The Role of Social Class in “The Great Gatsby” Essay

In the novel The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald shows how Tom and Daisy Buchanan represent the upper class. High social class in the 1920’s was pretty much millionaires as well as rich people like Donald Trump, who are crazy about money; hurt does not matter to them. Like most celebrities that get into trouble they can avoid trouble because they are rich, they can get themselves out of trouble. During the 1920’s higher class could truly do what they want; money allows them to pay people off. Being rich in 1920s was truly impressive everyone wanted to be upper class. recently people have become a little more careful with money due to so much economic trouble. Then we also have lower class of 1920 which is being able to support themselves but barely just like Myrtle and Wilson. Most of the time, lower class people get looked down upon by upper-class because they have money which allows them to look down upon whomever they would like. Upper-class people can get away with whatever they want including being cruel, mean to lower class people. Represent upper-class during 1920’s which links to today’s life by their attitude toward everyone else, their possessions, and how they deal with their mistakes.

In conclusion, The Great Gatsby theme of class and society was dealing with Gatsby who wanted to be part of the upper class and be one of the rich and to getting the love of his life, which is Daisy. The “old money” were going against Gatsby and he couldn’t achieve one of his goals. He had got the money he wanted but his dream of having Daisy didn’t happen because and “old money” killed him before he could get her. The upper class was against everybody and eventually destroyed the society Tom and Daisy killed Gatsby, Myrtle, and George and didn’t care and just ran behind their money.

Even today, there are those who are willing to put it to their mind to succeed at the American dream, yet do not act upon it. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, the author emphasizes the division of social class to convey how people of different status are affected by the American dream in various ways. Fitzgerald uses symbolism to highlight how the abused idea of the American dream has affected the characters in both their actions and their emotions, contributing to the overall way they present themselves.

Social status creates a huge gap with the wealthy and poor, which contributes to the acceptance by society. Myrtle is third class, or in other words poor. She lives the lavish lifestyle when she is with Tom, who buys her a dog and has an apartment for her in New York. She sounds very eager to get a dog, “I want to get one of those dogs, she said earnestly. I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to have-- a dog” (Fitzgerald 27). Myrtle is not used to luxurious things like Daisy and Jordan are because they are from a rich family. The apartment is not lavish, but in her eyes it is because it’s a higher standard of living compared to where she lives with her husband.

To be a modern person in today’s society it means to try and strive for wealth, power and freedom. It also means to try and fit in with a changing and evolving society with new technology and advances. People in today's society people still want what they have always wanted the American dream, over time the American dream has transformed and with it so has modern people and the definition of this dream.

The objective of this research is to analyze the class struggle in the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1925. It is considered as one of the classic novels of American fiction. The writer beautifully portrays the story of cross sections in American society and gives them the names like new money, old money, some money and no money. Theme of the American dream figures prominently in this story.

Social class is a division of society based on economic standing. During the 1920’s social class had a huge impact on the way relationships were formed. The social class in the 1920’s were divided into many groups. The upper social class was divided into old money and new money. These signifiers polarized the groups and created differences in lifestyles. Each group played a role in the forming of social class expectations. The expectations that set the group aside from the rest. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, relationships and social class always clash with each other because societal expectations cause one class to be more distinctive than annoying. Characters in The Great Gatsby like Myrtle, George, Daisy, Tom and Gatsby each had their relationship built or broken on the main factor of social class.

The researcher has tried to show that the theory of class struggle aptly applies on the great Gatsby by F. Scot Fitzgerald. The researcher with the help of literature review and analysis has proved this thing that The Great Gatsby is a clear representation of class struggle. The writer describes in the novel that it is impossible to rise above one’s class. Gatsby tries, and it seems like he may be successful in getting Daisy to love him. But in the end, Daisy stays with her rich husband, disregarding her heart which wants Gatsby, for the security and wealth that Tom offers.

