Social class is a division of society based on economic standing. During the 1920’s social class had a huge impact on the way relationships were formed. The social class in the 1920’s were divided into many groups. The upper social class was divided into old money and new money. These signifiers polarized the groups and created differences in lifestyles. Each group played a role in the forming of social class expectations. The expectations that set the group aside from the rest. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, relationships and social class always clash with each other because societal expectations cause one class to be more distinctive than annoying. Characters in The Great Gatsby like Myrtle, George, Daisy, Tom and Gatsby each had their relationship built or broken on the main factor of social class.
Gatsby and Daisy are taking part in a love affair with out Tom knowing. Gatsby is explaining to Tom why Daisy married Tom insisted of him. Gatsby says,“ She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me”( Fitzgerald 130). Tom and Gatsby are arguing at the hotel on who Daisy loves. As they are arguing Gatsby expresses the reason why he thinks Daisy married Tom in the first place. He needs reassurance that the only reason why Daisy married Tom was because of money and the social status he carried and not out of love. He dreams of a perfect life with Daisy and without a part of his American Dream is not complete. Daisy is the only way Gatsby’s dream can come into reality by becoming an upper-classman, having his true love, and erasing the fact that he was born into lower class. This makes Gatsby vulnerable to Tom because Tom knows that Gatsby can never be on the same social level. Gatsby and his parents are not very close because Gatsby thinks their social status is embarrassing. He pushes them away drawing a line between them. “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people -- his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents” (Fitzgerald 98).The character of Gatsby was a man of great aspirations who was waiting for an opportunity to move up in society. He reinvented himself the day he met a wealthy business man named Dan Cody. When introducing himself
He portrays that they only loved each other for the money they had to offer. Their marriage was based on their class type, and not what their love means to each other. Since they were both wealthy, Daisy considered of marrying Tom, since they were both in the same class. She had a love interest for Gatsby, but Gatsby was poor. This lead Daisy to fall for Tom. Gatsby did everything, including illegal activities, to regain Daisy’s love. However, Daisy still loved Gatsby, but was impatient to wait for him to become a wealthy
Gatsby has everything that he could wish for, except of love. Gatsby tried everything he could to achieve Daisy, but failed to do so. Gatsby always thought that Daisy actually loved him and that he was very close to achieving her. One time Gatsby showed Daisy all of his luxuries in the house. Daisy was impressed by how rich and wealthy Gatsby has become as time passed. Daisy says “never seen so many shirts like these” (87). This quote shows how Daisy likes materialistic things. Gatsby worked hard on his dream unlike Tom. Tom Buchanan who is the husband of Daisy has no purpose and goal in his life except his affair with Myrtle. He never really loved Daisy. On the other hand when Gatsby showed all of his English shirts Daisy begins to cry and they plan their future plans of meeting each other. We can see how Daisy is attracted to Gatsby simply because of his wealth. She loves Gatsby but she loves his money more then she actually loves him. This goes to show how people’s mentality worked in the 1920’s. Daisy, Gatsby, and all other characters live a very superficial life. Gatsby wants to achieve Daisy by the means of fortune and how Daisy is attracted to Gatsby because of his wealth.
In this way, Daisy rebels against Tom’s infidelity by using Gatsby to get back at him. However, Daisy has never considered leaving Tom, even though all this time she knows that Tom has been having an affair with another woman. The main reason why is because Daisy longs for the love, financial stability, and the practicality that Tom can provide for her, and she knows that Tom would never leave her for the simple reason that they complete each other, with Daisy giving Tom increased social status by being from the higher class and an attractive wife, while Tom gives Daisy the stability that she needs in her life.
Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, there is a constant theme present: social class. Fitzgerald makes a connection between the theme of social class, and the settings in the novel for example The Valley of Ashes which is described as a “desolate area of land” (p.21) and a “solemn dumping ground” (p.21) which is where the poor people live. The Valley of Ashes is situated between West Egg and New York, West Egg being the place where the aspiring classes are situated, which is the “less fashionable of the two” (p.8), this is where Gatsby lives. West Egg is the place of ‘new money’, Fitzgerald shows this by the idea of the main character Jay Gatsby, rumoured to be selling illegal alcohol (prohibition) which means he is quickly making vast
Social classes are truly like a ladder, but that final step is by far the most difficult. Trying to become the most powerful, and successful person around it an almost impossible task, which very few will ever achieve. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby spends his entire life attempting to climb the social ladder, in order to win back his young love, Daisy Buchanan. The novel makes a naturalism argument stating that no matter how hard you try, and how much you think you’ve achieved in your life, you will most likely never be able to rise from a lower social class.
