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Society In The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: Theme(s) of social class of the great gatsby

1. One of the outstanding themes of The Great Gatsby is society and the classes that are involved in the society. The overall message about society is not one that is pleasant. Society is thought to be divided based on money and personality -- someone who has more money and the high class attitude is put on the top rather someone with little money and a lower class personality is dropped to the bottom. But within this anaylsis, Nick finds something even bigger than just division. After Gatsby held his extravagant parties “eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before” (39). Gatsby is in one of the higher classes and the lower class, the servants have …show more content…

There is no morality in expecting the lower class to take care of the upper class. Fitzgerald combats the American Dream in this book by taking many different tactics. But as it seems that Gatsby is an example of the American Dream, he started off poor and had to work for his money -- taking 3 years to save up money for his mansion -- he actually isn’t. He did work to the top, but once he got there he lost all work ethic and all morality. “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career – when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior.” (63). At 17 he understood what is was like to be poor and work hard to gain things in life but once he got with Dan Cody and saw the rich life he completely lost that. The worst part is Gatsby isn’t even on the top of the social class, Tom and Daisy are and they have even fewer morals. People like Nick and Mr. Wilson are who are further down the class ranking have more morals but are nowhere near a respectable

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