On Thursday, we took a field trip to two very different neighborhoods to look for food. Examine how this experience might influence your understanding of the social stratification in The Great Gatsby (thing the Eggs vs. the Valley of Ashes). Use textual evidence to support your ideas.

Monday Blog Post:

On Thursday, we took a field trip to two very different neighborhoods to look for food. Examine how this experience might influence your understanding of the social stratification in The Great Gatsby (thing the Eggs vs. the Valley of Ashes). Use textual evidence to support your ideas.

I believe that the two trips help us see the huge difference when it comes to how the money within the neighborhoods affect the quality and quantity of food. It helped me understand the visual of how the Valley of Ashes would look. It was hard to image how it was described on page 23, "...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." Also, it was hard to compare it with how it might look today in this generation. Then, we saw the differences with the neighborhoods, and it helped me see the huge differences within the two. It helped me understand how the poor class where put to belong and stay in the poor class while the rich where meant to stay and belong in the rich class. The way the system was set up made it hard for the poor class to get out of the poor class. It truly makes me question the American Dream, and I think this is what Nick questions too. He questions it when he visits the Valley of Ashes. This trip truly made me understand social stratification in the story.