Class Differences In The Great Gatsby

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.

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

We look back in history in order to learn from our mistakes and to help society progress in the present and in the future. “The Great Gatsby” was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. Fitzgerald wrote this piece during the 1920s after WWI and it perfectly replicates the time period. The narrative captures the essence of the Jazz Age by depicting characters, showing power struggles and by defining the societal conflicts of the time. The novel tells us about different influences on the 20’s such as the Prohibition Act, the success of Wall Street, and aspects of the American Dream. “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald possesses the social constructs and ideas of the Roaring Twenties.

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.

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,

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

There are several social classes referenced in The Great Gatsby. There is a distinction between the wealthy who live in West Egg, and those who live in East Egg. People who were born into wealth reside in East Egg, while people who were born into a lower class but were able to become rich by their own means reside in West Egg. While the “old” money and the “new” money are similar in terms of wealth alone, they are completely separate classes. People from old money often dislike those from new money and see new money as beneath them because they had only acquired their money recently. Tom, Daisy, and Jordan are part of the old money class, while Gatsby and Nick are new money. Meanwhile, Myrtle and Wilson are part of the lower class. The rift between the ideals of the different classes is evident through the observation of the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy, as well as the relationship between Tom and Myrtle.

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

Another contrasting value between the East Egg upper class and the West Egg new rich is