Examples Of Social Class In The Great Gatsby

In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald analyzes the different social class in America, specifically New York, to demonstrate how they are intertwined and one’s action can affect another. The interaction between people of different classes has not been witnessed in any civilization or country to such scale. This interaction is found to be harmful to the lower class while benefiting those in the higher class who exploit the perks of their status. Considered to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy, the people in the valley of ashes are working daily to move up from their status and achieve this American Dream. The efforts of these people are hindered by those of higher status who can do what they want, but never pay for their actions and this is

In “The Great Gatsby” class structure of the 1920s is portrayed through the wealth of the characters. Class structure in the 1920s as we know it was a social status. That is why things ended so abruptly. There are two major levels to how class structure became a conflict in the 1920s. The rich, and the poor.

Funerals are usually seen as either the celebration of life or the remembrance of a loved one for the family involved. However, funerals are more about judgement than anything else. They are a way to evaluate the one who passed. The expense, ceremony, and number of guests all reflect the impact and perceived value of the person. That is why the funeral scene in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is particularly revealing to the narrator, Nick Carraway. It shows how others think of Jay Gatsby and how few people actually care about him. One notable absence is Gatsby’s lover, Daisy Buchanan. Throughout Gatsby’s life, Daisy is one of his main motivators. It is his love for her that drives him to become rich and

Appearance Paul Fussell discusses the way the social classes are set up and how to determine who belongs to which social class. He argues that the way you present yourself and the things you own can prove your class to other people. According to Fussell, many times members of the upper class come off as clean and neat, and they have large and expensive things that most people don’t have. He says “When you pass a house with a would-be impressive facade from the street or highway, you know it’s occupied by a member of the upper class” (Fussell 31). In other words, when you see a huge and expensive looking house, you can already tell that it belongs to an upper class family.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story that highlights the life of the wealthy through the eyes of the narrator Nick Carraway. These highlights show off many of the great themes that are presented throughout the book. One of these themes is social class, and how it affects society and people. Social class is shown throughout the story, this is shown through the countless remarks about new money, old money, and the working class and the differences between them all. The story shows how being in a different social class can affect how many view and treat others.

Fitzgerald uses the setting of New York to emphasize the different social classes in the 1920s. By doing so, the reader understands the various social classes that existed during this time. For example, Gatsby, Nick, Tom, and Daisy existed within the upper-class. On the other hand, Myrtle and Wilson are in the lower-class of society. During the 1920s, especially in large cities such as New York, various social classes existed in a relatively small area.

The 1920s brought about extreme change in the way the average American lived their lives, both socially and politically. Immigration, industrialism, and the economy boomed, creating abundant wealth among Americans through new job opportunities. Over time, social class structure was established, bringing fluctuations in the distribution of wealth among the different ranks in society. This period of time, known as the “Roaring Twenties”, is seen in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who uses the characters in the novel to depict the conflict in American society. Gatsby, the central figure of the novel, represents the upper-lower class and attempts to achieve the American Dream, emphasizing the true abilities of lower class citizens. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the restrictions lower class Americans had in their ability to access the American Dream due to the limitations of class mobility towards closed plutocratic societies.

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.

Gatsby Analytical Essay The author for the successful book known The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel. One of the themes is Society and Class. The theme is developed throughout the book by his use of the motif of Parties, mostly happening over at Gatsby’s house. The motif of parties compares Gatsby parties.

"My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month." (Fitzgerald 13). This quote shows Nick describing his house as small, but also talks about how he lives in a rich community with nice views and millionaires, and he feels out of place because he doesn’t have as much money as his neighbors. “One way to look at The Great Gatsby is as a story about a poor boy who makes good, which is to say, a poor boy who becomes rich…” (Michaels). Gatsby works hard and tries to become rich to impress Daisy. Unfortunately in the end, their contrasting social classes do not allow them to be together. “On week-ends, his Rolls-Royce became omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains…” (Fitzgerald 42). Gatsby does a lot of different activities in his young age such as going to parties. Like Tom, he is very rich and has an abundance of nice, expensive things such as cars, but Gatsby does not have as much freedom with his money. "Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you worry,' he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me as if he were alert for something more. “I'd be a God Damn fool to live anywhere else." (Fitzgerald 13). West Egg isn’t as

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.

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).

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.

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