Examples Of Social Inequality In The Great Gatsby

Throughout the classic The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the rich and the poor are constantly juxtaposed against each other. The rich as ployed as being colorful and full of detail, while the poor is described as being "ashes" in a "desolate" landscape. This juxtaposition of the rich and poor makes it clear to the reader that Fitzgerald wanted the distinction to be blunt. Fitzgerald adds this distinction because he wants the reader to understand that the rich and the poor lead completely different lives. The rich are described in elaborate colors and detail because the they live lavish lifestyles. The rich own extravagant mansions, expensive cars and hydroplanes, and lead exciting lifestyles. On the contrary, the poor are described in

     Throughout “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald characterizes the citizens of East Egg as careless in some form. This relates to the prominent class issue seen all through “Gatsby.” It seems as though Daisy and Tom almost look down upon others. At one point in the book, Nick says “in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.” It is because of their belief of superiority that they deem themselves better than other and allows them to live so carelessly.

As a society, America has created certain ideas and stereotypes of each class including the citizens within them. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses around the superficial communities of West and East Egg, and their misconceptions of one another. The citizens of East Egg, such as Daisy and Tom Buchanan, frown upon the up-and-coming men of West Egg. This includes Gatsby, who dreams of the riches they take for granted. Gatsby, who obtains his money through dishonest means appears villainous, unsuccessfully attempting to join the wealthy and elite society of East egg. However, there may be more to Gatsby's story. As Nick, the narrator, says he is “worth the whole damn bunch put together”(154). Through his descriptions and comparison of Tom’s house and Gatsby’s house, Fitzgerald reveals the true nature of the two men. While Gatsby appears to be morally corrupt, in the end he actually has pure intentions, instead it is Tom who emits negativity and is ungrateful for his life.

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (188).

Everyone feels the need to be equal. Everyone wants to be recognized as equal to their peers, and during the 1920s, there was a huge push for equality between women and men in the form of women’s suffrage, with the Nineteenth Amendment extending voting rights to women as well. One 1920’s author, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald in his novel The Great Gatsby, explored gender inequality and how it changed through his characters. In the book, Daisy Buchanan is a wealthy, upper class woman married to an upper class man, Tom. Their life is very stable, since they are both part of the upper class and have financial security. They provide room and board for Jordan Baker, a golf champion who is also part of the upper class, and both Daisy and Jordan represent how the 1920s changed the rights of women across America. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores major changes in society and historically significant shifts in gender and gender norms through the accessibility of the American Dream in the 1920s.

In The novel, poverty has been one of the many themes throughout the book.That the main character and his entire tribe have to go through, and we see how devastating and just awful poverty is and can be on an individual and community, for example “ And he didn't know that all Indian families are unhappy for the same exact reason: the freaking booze.” We see how poverty has crushed hope on the reservation: how alcoholism is everywhere, a condition that leads to tons and tons of senseless death.Thereby The most significant theme in the books is poverty. In the novel poverty affects kids that don’t have the resources which affect their ability to succeed, which is not the case for kids at Rearden.The kids at rearden are well of and can eat at

Have you heard what McDonald’s employees’ are asking customers now days? Can you afford fries with that? According to the economist Emmanuel Saez, income inequality has been increasing steadily since the 1970s, and now has attained levels not seen since 1928 (Desilver). So what exactly is income inequality? Most of the time when people talk about income inequality, they usually are discussing the startling growth of the exceptionally rich, the stagnant salaries and diminishing prognoses of the American middle class, and the substantial amount of people at the base of the ladder (Zakaria).

In The Great Gatsby, all the characters are, in one way or another, attempting to become happier with their lives. The characters in the novel are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class(West egg and East egg) though the main characters only try to make their lives better, the American dream they are all trying to achieve is eventually ruined by the harsh reality or life.

Money is the most important creation in human history. It is the key factor in the creation of modern society: the people with more money are the elite and the ones with less, the plebeians. In “A Critical Social Work Response To Wealth and Income Inequality”, Christine Morley and Phillip Ablett argue that money affects people’s social class and their interactions with others. This is evident in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, through the relationship of Tom and Gatsby. People inertly judge others based on their wealth because they have this mentality instilled in them through their education. Education, as Ablett and Morley argue, is, in fact, the root cause of social inequality.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s use of exposition to illustrate the superficiality and flaws within Gatsby and Daisy conveys his disapproval with classism, and the letter to his daughter extends his hope for societal reform. When Gatsby insists that Daisy leave Tom to marry him, Daisy firmly postulates, “Rich girls don’t marry poor boys” (Coppola). Fitzgerald elucidates the social stratification in West Egg through Daisy’s love for materialistic items and her reluctance to marry Gatsby. Daisy is a token of the social trend to gain material and represents the twentieth century misconception

The essence of The American Dream has always surrounded the definition of greater social status. Whatever else Americans value at a certain time, it has always been because of wanting a higher social status. Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man of newly found wealth, strives for this dream of greater social status through love and societal image in numerous efforts during the novel. Another character with the same dream exists in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Walter, a man who tries to achieve greater social status by first trying to be successful economically but then shifting to trying to have good stance in his family. Gatsby doesn’t achieve his dream of a higher social status as he dies without the love of Daisy and without a legacy after his death while on the other hand, Walter somewhat achieves this same dream because although his liquor store never becomes reality, he does what is best for his family by making decisions that demonstrate his care for them.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of “The Great Gatsby” argues that surroundings dictates personality as well as social status through the comparison of the novel’s setting to the characters in different social standings. Throughout the novel, different regions of 1920s United States are shown to have an important effect on the persons, having them correspond with social mobility. This is proven by West Egg, Long Island and Gatsby, East Egg with the Buchanans and George Wilson in the valley of ashes.

In social injustice, there are the oppressors and there are the oppressed. Such is the case in the world of The Great Gatsby, where gender norms shape the dynamic of all romantic relationships. Men/Husbands are expected to be violent and commanding, and their wives are to stay quiet and happy. Male characters see opportunity in this construct -- they use it to their advantage or as a way to establish power and a reputation. Gatsby, born poor, falls in love with Daisy’s money before he falls in love with her- he wants both his fantasy about Daisy and his fantasy about money and glamor to come to fruition. When Daisy marries Tom, her glamour and wealth pass on to him instead of Gatsby, who has to find wealth independently. Daisy’s reputation

“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