Daisy finds out that Gatsby achieves his wealth by bootlegging and questionable activities which scares her. Daisy chooses Tom to have a normal, pampered life, she is afraid that she could get hurt if she got intertwined in Gatsby’s business. In this passage: “Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table...He was talking intently across the table at her, and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement. They weren't happy...and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said they were conspiring together.” it is believe that Tom and Daisy are talking about their plans for what comes next and moving out west, as they then leave shortly after. This shows that Daisy would rather have a comfortable, safe marriage, rather than be with someone she loved and constantly have the fear of being at
Class structure in the 1920s was synonymous to prejudice. The 1920s was known as a period of wild excess and great parties with excitement arising from the ashes of the wars in America’s history. It was a period in history where rapid materialism and narcissistic ideals grew uncontrollably, and it was the days where Jay Gatsby, illegally, rose to success. Having social classes was the same as segregation, except it was through economic standings, the two both instil injustice within social standards. Class structure was used to describe the difference between the new money and old money. The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, written during the 1920s, emphasizes the division between the social classes and the reasons behind why they
The book the Great Gatsby starts off, portraying Gatsby as some mysterious, wealthy businessman who is above all. As the story progresses, that mysterious feeling wouldn’t shake. He was desperate for money after Dan Cody’s death, but it always seemed that the money wasn't for himself. Every weekend, people would just show up to his house and just use him for his possessions. Class can be changed but it’s not always better, in the end Gatsby's wealthy didn’t help him achieve his desire to win over Daisy, and left him with Nick as his only real friend.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the finest American authors of the twentieth century wrote The Great Gatsby during the Jazz Age to critique the distortion of the American dream, and his work has lasted long past his lifetime. Fitzgerald discusses the nature of love and wealth and stresses the importance of defining a person beyond their external position. In his novel, letter to his daughter, and the screenplay adapted from the novel, it is clear that F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes exposition, narration, and imagery to illustrate how people in the 1920s did not understand the meaning of true love and worried about superficial characteristics, thus resulting in the corruption of the American dream from the pursuit of true love and equality to the pursuit of wealth and discrimination; however, he moralizes that human beings are capable of emotional growth and of escaping the illusion of wealth.
Fitzgerald, in his sarcastic novel The Great Gatsby, frequently shows how racism and classism seriously influence the possibilities of achieving American dreams in obscure methods. The novel details Gatsby’s achievements and dream including Daisy, and makes comparison with other people in different races and classes indirectly but visibly. The fact that, though Gatsby is much wealthier than those in East Egg, he has never achieved the American dream, never owned Daisy truly and never acquired respect, but rumours, due he isn’t born in high class and makes money through bootleg. To some extent, the miserable end of Gatsby is the reflection of the disparity of classism. Gatsby’s mansion reminds people of the feasibility of making the American dream come true. However, his unexpected death that is not caught by police, but killed by Wilson, a white man in mid class, proves that it is related to races and classes closely. Fitzgerald takes us into the suffering of Gatsby to show us that the American dream is like a shell company, which makes everyone look forward to their future with great expectations, but only certain people can truly reach it because people are not standing on the same starting line.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the extremely wide wealth gap in America, as well as the unfair advantage that the rich have over the poor. Fitzgerald uses the setting and the characters within the novel to comment on the importance of social class and wealth during the 1920’s.
Class structure in the 1920’s seemed to be very divided. The famous author F. Scott Fitzgerald, is especially known for his overview of the kind of society that was the 1920’s.Many references are made through his character, the separation of living places, and the amount of wealth that each character upholds. Within Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby,” he centers his story line to outline how the social class was viewed in the 1920’s.
Working classes try to climb social ladders and impress and fit in with upper classes throughout the novel. Gatsby is always throwing large, immaculate parties that are attended by all types of
“I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” (2). So speaks Nick in the beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This exemplifies how people born into different social classes are not born with the same character and ethics. Since people from different classes think so differently, this may cause conflicts between them and might prevent them from having substantial relationships with each other.
The Roaring Twenties, or the Jazz Age, was a period characterized by post-war euphoria, prosperity, profligacy, and cultural dynamism. There were significant changes in lifestyle and culture in the 1920s; many found opportunities to rise to affluence, which resulted in groups of newly rich people, such as the hero of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby. Set in this booming era, the novel portrays the lavish and reckless lifestyle of the wealthy and elite. With the aristocratic upper class in the East Egg and the nouveau riche in the West Egg, people are divided into distinct social classes. Contrasting the two groups’ conflicting values, Fitzgerald reveals the ugliness and moral decay beneath