Social Stratification: The Great Gatsby as Social Commentary In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald explores a variety of themes. Power, justice, betrayal, greed the American dream, and so on. Of all the themes, none of them are important than the social stratification In The Great Gatsby social status is an extremely significant element as it divides geographical locations and portrays the mentalities of people in different social classes. The characters in the novel are distinguished by their wealth and where they live. The author distinguishes people in to three social classes – old money, new money, and no money. “Old money”, which is the East Egg, reflects high-class society where the people are wealthy. The people in “old money” feel contempt
The Great Gatsby takes place during a time when there is a great difference between the poor and the rich. The places where people live illustrate their class in society. The characters in the novel portray their social class in their personalities and actions. The theme of social class is important to the character development in Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby.
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.
One of the most prominent themes or messages in the book The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald has to do with the meaningless aspiration for the superlative social class and wealth. This heavy theme is displayed by three ideas including, behavior of entitlement, tangible wealth, and the thirst for acceptance among the prominent.
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
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”(1) This quote from the classic novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott. Fitzgerald is ironic because it’s referencing the upper class judging those of the lower class. However, clearly the theme that remains constant throughout the entire novel is the horrible moral values in people of the upper class. Fitzgerald carefully created each character a certain way to demonstrate various different flaws of the people in the upper class. For example, Fitzgerald uses Tom Buchanan to demonstrate infidelity, cruelty and brutality. Another example used by Fitzgerald is the carelessness, selfishness and
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.
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.
The characters in the novel are distinguished by their wealth and by where they live or work and are separated by different settings within the novel. East-Egg reflects high class society where the people are wealthy, meaning old money. West-Egg reflects low class society. They are also wealthy but are considered new money. The rich seem to be unified by their money.
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.
Social mobility is known as the other American Dream which involves social class and ethnic groups. Social mobility is one that is shifting a social status to another by hard work. It is also primary effect of the American Dream which is that anyone can achieve their success and that anyone is able to have higher social status. Social class, wealth, education and race are factors that can affect one’s ability to achieve success. It is distinct that differences in those factors can affect the opportunities to achieve success and social mobility. In the movie, The Great Gatsby(2013), characters have different opportunities to achieve success and social mobility. Although there are different opportunities for everyone such as race, education, wealth, class and race, it is still possible to achieve social mobility. In order to achieve it, one has to climb social and economic ladder and succeed by hard work.
A social class is a social construct set out to divide us and limit us. However “limiting” has such a negative connotation that it gives social classes so much power over us as a society. A person is born to a social class that will affect their ability to achieve their aspirations in life. For example, If a person is born with a vast amount of wealth their ability to reach their goals will be much easier. However if person is born poor or does not have access to the resources that comes with wealth then that individual’s ambitions will be nearly impossible to make true or sustain forever. In the American novel, The Great Gatsby, the main character Jay Gatsby is the son of two poor farmers.Gatsby being born in a moneyless environment has created
The 1920s marked a time of economic growth and prosperity for millions of people within the United States. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald captures the craze of the Roaring Twenties while exploiting the issues revolving society’s social stratification. Social status not only distinguishes geographic location, but more importantly, portrays the mentalities of people belonging to each class. By creating distinct social classes, F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the prominence of elitism rife within every aspect of society.
In today’s society, social classes are very prominent and some people look down on others if you are not considered “upper class”. This is usually based on someone’s income and their assets they have to determine their “class”. In Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we see the theme of the American Dream and how it begins to become less achievable to most but we see Gatsby as an exception. In the novel, we see class in terms of money, in terms of social status and having a high economic standing..
Fitzgerald reflects social status through many geographical locations in American, and explains them by their traits, lifestyles, and mentalities. Fitzgerald illustrates the class differences in the 1920’s for example, he started with introducing you to the characters of different social classes and describes them in a way they act belonging to one of the class. The Buchanans, Gatsby and the Wilson’s was all great examples of how
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