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Affairs Of The Upper Class In The Great Gatsby

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Money, we all need it, but what happens once we actually end up getting our hands on a good amount of it? The book The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows us the affairs of the upper class within 1920’s New York City. Throughout the book, the reader follows Nick Carraway, a bondsman, as he gets to know Jay Gatsby, the namesake of the title. With his eyes, we see how people who have money live a very different and disconnected life than those who are poor.and the interesting unspoken rivalry between the Old and New Money. Old money, meaning inherited wealth, and new money being earned. The characters of Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan both represent where their money came from, Gatsby as new money is a selfish, and arrogant man, and Tom as old …show more content…

Because of this, he is openly racist with his peers “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.” (16). He’s lived a life of ignorance, completely unaware how people truly function, because of this is racism, and superiority complex has formed. This isolation also lead to him becoming an abusive man. When his mistress was in a quarrel with him, he resorted to violence to shut her up “Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” (41). Tom is a man who desires to be in control, and when he loses it he tries to get it back through violent means. When he can't use his hands to solve is problems, he hides away in his vast amount of money “Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made....” (191). People in the old money don't have a care in the world because they control it. They have so much money that they can get away with nearly

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(118 Fitzgerald). People with old money are more successful because they can buy more things for themselves in order to be happy. Fitzgerald uses white as a symbol for the riches of the people who have been a part of East

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In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, two of the main characters, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, are very affluent. Both Tom and Gatsby have large estates along with upper-class cars, clothes, and servants. However, Gatsby and Tom have diverse uses for their money. This novel is a clear representation of how money can rarely buy happiness. To start, there are two different types of money, “old money” and “new money.”

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Recently, there has been a lot of interest in discourse communities. According to James Porter, "a discourse community is a group of people bound by a common interest who communicate through channels and discourse is regulated (Couzelis, Isip, Adkins 12 and Porter 38-39).  John Swales, however, states that a community can only be a true discourse community if they meet six requirements: they have to share clearly stated goals; they have to use a mechanism of communication; they offer feedback and information; utilize one or more genres of text, the group uses specific lexis; and they have old members with new ones (Couzelis, Isip, Adkins 12 and Swales 471-473). Under these guidelines, Mike Rose 's mother Rosie is in a discourse community because

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The difference between “old money” and “new money” was simply a contrast of different classes. Throughout the novel the author conveys how old money, money that was passed down, is superior to new money, in which is worked for and obtained. The people of the old money were more pure of class than those of new money. “A sense of fundamental decencies

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In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is illustrated as someone who tries to use money to buy true happiness and love simply to relive the past. Wealth is defined as the value of everything a person owns.

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The Great Gatsby is most known for its depiction of the corrupt upper class in the 1920s and does this by using multiple literary techniques such as symbolism and motifs. Although this book’s portrayal of the upper class is most notable, what makes The Great Gatsby such a popular book is the other uses of symbolism throughout, whether obvious or more cryptic. The more subtle use of literary elements keeps the readers guessing and allows them to produce their interpretations of what F. Scott Fitzgerald is representing. In The Great Gatsby, one of the more notable uses of symbolism in this book is the use of blue along with the motif of weather helps to further establish the overall mode of the book without explicitly stating it. Blue adds a

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Jaleel Louis Mrs. Kierez Period 2 December 14, 2017 Title: The Great Gatsby In the book, "The Great Gatsby", F. Scott Fitzgerald explains a story about money, love, and hollowness of the upper class. Corruption and carelessness is seen throughout the story, the cause of that is from money. Can money really change someone?

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For many American citizens, wealth represents the ideal American dream, something many strive for but not everyone achieves. The novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is set on Long Island in the fictional town of West Egg in 1922. Fitzgerald focuses on the representation of old money, which is families that have been wealthy for generations, and new money, which is self- made money on current trends, through the character’s motivations and interactions or relationships with others. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald uses the nature of wealth and status to show its dehumanizing or corrupting nature with characters through differences in wealth and how they came about it. Analyzing Daisy Buchanan, one of the main characters, Fitzgerald uses her actions to show the corrupting effect of wealth on people.

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Have you ever wanted to buy something so bad so you reach into your pocket but oh wait! There's no money inside your pocket. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows two points of view on the rich and poor, It shows how some of the characters have a different lifestyle when it comes to money. This essay will be talking about the difference of “ old money “ vs “ new money “, Gatsby rise and fall, and Saying about money and materialism.

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They think people like him are of lower class and do not have as many social skills. In addition the “Old rich” class believes they are more refined and elegant while the “New rich” money class overcompensates with purchasing large houses, and spending exorbitant amounts of money. There is also the class that has little money such as the

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However, Fitzgerald was right when he said rich people live life differently, and the one thing they all have in common is at the center of their habits: vast amounts of money. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows the brutal effects money has on people, ultimately corrupting them. To be from old money means to been born into a family with established wealth and power, and Tom Buchanan was exactly that. Due to years of entitlement, Tom grew to be a very controlling, aggressive man, and the way he treated people reflected his personality.

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Money,class,love: everyone craves them, but can one person possess all three and be happy? The characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, they struggle to figure out how to have all three while staying alive and happy. Gatsby and Nick live in West Egg, Daisy and Tom live in East Egg, and the Wilsons live in The Valley Of Ashes. Gatsby and Daisy have a past, Daisy and Nick are cousins,Tom and Daisy are married, Myrtle Wilson and George Wilson were married, and Tom and Myrtle were having an affair.

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Tom, Daisy and the Jordan belong to the “New Money”, in which they are inherited with the wealth and authorities. Money and power is the main motivation for many characters in the story, as they believe that wealth and power can bring eternal happiness. “I am still afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggests, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.” (Fitzgerald 2) Through this quote, the author expresses the unequal social class and authority that individuals struggle with at a young age. The people in east egg are characterized as the “ Old money”, in which they spend their time amusing themselves.

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226 Words | 1 Pages

Different with the two characters above, Gatsby in GG used the books in order to adjust himself with the life of upper-classes. He who is from the lower class is able to look at things beyond his class to have other options that are usually available for his social status. Gatsby understands that he needs to perform a certain social practice to be able to be accepted by the upper-class society and one them is by putting a library full of books in his house. Absolutely real—have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard.

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619 Words | 3 Pages

It was a term most knew as “old rich”. While the “new rich was a social class that is used as today. As Nick had stated “I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth”(Fitzgerald 11). By Nick saying this he had meant that money isn't the only thing that some people are born to. Some people are naturally well with manners and more loyal and they have more sense of the fundamental morals.

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