Essay On Social Class In The Great Gatsby

In this society, social class plays an extensive role. It can determine who one associates with, what type of education one has, and predominately, how successful one is in the world. Parents try to motivate their children to be his or her best in life, to change the social class that they grew up in. But can one legitimately change his or her social class? In the novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was raised from nothing and worked to escape his circumstances by building a name for himself. Born “James Gatz,” he believed in chasing the American Dream and that he could work rigorously to pull himself out of the lower class community. While some people believe that changing one's social status is feasible, one just sincerely cannot. Throughout the novel, the main character, Nick Carraway, finds himself being associated with the upper class of his town because of his relationships with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby. However, he, himself, is not wealthy in comparison to these people; he even described his home as “a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month” (Fitzgerald 3). If one was to earn “new money” or even just surround themselves with people of wealthiness, they would appear to belong to an upper class setting, but

It is the same way in reality. Wealthier people tend to have different views on daily struggles. Lower-ranking social class members have more realistic problems. The Great Gatsby explains that Daisy Buchanan moved from place to place “unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together” (Fitzgerald 6). She appeared to be “bored” with her life because of the amount of wealth she obtained, while others labored into long hours of the night trying to make a living. Lower social class citizens have differing opinions and viewpoints. This would cause them to protrude among the