How does cheating on the middle and low classes cause the problems that there left with? In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the life of cheaters in New York City during the 1920s from all the social classes. Fitzgerald is trying to tell that the scandals and cheats of the rich, middle, and poor classes are all the immoral but only the middle, and low paying classes pay with their lives.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his book The Great Gatsby, commonly draws attention to the way people act in society based on their social status. The book describes a time in the narrator's life when he met a peculiar man named Gatsby. Nick, the narrator grows fond of Gatsby for many reasons as he recounts the events in which he spent during that time all up until Gatsby is shot and is alone with Nick as he dies, nobody else present. The fact that Nick grows fond of Gatsby and seems to take his side throughout the book, despite his actions, has a lot to do with Gatsby himself and partially due to his status. Whether or not the narrator may realize it, it was only due to Gatsby’s high social status that they ever met, or that it was what led Gatsby to his demise. We, the readers are shown by Fitzgerald how classism affects a person's attitude toward life and love, how it warps their perception of others worth, and how it deceives people into believing they can have or achieve anything.

Society and class was one major theme that contributed to the meaning of The Great Gatsby. In the 1920’s Americans were either rich or poor, partying or working, living with the wealth or struggling to make ends meet. During this time, America was facing a time of division between social class. The social class you were placed in depended on who your parents were and how much they made was who you were going to be and how you were going to look at society. Society and class are two major different components faced in this books. There were those of higher class who didn’t have to work and could amuse themselves with any sort of fancy all day long. Gatsby is low class male who is higher up society based on the money that he makes and works for. “When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn”. (1.4).

The Great Gatsby holds many contrasting characters that have opposing personalities. Two of them in particular have hard feelings toward one another because of this and because they compete towards a common goal. Those characters are Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, and their goal is to be loved by Daisy Buchanan, who is already married to Tom. Unfortunately for him, Gatsby has hopped back from Daisy’s past and tries to win her back. The poor lady wishes to stay loyal to her husband, even if he isn’t, but also misses how things were when she was still young and with Gatsby. This delicate situation makes the differences between the two men’s character even more flagrant. Tom doesn’t care much about others, is crude, and was born privileged. Conversely, Gatsby is always concerned about his friends and

Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who lives across the lake from his former lover, Daisy Buchanan, without her knowledge of his residence there. Gatsby and Daisy were together when they were younger, but Daisy could not be with him because he was not a wealthy man. Daisy, however, grew up in a family that has money, therefore had to marry into more wealth. The way that she was raised reflects the way she acts later in the novel. Gatsby was raised up by poor farmer in the midwest, but his ambition changed that later on. When Gatsby went away to war, Daisy married a rich man named Tom Buchanan, because that is what she was raised to do. Gatsby then became obsessed with Daisy in a way, and that also has to do with his persistence to gain wealth. Once he gains a reasonable amount of “new money,” Gatsby believes that he can win her back using his wealth and the fact that they used to be together. “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby is arguing with the narrator, Nick Carraway, about how he can repeat the past to the way he wants it with Daisy. Nick disagrees, but that does not stop Gatsby from trying. He is persistent in trying to make the past they had together happen, regardless of the impact it has on other people’s lives. This shows that all Gatsby cares about is what he wants, and he will do whatever is necessary to get what he wants. “...Gatsby had dismissed every servant in his house a week ago and replaced them with half a dozen others…” (Fitzgerald 113-114). He had

Social class, the ranking of people based on earnings, can create conflicts of wanting to be higher in society. A loss of ambitions through of social class, as it occurs in the novel, can create a loss of identity, morals, and self-acceptance. In The Great Gatsby, society sees upper class as this big thing that everyone should be trying to reach, which really shows the complexity of social class and the problems that occur when people hold fast to a social role that does not fit them. Nick tries to reveal how the influences and expectations of social class are getting to Gatsby as they “shook hands and I started away. Just before I reached the hedge, he remembered something and turned around. ‘they’re a rotten crowd… you’re worth the whole

Gatsby had attempted to fix his failures by using his money, not realizing that it was an impossibility. He wanted to “purchase” Daisy Buchanan's love, whom he had been unsuccessfully trying to impress in the past because of his lack of considerable income. But even though it appears that Gatsby’s “number of enchanted objects have been reduced by one” (84) with the possibility of winning Daisy over, he is screwed by the fact that Daisy has a greater attraction to a safe life of luxury. In an ironic way, Gatsby fails to see that Daisy’s obsession is a perfect mirror to his own love for such objects. Gatsby is unaware of the “youth and mystery that wealth and imprisons and preserves” (132). He does not want to sacrifice his wealth and accept the simplicity that breaks his heart. He was a man rich on earth, but poor at heart. Gatsby thus “Pays the price for living too long with a single