Unaware to some, The Great Gatsby not only tells a story, but contains great meaning to those who understand it. Published in 1925, Fitzgerald’s novel holds a myriad of topics and themes that depicts what life was like at that time. One such topic included is the class structure 1920s. During the 1920s, there existed invisible borders that separated people based off their socioeconomic class. Each class had particular attributes associated with people living in them as well as reasons why they are in that specific class. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates characters with specific attitudes and behaviors that generalize the social stratum they are placed in to convey a message about how the American class structure functions. Through …show more content…
The class structure during the 1920s had three primary levels: upper-class, middle-class, and lower-class – each having unique aspects about them. The upper-class lived extravagant lifestyles and could afford anything they wanted without working very often. For instance, when describing Gatsby’s mansion, Nick explains, “with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald 7). In this quote, Nick is describing Gatsby’s house to the reader in order to show how wealthy the upper-class is. The middle-class was comprised of people who had to work to earn acceptable salaries, but had to be wise with how to spend their income because it was not enough to wastefully spend. As illustrated, when Nick brings up what his house looks like, he says, “My own house is an eye-sore, but it is a small eye-sore, and it has been overlooked, so I have a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month” (Fitzgerald 7-8). As Nick describes the appearance of …show more content…
Tom Buchanan is a character that is very controlling and violent: he serves to show the authority the upper-class has over the lower social classes. As an example, when Tom, Nick, and Myrtle are having a party in the apartment, and Myrtle decides to upset Tom, the narrator details, “Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing…whether Mrs. Wilson has any right to mention Daisy’s name. ‘Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!’ shouting Mrs. Wilson. ‘I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai’— Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 41). As shown above, Nick recounts the affair between Tom and Myrtle to the reader. The purpose of this ordeal is to show how Tom symbolizes the controlling and cruel nature of the upper-class. On the other hand, George Wilson is hardworking and loyal to his spouse; these attributes make him lower-class to show how dedicated and devoted people typically are in his social class. Particularly, when Michaelis is talking to George for the first time in the story, the narrator defines, “Generally he is one of these worn-out men: when he wasn’t working he sits on a chair in the doorway and stares at the people and the cars that pass along the road. …He is his wife’s man and not his own” (Fitzgerald 146). As seen
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explores the issues of society and the hierarchy of social class. The three homes belonging to Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway, are all in the vicinity of each other, which illustrates the close proximity of their three lives, and foreshadows how they end up intertwining. Myrtle and George Wilson’s home is between the Buchanan’s and Gatsby’s, in the Valley of Ashes, and eventually comes to represent the failure of the American Dream. The homes in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby represent the different characteristics of their dwellers. Gatsby is a man with a one track mind, while Nick is simple and sensible. The Buchanan 's are unashamedly opulent, while the Wilson 's are poor
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel, the Great Gatsby, during the 1920s. This decade was characterized by economic and cultural change. With the growth of a new class of new money, Americans began to grow tired of the different social standards of the each social rank and attempted to move into a higher class. Fitzgerald focused on this disparity between classes and several class issues, specifically class mobility. In the year 2005, several journalists wrote and published a group of essays known as Class Matters. These essays discuss modern social and economic class structure and associated class issues. An essential theme in each of these novels is class mobility. The Great Gatsby and Class Matters both explore the differences between classes and the lack of class mobility in order and bring attention to the class imbalance.
Chapter 1: Chapter one introduces the reader to the narrator Nick Halloway and most of the other other characters of the story. Including his cousin daisy, her husband tom and their friend jordan - the golfer. Nick comes from a wealthy family; however, doesn’t believe in inheriting their wealth. Instead he wishes to earn his own wealth by selling bonds in the stock market. Chapter one also talks about the separation of the rich. Where the east egg represents the inherently rich whereas west egg represents the newly rich. The people in the east also seem to lack social connections and aristocratic pedigree. Whereas the people in west egg possess all those qualities usually lacked by people in the east.With nick living
The emerging inequitable class systems and antagonisms of the nineteen twenties saw the traditional order and moral values challenged, as well as the creation of great wealth for few and poverty for many. The Great Gatsby, written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, explores the causes and effects of the unbalanced class structures. Fitzgerald outlines the idea that the desire to accumulate wealth and status is a common ambition amongst the lower classes; when that desire is reached, the traditional upper class is challenged by the emerging newly wealthy, which finally leads to destructive consequences. By creating rigid class structures, traditional upper class, new wealth, and the poor in The Great Gatsby, it is shown that the desire to further or maintain socio-economic status leads to immoral behaviour such as criminal activity, adultery, and murder.
