here, they will be paying far less money and they may be looked at by other families, both white and African American, as having more power than they originally did. It takes a lot of guts to be an African American family moving into a white neighborhood, and they may gain respect and power from others because of this decision in the end.

In The Great Gatsby, there are two areas in New York known as “East Egg” and “West Egg.” Those who live in West Egg are considered to be “new money” and those who live in East Egg are “old money.” People who live in these areas are very rich and have grand and extravagant mansions. The characters who live here have a lot of free time since they do not have to work and only worry about their social status and gossiping about other rich people. No one really seems to be interested in politics, religion, or race, but rather in the latest drama, parties, and not wearing pink suits. The conflicts rich characters have are with other rich people, but, even among the rich, there are class distinctions. Nick, the narrator, tells the reader about Jay Gatsby, a wealthy man who lives in West Egg. Even though Gatsby is a very popular man and hosts lavish parties every Saturday, no one seems to know how he actually acquired his wealth. Despite his riches, he still lives in the poorer of the two Eggs, which suggests that he is not truly viewed as a member of the social elite. Gatsby is in love with a married woman named Daisy Buchanan, who lives with her husband Tom in East Egg, directly across from Gatsby. This distance is not the only thing that separates Gatsby from Daisy, it is also social class. “But I didn’t call to him (Gatsby), for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone - he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been at the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness” (Fitzgerald, 20-21). Despite Gatsby’s problems, there are other people in New York who have far bigger problems than him. People who live in the Valley of Ashes, the small stretch of land that connects the two Eggs, have many problems with where they are situated. This area is completely covered with ash and dust from nearby factories. “About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald, 23). This area is not actually made out of ashes, but it seems that way because of how polluted and grey it is.

The Valley of Ashes is a dark, dismal, and bleak place that has been used up, just like the people who inhabit it. The oppressed class is always being observed and judged. The Valley of Ashes represents the forgotten members of the lower classes who help the wealthy be rich. These people work every day and what they output creates the boom in industries that supply people in both East Egg and West Egg with wealth and power. Those who cannot make their way to the top are left to rot in the valley along with their past hopes and dreams and with the feelings of loss and defeat. The seasons and weather are also frequent symbols in The Great Gatsby. When Gatsby’s gardener comes to ask him if he can start draining the pool, Gatsby tells him to wait another day. Summer here represents Gatsby’s life with Daisy. Autumn is coming, and even the gardener knows it. “The night had made a sharp difference in the weather and there was an autumn flavor in the air” (Fitzgerald, 153). Autumn is the season before winter, which represents death. Gatsby is still trying to hold onto his dream of Daisy like many people try to hold onto summer for as long as they can. The symbol of rain also foreshadows bad weather and bad feelings in Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship. “The day agreed upon was pouring rain” (Fitzgerald, 83). The sun may come out for a little while in their relationship, but at the end of the novel, it ends in stormy weather. One of the only reasons Daisy could go to visit Gatsby in West Egg was because it was a place Tom would never let himself be seen in. Tom believes he has more power and is better than anyone situated in West Egg, so he stays where his “equals” are. Gatsby may have about the same amount of wealth as Tom, but he will never have the social status or power that Tom possesses.

It is evident that even the people living in the Valley of Ashes have more money than the Younger family, even if they still are poor. Due to characters having more money in The Great Gatsby than in A Raisin in the Sun, they have far more power and influence over others. The Youngers cannot even confront the building owner about being overcharged for their apartment because one, they are African Americans living during a time where there is not equality, two, because of their social status, and three because they do not have the authority or power to do so. The only chance the Youngers have at gaining financial empowerment comes from the $10,000 check. The choices this money allows the Youngers to make are indicative of how much or how little power they truly have. In The Great Gatsby, power is greatly associated with money. How much money a person has is also an indicator of how much power they have in society. “‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood it before. It was full of money - that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…. High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl….” (Fitzgerald, 120).

Due to Daisy’s social position and power, she is free to say and do whatever she pleases. This attitude is reflected in her home in East Egg. The characters who live in East Egg have inherited their wealth from their ancestors. They have always been the cream of the crop. On the other hand, the people who live in West Egg have had to work for their money, whether this be in a fair or unfair manner. To demonstrate their superiority and power, people from East Egg always look down upon those who live in West Egg. “Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside - East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety” (Fitzgerald, 44). To avoid being judged and negatively stereotyped, citizens of West Egg try to act sophisticated and dignified in order to impress members of East Egg. Gatsby’s money is new and on display, and so are all of his possessions in his mansion. His home is new and not rooted yet. Meanwhile, Daisy and Tom’s mansion is extravagant but refined and concealed. The structure of their house and power seems nearly unbreakable. The differences between the homes in A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby are nearly immeasurable because there are so many.

The setting has a great deal to do with the distribution of wealth and power in both A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby. If the Younger family had more money, they would have moved out of their dreary little apartment many years ago. Very few people have the dream of living with their parents in their childhood home for the entire duration of their lives. They especially would not dream of having their own children and raising them in the same space. The Youngers’ situation would also be different if they were white, not African American. If they had a different color skin, it would have made their lives much easier due to the opportunities white citizens had as opposed to the ones people of color had. They would have had better jobs, more chances to make good money, better homes, more power, and overall a better quality of life. Their quality of life may improve because they moved into Clybourne Park, or it could spiral if they do not find a way to overcome the hate and injustice they may receive. The reader is unclear about what conditions the Youngers faced when they moved into a white neighborhood.

All they were told was that Karl Lindner was trying to stop the family from moving in. Karl could be a bad man and the rest of the neighborhood could be decent people. The reader will never know for sure. The only thing they do know is that the Youngers made the best decision they could for their family and their best interest by moving in. If people in East Egg did not have so much power and money, they could have been nicer people. They believe they are completely entitled to anything they want just because of where they live.

This gives them a major boost up the ladder to success, money, and power. Even though the wealthy and powerful characters seem to have no problems and to be carefree, they face just as many problems as the people who live in the Valley of Ashes. Their problems may be different, but this is only because they live such different lives. They all seem to share a sense of physiological despair. This is a common theme in A Raisin in the Sun as well. Even though the characters in A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby’s living situations, wealth, and power differ greatly, they all face similar problems that have nothing to do with social status or class. If the roles were reversed, just imagine how different each story would be.