Socioeconomic Position In Great Gatsby And A Raisin In The Sun

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A person’s socioeconomic position affects his or her American Dream by either facilitating or hindering his or her process of achieving his or her goals, which would in turn alter his or her true American Dream. This range of accomplishment may limit people of a lower socioeconomic position to a humbler American Dream, such as for Mama in A Raisin in the Sun. However, someone’s low socioeconomic position may likewise push him or her to achieve an even more lavish American Dream, such as Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. In the opposite sense, someone’s high socioeconomic standing may satisfy him or herself enough to not desire a form of the American Dream. A person’s high socioeconomic class may also give him or her easier access to achieving an …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, similar themes from A Raisin in the Sun are presented in the sense that each character has his or her own American Dream due to his or her varying socioeconomic status. Originally, Gatsby had a poor socioeconomic status, which motivated him to increase his status with a lavish, over-the-top American Dream in order to please Daisy. When Gatsby confronts Tom, promising that Daisy never truly loved Tom in the first place, Gatsby uses his wealth as a factor as to why she married Tom: “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me” (Fitzgerald 130). This proves that Gatsby was motivated by Daisy’s desire for wealth to justify his lurid American Dream. Daisy, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. Due to her high socioeconomic status, her American Dream remained effortless. To Daisy, a woman’s American Dream in the early 1900s was to get married, have a child, and be the perfect, beautiful housewife. When Daisy hosts a luncheon she has her daughter dress up because Daisy said she “wanted to show you off” (Fitzgerald 117). In this instance, Daisy’s daughter is more of an accessory to the ensemble of the American Dream than a loving addition to the

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