Since the beginning of mankind, there is no doubt that society was broken down into millions of groups, otherwise known as social breakdown. Segregation, not only by skin color, and religion, but wealth as well, plays a vast part in the socially broken down society of the past and present. Likewise, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the environment as a whole is socially broken down economically. First and foremost, the two neighborhoods of East and West Egg play a central role in this division of wealth throughout the story, especially in comparison to Nick, the main character, and Mr. Gatsby, who lives next door to Nick. Also, the criticisms Nick faced of his small fortune are expressed several times throughout the story such as
Scott Fitzgerald wrote an amazing novel called The Great Gatsby. Readers are introduced to a slew of themes and symbols that were relevant to the Roaring Twenties. One of the themes that is recognizable in the story is that of social class and how it plays a role in life. Social class in the twenties was very important to people as it determined where a person stood in life. Women also often married for money, as it gave them the quick way to the top. Social class sadly, is still very relevant in today’s society. People are still too consumed with being popular and rich. But what people need to learn is that being rich is not all about who has the most money, but also, who has someone that is willing to watch them as dirt covers his or hers final resting place. Many people have had thoughts about what his or her funeral would be like, and no one wants to be the only one
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald criticises the increase of consumerism in the 1920s and the abandonment of the original American Dream , highlighting that the increased focus on wealth and the social class associated with it has negative effects on relationships and the poorest sections of society. The concept of wealth being used as a measure of success and worth is also explored by Plath in ‘The Bell Jar’. Similarly, she draws attention to the superficial nature of this material American Dream which has extended into the 1960s, but highlights that gender determines people’s worth in society as well as class.
In the novel Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the segregation of the society into different social classes in the 20th century. Fitzgerald uses vivid visualization of the settings of the East and West Egg and Valley of Ashes to represent the environment of the people from both high and low class. He also introduces different characters who eventually reveal their personalities and behaviors towards gaining and maintaining their wealth and power. Additionally, Fitzgerald focuses on the contrast between the “old money”, who are the people who automatically possess great affluence even before they are born, and the “new money”,
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 amounts of money.” Who is this Gatsby anyhow? Some big bootlegger?”(p.86) Gatsby shows off the amount of wealth he has by his fabulous parties and oversized mansion. “There was music from my neighbour's house through those summer nights. In his enchanted gardens, men and girls came and went like moths, among the whispering and the champagne and the stars.”(p.33) Fitzgerald uses the word ‘enchanted’ to paint a visual picture of what the house and the scene looks like, a magical and enchanted castle, with elegant furniture. This is in comparison to East Egg where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live, in a house where “The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside” (p.10). East Egg being the place of ‘old money’ which is made from the inheritance of their past generations, the people who live it East Egg are mainly well educated, historically wealthy and live quite elegantly, but they are also quite ‘snobbish’. Gatsby’s background does not fit into the social standards of East Egg...
“The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the vast social difference between the old aristocrats, the new self-made rich and the poor. He vividly interprets the social stratification during the roaring twenties as each group has their own problems to deal with. Old Money, who have fortunes dating from the 19th century, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The New Money made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth. As usual, the No Money gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving them forgotten or ignored. Such is exemplified by Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan. Their ambitions distinctly represent their class in which Fitzgerald implies strongly about.
Constantly in The Great Gatsby, the incredible amounts of money are shown through the upper classes finery and parties. The upper class in the 1920s had an ample amount of luxuries at their fingertips: alcohol, jewels, elaborate gowns, indescribable foods, mansions, fancy cars, and amusements. In The Great Gatsby this insane amount of
Carraway’s own life story, along with how he met Jay Gatsby and all the events that occured, up
This essay discusses the role of social mobility in Great Gatsby. It argues that not all people can reach the highest social class, this is a class you must belong to from the beginning of life or marry in to. However, the characters are living the American dream which makes social mobility to the other social classes available. The essay addresses the American Dream, the difference in social class between the main characters, and how social mobility is unreachable. There are two frames of values for social mobility in The Great Gatsby.
The "American Dream" supposedly allows everyone to climb the "social/economic ladder," if they wish to do so. Anyone that works hard is supposed to be able to move to a higher class. However, society often prevents social mobility. Social classes dictate who moves to a higher class and who does not. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, this issue was especially prevalent. The rigidity of classes was often an underlying theme in many novels during this time period. For example, The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby both feature the exclusive nature of social classes as a motif. In both The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby, the rigidity of social classes and the desire for social mobility leads to the downfall of several
In his novella 'The Great Gatsby', F. Scott Fitzgerald presents class as a personal and definite thing, illustrating how attempts to change your class will lead to tragedy. Jane Austen, in her novel 'Pride and Prejudice', uses class as a criticism of society. Her portrayal of class differs from Fitzgerald's as she presents the idea that class restrictions, while rigid, do not determine one's character and can therefore be overcome. Both novels explore their views on the segregation of classes through the circumstances in the time periods they are writing about.