Society and Class in The Great Gatsby

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.

In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the dichotomy of the established upper class of the East and the nouveau riche from the Midwest with the two areas of East Egg and West Egg. The novel's characters were obsessed by class and privilege. One reason Tom and Daisy would be considered part of the wealthy class would be because of his parents. Tom and “his family were enormously wealthy” (6). Tom came from a wealthy, established family, and was a much-feared football player while at Yale. The wealthy class includes those high society families who have been rich for generations. These extremely wealthy people live off the income from their inherited riches. Another reason Tom and Daisy would be considered an example of the

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the West Egg consist of two main characters, Jay Gatsby and Nick Caraway, both who want to obtain the American Dream. The American Dream consists of an aspirer of a lower social class hoping to acquire the utmost wealth to become similar to those of East Egg. Furthermore, East Egg subsists of “old money,” a population of a high social class of people who don’t strive to achieve wealth like the West Eggers. The contrast of the two sides is evident as the characters of West Egg are portrayed as wed to the vitality of the American Dream.

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.

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.

In the period of the 1920’s, there was a certain status of wealth that was difficult to achieve. There were two societal classes consisting of those with wealth from prior generations, and those who worked to earn it themselves. Tom, Daisy, and Nick, who represented the old money society did not have to work hard, unlike Gatsby which he represented the new money and they had to work to earn money. People like Gatsby, who gained their wealth on their own often fought for the approval from the upper class who inherited their wealth. Rather than having new money and old money, people who tried achieving the American Dream and ended up in failure usually they end up like George and Myrtle Wilson In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the notion that social norms in the upper class depict the idea that being apart of it was impossible unless they were born in it was expressed through Daisy’s rejection of Gatsby because of the corrupt way in which he gained his wealth, making his American Dream unattainable.

"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.

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,

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

Rich and upper class live in East and West Egg and poor, almost peasant appearing individuals live in the valley of ashes. Fitzgerald making these living arrangements almost mocks at how vulgar Marxists believe working classes will keep the superstructure together. These working class individuals are portrayed throughout the book as being hardworking and looked down on by upper class. In the book Tom walks into George’s shop and talks down to him about buying the car and even makes passes at his wife as soon as he leaves the room. In other parts of the books as Daisy and Jordan Baker are mentioned they are always lying around, at luncheons or attending parties, and trying to find activities to do. The upper class characters are being supported by working class or people they can merely pay. Gatsby is rejected it seems from both upper and working classes. Daisy rejects him because of how he came into his money and when they were younger because of his social class. Tom rejects anyone in the book because of social status, looks, education, wealth, and even his wife; he rejects Gatsby for being inferior in many of these ways. Gatsby is rejected by working classes because he has money and nice possessions, which they can not afford.

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.

Social stratification is depicted in the film through the different classes of characters. These characters are in one of three classes; old money, new money, and no money. Tom, Daisy, and Jordan are in the old money class because they have inherited their families’ wealth and status. Gatsby is in the new money class because his family is not inherently wealthy. Myrtle is in the no money class because she does not have status or wealth. The old money class believes themselves to be the elite and the most refined, therefore those in the new money class will never be viewed as their equals because they have not been born with status. In the portrayal of Tom’s affair with Myrtle, he acts as if he is above her because of his social standing. Gatsby asks Daisy why she didn’t wait for him and married Tom. She replies, “Rich girls don’t marry poor boys, Jay Gatsby.” This reinforces the idea that those in the old money class believe themselves to be the elite