The Role Of Social Class In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the setting to differentiate the social classes and divisions of the 1920’s in his novel The Great Gatsby. East Egg, West Egg, and New York City are among the most significant settings that exhibit the classes and the divisions between them. Throughought the novel, Fitzgerald consistently alludes that the residents of East Egg are wealthy, while the residents of West Egg are poor. He also displays that social classes are unable to mesh and will always be divided during the altercation at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Money is the king of everything and everyone. It controls everyone on this planet. Money is power and can change the minds of everyone. No one is safe from its influence. It has the power to make things and to remove those things from existence.

The biggest question remaining after the reading of the book is what is Fitzgerald saying about American society? Is Fitzgerald insulting American society? Fitzgerald’s main ideas of American society in The Great Gatsby are about social class and status. The majority of his comments towards these subjects relates to the cars, houses, and money that people have. How does Fitzgerald throw Gatsby into the book?

The first Question is why don 't the wealthy people in The Great Gatsby don’t have a American dream that they can try and achieve? The Answer is because they have all the money they could ever want. Ever dream that they have or had they already achieved it because of the money that they were born with. The next Question is why are the wealthy people in the book hollow why don 't they have feelings for others? The answer is simple, it 's because of the money and how they live.

He doesn’t have a lot of money when he moves from the west out to the east. The house he lives in is a small house but from the moment he moves into it he is surrounded by money by having Gatsby’s mansion next door to his. The first few people Nick goes to see are very rich, thus continuing the trend of Nick meeting rich people. Later in the story Nick also meets Gatsby and gets to know him and is offered a lot of rich wonderful things like spending time with Gatsby in his hydro-plane or having lunch with Gatsby and doing many other things with the rich people in the story, yet while surrounded by all this money and wonderful things he gets more and more involved with the problems of the rich people around him. It gets to the point where Nick gets so sick of it all he ends up moving back to the west at the end of the story.

The Great Gatsby, written by author F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in 1926, discerningly captures the great post-war economic growth in America as well as the distorted worldview of society on social stratification. More often than not, social position and role is based on financial means, however, in reality it involves a combination of upbringing, education, and association, and each individual has a set of duties to face and fulfill. This classic tale is but nothing short of a cynical commentary of the American Dream, exposing its corrupt reality and unattainability, where success is in fact ultimately dependent on one’s position within the social hierarchy. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald affirms that social position and role is

In the history of America, the social class ladder has more or less defined the individuals of the United States. It seems as if social classes define people for who they are, but really it does not. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, social class structure plays a big role in the characters and the novel. Throughout the book, social class structure is present and seems to define the characters for who they are.

Almost every society has class structure: Upper class, middle class and lower class. Usually books from this time romanticized the upper class. They made it seem as though the rich lived perfect, flawless lives which is far from the truth. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he portrays the rich as stuck-up, dishonest and bad people over all. F. Scott Fitzgerald exposes the true depth of racism in the upper class through Tom Buchanan.

The 1920’s was a time where the rich were not afraid to flaunt their wealth. They held outrageous parties and spent their money on lavish things. It was a time where some people were living the ‘American Dream’, while others struggled to get food on the table. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby he displays the extravagant lives of the wealthy through the luxurious life of James Gatz, or Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald influences the plot and conveys themes with symbols such as a simple green light, an abandoned set of eyes watching over the American society, and a bleak gully of dark ashes.

Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrates the materialism of the 1920’s. Materials have great importance to the events that take place but most importantly show the social classes of the characters. Gatsby fantasizes that money will bring him love and happiness; which brings him from the lower class to “New Money”. Despite his wealth, he cannot compare to Daisy’s husband Tom because they are from “Old Money”. Pursuing materials and money become deadly for Gatsby.

As shown in The Great Gatsby, wealth and luxury has shown to result in ethical or moral corruption of one’s self. An example would be Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby: being the two richest men in the novel, they are shown to be corrupted in ways that are not what people expect. While Tom was born into the wealthy life in East Egg, Gatsby was originally a poor man named James Gatz and had to work his way into becoming a wealthy man in West Egg. Tom had strong power and importance in the book and that drew Myrtle out of the Valley of Ashes and she tried to obtain Tom in order to become wealthy. Both men have no regards for the other as displayed in chapter 7.

Many others in this novel worked hard, but none has achieved wealth as he has. In this story, Wang Lung’s life gives detailed examples of the hardships and struggles of living in a lower social class. Then, as the story progresses, the novel tells of the luxuries and customs of being wealthy. Many people can relate to this novel because it shows what life was a wealthy man and as a poor man.

In chapter one, Nick Carraway says, “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Fitzgerald 1). Here, Nick is trying to explain to Gatsby how the upper class rarely seems to realize the problems that the lower classes face. Due to Jay Gatsby’s higher standing within society, he rarely seems to fully comprehend the atrocities of the lower class. Gatsby bases his so-called ‘superiority’ on his money, rather than his actions.

The Demise of the American Aristocracy Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920s’ elite New York spheres where East Eggers’ family riches represent the aristocracy, while West Eggers epitomize nouveau riche. Within this New York world the color white appears in the East Egg, whereas outside this bubble the absence and desire for white is prevalent. The narrative is told through the eyes of Nick, a West Egg transplant, who immerses himself into the social scene, interacting with both East and West Eggers. Nick’s cousin is Daisy, who is married to Tom and friends with Jordan, who provide the East Egg perspective.