Class Differences In The Great Gatsby

Money can buy everything, except for the circumstances of birth. This fact causes the central struggle in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. James Gatz, despite everything he has earned for himself, cannot buy a higher social class. Nonetheless, he attempts to rise in the world, leading to his love for Daisy, a prominent and wealthy debaunte. This leads him into a competition with Tom, Daisy’s husband, over Daisy, which is ultimately fruitless. Tom has the innate advantages of his class, and these advantages lead to his ultimate victory. Thus, the struggle between Tom and Gatsby is a minute imitation of the greater struggle between old money and new money.

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel, The Great Gatsby. One of the

Marxist View on Contrast Between Social Classes in The Great Gatsby How much money someone possesses influences many factors in their lives. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays this through each character's possessions and affiliations. Upper class characters in the book have lavish lives that are more dependent on material items like their boastful houses. These same characters also tend to act selfishly towards other people and seem detached from their careers, if they work at all. The lower class characters depend more on their relationships and careers for emotional and physical stability, but have less material objects or status to show for it.

The American Dream, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative (American). This theory that was once worshipped throughout America is now nothing more than a myth. The only people that can still live the American Dream are those that have been born into an already prosperous family. The American dream is a dying concept.

In Fitzgerald’s famous novel, “The Great Gatsby”social classes in the 1920s serve as a significant theme, with an emphasis on the differences between old money and new money. Through multiple interactions between characters and decision making, a clear distinction can be drawn between the differences in classes portrayed in the novel. The narrator, Nick Carraway, reflects on how those born into money receive certain advantages and privileges rather than those who are poor, or worked for their wealth, highlighting the unfairness of the social hierarchy. He states this when he expresses that, “a sense of fundamental decency is parcelled out unequally at birth” (Fitzgerald 2). Nick’s observations and opinions only continue to build during the

Money is essential for survival; it can bring happiness, despair, or corruption. It rules our daily lives, is preferred in large amounts, and separates us into different social classes. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a perfect example of this since the class structure within the novel, portrays how money or the need for it can cause corruption in all the different social classes. This is shown through the three distinct classes: old money represented by the Buchanan’s and their self-centered, racist nature, new money represented by Gatsby and his mysterious, illegal ways, and a class that can be called no money represented by the Wilson’s and their attempts at

At the surface level, The Great Gatsby is most renowned for the tragic love story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy. However, despite this popular understanding, it is rare to find an analysis of the underlying reasons behind their failed romance. In society, social class is a commonly used dividing factor that separates people based on income. In a similar way, the main characters of The Great Gatsby are divided into the following social classes; the old money, the newly- rich and the working class. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes social classes to create a distinct line between the rich and the poor, creating a distinct outcome to the novel due to the advantages and disadvantages of each group.

East Egg represents old, inherited money and growing up in a rich family, West Egg represents new money, and working hard to achieve your desires, and lastly, The Valley of Ashes represents poverty and the struggles people face in life, such as struggling to find a way to make a living. These social classes represent the different kinds of people in the 1920’s : rich, poor, and those that work hard to get what they want in life. The different characters in the book, their actions and personalities help to show people’s motives and ways of life during this time. Are social classes similar or different today than they were in the

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.

Due to the East Egg way of life, residents, such as Tom and Daisy, feel pressure to spend their wealth on traditional commodities rather than on modern possessions. This juxtaposes the values of the citizens of West Egg, a neighborhood full of people who have become wealthy off the newly thriving economy of the 1920s. The East Egg occupants share a social stature that they must uphold which thereby enforces an unrealistic expectation to not damage the social rankings of the community as a whole, while the West Egg doesn’t to the same extent. In contrast, the Valley of Ashes, a place of little wealth, resides near the Eggs portraying a lower status, with individuals being influenced by their low social ranking and income. Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Myrtle, and George’s actions, throughout The Great Gatsby, are the product of the implicit guidelines of the social hierarchy implemented by the individuals residing in Long Island and the need to seek attention from

One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country’s richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce,

The 1920s, also known as the Roaring Twenties, was an age of dramatic changes in societal expectations. It was a time of economic progress for Americans, which meant many people from the lower class had the opportunity to earn enough money and improve their position in society. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist in the novel, came from the lower class and thought that his new wealth could win over Daisy Buchanan, who originally came from the higher class. Fitzgerald symbolizes Daisy as Gatsby’s American Dream, or his success and prosperity. This eventually created conflict between the higher and lower class. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the difficulty of upward social mobility due to the rigid class structure, which ultimately resulted in the realization that the American Dream was unattainable to those of the lower class.

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

Myrtle Wilson, a relatively minor character, belongs to the lower classes, expresses a desire to upward social mobility, but is largely prevented from doing so due to her gender. She uses love to acquire wealth and has an extramarital affair with Tom. She is not happy with her lower social status and her husband George Wilson, a representative of the lower classes and a simple man with no grand ambitions, states in the novel: “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in and never even told me about it,” (Fitzgerald 28). Myrtle allows us to look at her accumulation of things, such as the down-town apartment which was “… crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continuously over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles” (Lindberg 16; Fitzgerald 35).