Social Stratification The Great Gatsby has many themes, including defective love, wealth, isolation, deception, and compassion. However, the main one that stands out is social stratification, which is how society ranks you based on your wealth. It practically represents that the poor stay poor and the rich get to indulge in their wealth and splendor. During the 1920’s it was very common to party and drink, even though drinking was illegal since January 16, 1919 (Source 3). Gatsby was known for throwing extravagant parties at his mansion. He didn’t always have that kind of money. He almost proves social stratification wrong, that is until the end of the novel when it is uncovered that he earned his money illegally through bootlegging. Al …show more content…
He was love struck for Daisy, and that caused him to do things that an ordinary person wouldn’t do. This defective love is eventually the death of him, literally. Nick is the narrator of the story. He isn’t the most important person in the novel, but he is important to the story line. Without Nick there would be no story. Daisy, Nick’s cousin previously knew Gatsby before she married Tom. The difference between Gatsby and Tom was that Gatsby was poor and Tom was very wealthy. Daisy came from a rich family so her parents approved of Tom just because of his money. They didn’t care about how he treated her or what personality that he had. (Source 2) is a cover of Life Magazine from the 1920’s is a replication of the lifestyle for many people in the 1920's. All they did was party. Tom was definitely one of those people. He partied all the time, and even had an affair with a lady named Myrtle, who had a husband herself. This lifestyle is a perfect example of the 1920’s. This wasn’t uncommon. With all that said, The Great Gatsby is a novel about wealth, deception, isolation, compassion and defective love. Social stratification is the main theme of the novel and it gives
The theme of The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is, the upper class is a very shady set of people who are dishonest and unfaithful. Characters like Nick, Gatsby, Tom and George have twisted views on their own reality due to unfaithfulness and dishonesty. Nick is constantly lied to in the story, for example, Gatsby lied to him about where he got his money. Lies, similar to the one above, give Nick s twisted views on the reality of his friendship. Gatsby has a twisted view on love due to Daisy marrying Tom right after he left for the war.
Partygoers in the 1920’s were the most reckless of them all. They would get drunk or high, they would also have flappers that would dance and the parties were usually huge. An example in the book about how reckless parties were in the 1920’s is at the first party Nick went to he saw “one of the girl in yellow was playing the piano and beside her stood a tall red haired young lady from a famous chorus ,engaged in the song. she had drunk a quality of champagne and during the….song she had decided that everything was very very sad… she was….singing and was weeping it”(55-56).This is a perfect example because she was drunk and was trying to sing but that didn’t really work that great. She and so many other people were like this at parties like
Gatsby bought a car that was so out there. Nick describes the car saying, “It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes…” (Gatsby, pg. ) In the book, it is unknown what Gatsby does for a living but it is suspected that he gets his money through illegal means. He got it through corrupt means.
Gatsby used he's money to host very big parties every weekend which was like the most entertaining thing the people of West egg had. Gatsby did things that could earn him reputation from what people who attend his parties said, such as, he replaced a lady’s dress which got torn at one of his weekend parties with a new dress worth 265$ which when converted worths 3701$. Gatsby hosted his parties for almost the same reason; that is for the people to talk about the party outside the his house which helps him achieve his main goal-to attract Daisy Buchanan-. Tom Buchanan and Mr and Mrs sloan had a drink with Gatsby at his mansion. They invited him over for diner and he accepts to dine with them. After the diner with Tom and Mr and Mrs Sloan, Gatsby hosts a party the following Saturday expecting to see Daisy at the party.
His situation of getting very rich and changing his social class connects to the socioeconomic landscape of the 1920's. In the 1920’s, the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. Eventually, only the middle class could change their social class while the lower class stays the same. Gatsby is an exception, he didn’t belong to the middle class, but he got rich and changed his social class. It's unknown of how Gatsby gets his wealth but he lives in the West Egg, the area of the new money or the area where the newly rich lives.
When Tom had forced him to go to the gathering while Tom was with his mistress, Nick didn’t really seem comfortable to be around Myrtle 's family because they don’t have the money that the rich do. When the accident happened Nick didn’t really want to stop and see what happened because it happened at the gas station where Murtle lived and when he had seen her dead body he didn’t care. He didn’t care about the situation until he had found out the Daisy was driving the
The impact of socioeconomic status can be examined through a myriad of lenses. F. Scott Fitzgerald aims to show the relationship between socioeconomic status and power. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom’s character shows that socioeconomic status is equivalent to power within the novel. Tom puts great pride and emphasis on his socioeconomic status and wealth.
The Great Gatsby is an American novel written by Scott Fitzgerald. On the surface, the book revolves around the concept of romance, the love between two individuals. However, the novel incorporates less of a romantic scope and rather focuses on the theme of the American Dream in the 1920s. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as an era of decline in moral values. The strong desire for luxurious pleasure and money ultimately corrupts the American dream which was originally about individualism.
Daisy was in love with Gatsby, but married Tom because of his wealth and Gatsby was drafted for World War II. In the film, when Gatsby asks Daisy why she didn’t wait for him, she says “Because rich girls don’t marry poor boys, Jay.” In fact, Daisy does love Gatsby but classism was the chasm separating them. Melodramatically, Daisy cries out to Gatsby- I love you now- isn’t that enough?
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, social class is a key theme, as seen by every character having their own distinct class. Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and even Nick are old money, Gatsby is new money, and the Wilson 's are no money. In short, the more money you have, the better off you will be. In the epigraph of the novel, there is a poem by Thomas Parke D 'Invilliers, who is a fictional character created by Fitzgerald himself. This poem is about using materialism to win over the affection of someone, which is exactly what Gatsby tries to do.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald Wrote The Great Gatsby about events and people in his life. “He became well known for “describing in Semi-autobiographical fiction the privileged lives of wealthy, aspiring socialites’”(“Zelda”). The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald brought his own life experiences into his book although it is said that it is just a coincidence. Throughout the Great Depression, times were hard and the book showed the decadence of the time prior to this. Being middle-class with no money is hard on individuals causing them to act out in ways to fit in with the crowd.
In The Great Gatsby, social status is a significant element in the book as it separates the haves from the have nots. However more importantly, social status portrays the personalities of people belonging to different classes. In the end, you are stuck in the class you are born into, and attempting to change classes only leads to tragedy and heartbreak. In The Great Gatsby, there are three main social classes portrayed. These are old money, new money, and no money.
Fitzgerald used Tom as a way for the reader to understand how people could so easily abuse their privilege in society at the time. Due to his wealth and lifestyle, Tom takes it upon himself to abuse the privilege he has to get away with anything he wants. He is described in the novel as, “Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body”. This is exactly what happens throughout the book with his affair with his mistress named Myrtle.
1920’s Class System Throughout Gatsby During the 1920’s there is a major class structure in American society. Class structure is between the rich and the poor, the men and the women, even old money and new money. Fitzgerald portrays the class system to show that people will put others down to make themselve’s feel better, even if they really are not any better than anyone else.
The role of social classes is one of various themes and ideas in the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that has left scholars debating for years. Since the creation of social classes, a social division between both the rich and poor has developed. The upper class is aware that their money places them in a position of power, so they belittle and treat others with no respect. This debatable topic will be supported by the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and other critical essays by Tanfer Emin and Carla Verderame. They all share the same concluding idea that wealth can corrupt the human mind along with society.