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Effects Of Wealth In The Great Gatsby

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The Widening Gap Between Classes “A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little” (Bernie Sanders). No matter how poor or how rich, income inequality affects everyone, every day. People in today’s society are greedy for money. This grows the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished which destroys the relationships between them. Mental health is severely affected as well. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the distance between the rich, Gatsby and the Buchanan’s, and the less wealthy, the Wilson’s, is evident. Income inequality affects the mental health of an individual, as well as the economy in a negative way. The stress of worrying about income has a serious effect on people. For many, mental health is a serious problem, and wealth can make it much worse. Constantly worrying about how to pay the next bill or put food on the table can lead to depression and anxiety, …show more content…

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby throws enormous parties every weekend for all the wealthy people to come. “People were not invited” everyone just knew to show up at Gatsby’s for the party (Fitzgerald 41). Fitzgerald exclaims that the wealthy “got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they ended up at Gatsby’s door” (Fitzgerald 41). At the same time, the poor were working vigorously in the Valley of Ashes trying to make a living. These people are taken advantage of by the rich as shown through the character George Wilson. Wilson tries as hard as he can to make enough money for himself and his wife Myrtle, however, Myrtle is greedy for money and goes off and has an affair with Tom. This idea of looking for money is a constant theme throughout the book and shows how the gap between these groups of people continues to widen. Income inequality needs to be fixed so the social gap can

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