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What Is Social Class In The Great Gatsby

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Stereotypes of Differing Social Classes within the Great Gatsby

Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novel, The Great Gatsby, enhanced the stereotypical views on a wealthy/poverty stricken American in the 1920s. Fitzgerald’s purpose was to expose the irony of what it means to be wealthy to his audience. He adopts a dull and light tone to convey the assumptions and realities of contrasting social classes among the Americans thriving in the roaring twenties. Among the portrayal of the characters Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, their flamboyant and somber lifestyles and parties reveal the parallelism between two seemingly different characters. During the 1920s a lot of social differences existed between the wealthy and those who were poor. The type of party thrown often indicated which class a person would belong to. Gatsby frequently threw flamboyant parties to one day draw his old love, Daisy back to him through these parties where “there was dancing now on the canvas in the garden, old men pushing young girls backwards in eternal graceless circles.” This identifies the wealthy as enjoying a carefree night of partying with a multitude of people full of movement and light. However, when Myrtle had guests over, it was not as people friendly and there was virtually no one present when Nick “had come back they had disappeared, so i sat down discreetly in the living room.” Myrtle’s party was dark and uneventful with little movement, reflecting her life in poverty in which she …show more content…

Through Jay Gatsby party, the wealthy often had joy, movement, and an abundance of guests. The poor party, Myrtle’s party, was dull, dark, and lacked guests and movement. These are all stereotypes of the wealthy and poor, nothing was ever truly set in stone to say who they were, but society labeled them with these stereotypical

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