Examples Of Social Class In The Great Gatsby

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

The main, reoccurring theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is the theme of society and class. Three separate social classes are portrayed in the novel: “old money,” “new money,” and the lowest class known as “no money.” The “old money” class refers to those who come from families that have fortunes. “New money” families are those who made their money in the Roaring Twenties and often lavishly display their wealth. In the novel, the growing tension between the “old” and the “new” money classes are shown through Gatsby and Tom’s struggle over Daisy. The novel’s narrator, Nick Carraway, begins the novel by sharing advice his father gave him when he was younger: do not criticize others because “all the people in this world

Coining the term ‘Jazz Age’, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, a modern American writer, has skillfully portrayed the social status, and class of the Post World War I Americans, their illusive pursuit of ‘American Dream’, their luxurious and careless life style in the mode of high class society etc. in his brilliant masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. The novel is the underlying commentary regarding the ascending of the social ladder, the causes behind this, the pursuit of material wealth, how it is associated with racism and sexuality, and the reaction of the consequences. It is found in the novel that the narrator is merely a witness in a character-oriented story, and the characters do not portray the real people, but rather present the cultural and economic state in a class-based materialistic, extravagant, disillusioned, and racist American society. Fitzgerald, in characterization, divides society into various groups defined by wealth and social status and makes a queer relationship between money, love, and sex through the thematic lens of social stratification and ethnic approach.

Fitzgerald points out that the American dream is damaged. In the novel Gatsby’s father reveals to Nick that his son was intent on improving himself and his station in life. In the years after Gatsby loses Daisy to Tom, Gatsby dedicates his every effort to trying to woo Daisy. This dream is corrupted between the relationship of Gatsby and Daisy. Daisy is the symbol of all that Gatsby strives for; her voice is full of money, as Gatsby describes it. Her voice was "full of money-that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song in it" That Gatsby was able to rise from poverty to an affluence rivaling Tom’s was the personification of the American Dream. What Gatsby discovers is that his wealth, his attempts to master some measure of sophistication and taste-even his exemplary service in the army- are not enough, Fitzgerald satirizes the upper class’ distinction not only between the rich and the poor but also between new money and old money. In the words of Tom, Gatsby is “… Mr. nobody from nowhere.” There is no compassion in Daisy, just as there is none in cold, hard cash. Daisy's dream is corrupted by wealth because she is caught up with Tom's wealth and Gatsby's

Social class plays a role in The Great Gatsby for the sense of fundamental decencies being parceled out unequally at birth. There’s a difference from being born into the money and working to be in the money shown between West Egg and East Egg. Gatz dreamt of being successful and rich, doing anything to achieve such status. Which inevitably leads to his fall for his dream of falling in love threw his life away and kills him. Social class between people is the division of where in society you stand, this division shows the unequal decencies presented by the rise and fall of Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920’s. This story is set on Long Island, New York, about a man Jay Gatsby who tries to repeat the past and rekindle his love with a woman named Daisy Buchanan. His affair with her, and many efforts to impress her ultimately do not act in his favor. There are three different social classes in the book, East Egg representing inherited wealth, West Egg representing new and earned wealth, and finally the Valley of Ashes representing poverty and struggle. All of these social classes help to portray the different kinds of people in the 1920’s.

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.

Rising into high social status and wealth, does not exempt Gatsby from the brutal and effort filled reality that applies to lower and middle class

Through the repeated use of the word “money“, Fitzgerald develops the theme of the division between social classes, in the novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald portrays the differences between the classes of old wealth and new wealth, as well as the impecunious class. Upon moving to West Egg, Nick Carraway describes the volume of books he bought for his new home as “gold like new money from the mint” (8). With gold representing old wealth, this juxtaposition with new money symbolizes Nick’s desire to become a part of the new wealth, through old wealth’s secrets, “that only Midas and Morgan and Mæcenas knew” (8). Nick has aspirations of new wealth, but Jay Gatsby is the epitome of this lifestyle.

The great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald is a book about different social classes that existed in the early 1900s. Story told by Nick Carraway describes the success of working class men, Gatsby becomes an honored man in society, living across the bay from East egg and setting parties every night as he chases his dream, getting back with his ex. Fitzgerald uses utilizes motifs, point of view, geography and symbolism and characterizations to develop understanding of how society was fixed based on wealth and there was no area of growth.

In conclusion, The Great Gatsby theme of class and society was dealing with Gatsby who wanted to be part of the upper class and be one of the rich and to getting the love of his life, which is Daisy. The “old money” were going against Gatsby and he couldn’t achieve one of his goals. He had got the money he wanted but his dream of having Daisy didn’t happen because and “old money” killed him before he could get her. The upper class was against everybody and eventually destroyed the society Tom and Daisy killed Gatsby, Myrtle, and George and didn’t care and just ran behind their money.

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has been read and nit-picked by countless high school classes for decades. As with high school, at least the larger ones, there seems to be a distinct split in “classes”. There’s your elite, the bottom, and everyone else. In the Great Gatsby, there is a clear distinction and sometimes not-so-clear commentary on each. There are the rich elite, split even further on lines of old v.s. new money, the middle class and the poorer working class. There is also commentary on not only the social classes but the society in which they all lived, 1920’s America.

In the year 1925 the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is a spectacular novel that explores the American civilization in the 1920s. The novel has many themes that highlight the surrounding times. Two of them are class differences and the deterioration of the American Dream.

One of the most realistic social lessons taught in the novel is about social classes and character. The higher a person on the social pyramid, the lower their character. The rich only cared about two things: themselves and money. A prime example of this would include the people that attend Gatsby’s extravagant parties. Not a single person who attended Gatsby’s actually cared about the host, all they desired was his wealth and parties. This becomes evident when Gatsby would have hundreds of guests at his gatherings, but only five people, not including servants, attended his funeral. After Gatsby’s death, Nick phoned people who regularly make an appearance and one guy “implied that he had got what he deserved,” This “gentleman” also “used to

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