The Role Of Social Mobility In The Great Gatsby

The “American Dream,” according to Truslow Adams, is “being able to grow to the fullest development as man and woman.” This ideal is not based on fame or wealth, but on enough to sustain a family and live comfortably, with a steadily rising income and a decent home. It is to be believed that hard work along with the “great equalizer”, education, allows individuals the freedom to determine their own life path, regardless of their background. The idea of the American dream ensures upward social mobility for those dedicated enough to achieve this lifestyle. In spite of that, recent arguments have said that this dream is either dying, or already dead. In his book “Dream Hoarders,” Richard Reeves counters that the American Dream is in fact alive and well, but simply being hoarded by the upper middles class.

There is no better example of an accomplished American dreamer, persevering through economic hardships than that of the characters in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby was born into poverty, consequently he didn’t have the same lifestyle or opportunities as, for example, Nick, "..just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." (Fitzgerald) It’s harder to get to the ‘top’ when there is no one to help achieve that goal. This economic setback leads Gatsby to work with the wrong people and he was introduced into the world of corruption. He didn’t have the same advantages that those who were born into wealth had. Dishonest jobs were the easiest way out of poverty, helping him fulfil the materialistic fraction of his American dream.

Thesis Statement: The achievement of the American Dream, represented by social classes and opportunities available for social advancement, is unrealistic. The American Dream is propaganda for capitalism, rooted into the minds of believers that are used for labor. Capitalism’s fixed social classes leave no room for immigrants or for the hopeful to move up towards material success and wealth.

The American Dream is not a function of ability and achievement, but a dying illusion. America is not truly the land of the free, but an ignorant classist society. Gregory Clark, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, stated that “America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England or pre-industrial Sweden … That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility - it 's shattering people 's dreams” (qtd. in Evans). The United States has an incredibly outdated economic system that does not allow disadvantaged citizens opportunities regardless of how hard they work. People get stuck in their social status and are not able to stray out of it, which affects their further generations. Additionally, immigrants coming to America in hopes of prosperity are likely to have even less luck than immigrants of the pass and widen the gap of social inequality. Clark continues to state, “The truth is that the American Dream was always an illusion. Blindly pursuing

Nick Carraway, was a young man who moved from Minnesota, to New York in 1922 to learn about business. He finds a house in West Egg,a district of Long Island, an unfashionable but wealthy are populated by the newly rich, who hadn’t yet established social connections. Nick’s next door neighbor was a young man of named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a huge mansion and throws extravagant parties every night.

Another interesting trajectory that the concept of “The American Dream” can give a key, is the concept of social classes. Social classes that we have today are upper, middle, lower and the working class. “The American Dream” is rewarding those who are hard workers, who have qualities and skills, those people can always reach the top goals. But now days we have people who are working hard, who have skills but they barely make the ends. This shows that material success is very difficult to reach; we have 1% of rich people who have the financial resources to control the rest of people (Schaefer 216).

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 American Dream means that by persistently working hard, one can achieve success; this is in contrast to other countries where the immigrants came from, in which one was either born into money and privilege or not, and if you weren't, there was no way of achieving this success. The American Dream eliminated the barriers between people that social class had held for centuries in Europe. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows the corruption of the American Dream from what it used to be in the past. Not only does Jay Gatsby achieve his success without hard work, but this success is not a matter of being able to achieve just like every other person. His success is just a result of the 'I

The American dream has been alive since the first settlers moved west, and is without a doubt a notion that guides the course of millions of Americans. However, while few actually achieve great wealth and social acceptance, others can merely dream about moving up the class ladder. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, narrates the story of the incredibly wealthy Jay Gatsby and his dazzling love for Daisy Buchanan during America’s roaring twenties. The narrator Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor, gets to witness the chronicles of the millionaire and his circle of careless friends. Fitzgerald incorporates figurative language to persuade the reader about the evident contrast between the miserable poor class and the lavish upper class of New York city.

Why is affluence so significant? It was not always this way. For hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies, personal properties were insignificant or even disadvantageous unless it was food. For the sake of development and standards of life, this had to change. As wealth gained in value, people also lived better, longer lives, but at a certain point, it began to manipulate the society around it. Some may argue that this occurred around the 1920’s in America. The changes of this time were monumental. People were moving to cities in large numbers, the party lifestyle was adopted by men and women alike due to dramatic social change, and the economy was booming, they were not called “the roaring 20’s” for nothing. The large economy enabled people to gain more wealth than ever. A multitude of people, primarily in older generations, did not encourage this lifestyle, finding it fake, licentious, flashy, and unchristian. This disapproval of change is apparent in The Great Gatsby due to Nick’s distaste for the frivolous and gaudy lifestyles of the East and West Eggers and Gatsby in particular. This distaste, also conveyed heavily by the author, is most significantly formed around the iniquitous value of money and adultery. Ergo, In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that Modern America has become irrationally focused upon immorality and wealth rather than the true American values of hard work and faith, which is demonstrated through the motif of the colour

The Great Gatsby, a film released in 1974, based off a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the tragic story of a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby. The movie takes place in America after World War I and allows viewers to observe the social effect of the post-war’s economic growth. In the film, there are several examples of social stratification, symbolic interactionism, labeling theory, gender norms, and the butterfly effect from the characters’ diverse backgrounds and actions.

ap through social classes; poor to elite. Gatsby’s “new money” was something that was shown disdain upon via the “old money” social elites, but this did not stop him from throwing elegant parties. Throughout the story you learn that Gatsby is in love with a married social elite, Daisy Buchanan. As pointed out in my secondary source, Daisy is Gatsby’s ultimate symbol of status. Similarly to the Great Gatsby, the Necklace had character who received a social class leap, even if just for one night.

“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.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is the author of The Great Gatsby. He was born into an Irish Catholic family on September 24, 1896 and he died on December 21, 1940 of a heart attack at the young age of 40. The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick, Carraway, a Midwestern who moves into the town of West Egg on Long Island. He moves in next door to a mansion owned by the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby. The story takes place around 1922. Nike was a traveling bond salesman. There are many themes of this novel. One could be the social stratification and how important money is them. Another theme could be whether the book is a comedy or a tragedy. I think the main theme in this book is the social stratification. Gatsby has invented his entire life to pass off as someone from a higher class. The main characters are Jay

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