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Examples Of Classism In The Great Gatsby

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F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his book The Great Gatsby, exposes the effect of classism on the ability to achieve the American Dream. In this book, Daisy loved Gatsby prior to Tom but didn’t want to commit to Gatsby on account of him being in the lower middle class. Gatsby decides to become a bootlegger in order to advance in the social class and to win over his dream girl, Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy have a little rendezvous but it does not go beyond that because Daisy knows that Gatsby may not be able to provide her a stable life. In the end, Gatsby dies before he could have achieved his idea of the American Dream. The fact that Gatsby was dedicated enough to work hard and buy a house across from Daisy shows how much he loves her but because Daisy …show more content…

According to Nick, “With the influence of the dress her [Myrtle] personality had also undergone a change” (30). Once she went to her’s and Tom’s house and changed her outfit into something nicer she started to act snobby. As if she was not in the middle class but was in the upper class from old money. Another example would be when Daisy “wanted her life shaped now [and] that force took shape in the middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan” (151). When she left Gatsby to marry Tom shows that she wants a stable life even if it means she would not love him later on. This means that because of Gatsby being in a lower class or not being honorable rich prevents Daisy from marrying him showing that people would choose money over love. Fitzgerald shows us that people think money would make you happier than having a happy …show more content…

According to Nick, “She [Daisy] vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby―nothin” (149). It shows that at the beginning of the day she might show she loves him but at the end of it she will go back to her perfect life and forget about him until the next time she sees him. This shows that the upper class tends to not care about lower class. At the end of the book Nick calls Tom and Daisy “careless people” (179). Tom is the reason why Gatsby died and Daisy is the reason why Myrtle died. They were in an unhappy marriage, had affairs to fill the emptiness they felt, but in the end decided to stop one another's affair by killing their partners. Tom and Daisy were both respected and in old money while Gatsby was not respected and Myrtle was neither respected nor wealthy. This shows that the rich will always be on top preventing those below them from achieving the American Dream. According to Nick, “They [Tom and Daisy] smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” (179). They hurt people but went back to living their life like nothing happened. This shows what kind of people they are because they do not show that they are affected by what they caused upon people. Fitzgerald is trying to make us see through Gatsby and Myrtle that they thought they were getting so close to the American Dream but death

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This quote proves that Daisy values wealth over love because she did not cry about how she missed him. She cried about missing out on his wealth. The reason why she leaves him is because Gatsby is a criminal and Tom is not. Daisy does not truly love Gatsby, she let him take the blame for the death myrtle. She did not even send a letter of coldences about

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“She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me” (Fitzgerald 130) Daisy knew her worth and how Gatsby had no money, she wanted to be respected and wealthy, and not just from her family. She was tired of waiting for Gatsby at war and moved on simply because she was bored and wanted to get married and she wanted to marry a wealthy man. Sure Daisy tried not to hit Myrtle but she also didn’t take on the consequences of her actions and decided to pin it on Gatsby. Nick says, “ they were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let people clean up their mess they had made.”

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The actions Tom takes near the end of the story show how hypocritical Tom really is. For some reason, Tom is irritated that Gatsby and Daisy seem to have feelings for each other, but his affair with Myrtle is completely fine with him. To Tom, there is nothing wrong with him cheating on Daisy, but Daisy wanting to be with Gatsby is a horrid thing, even

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241 Words | 1 Pages

In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores the reality of the American Dream. Throughout the novel, he uses Daisy to represent the American Dream. In chapter eight, after Daisy crashes the car, “she vanish[es] into her rich house… leaving Gatsby nothing” (149). Daisy is depicted as soulless; she is willing to let Gatsby take the fall for her faults. In order to remain the American Dream, Daisy must appear blameless to society; therefore, the common man must always take responsibility for her mistakes.

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Daisy began to love Gatsby and was more affectionate towards him than Tom. Gatsby thought he had life figured out. Get wealthy, impress the ladies with money, and steal one’s love. Eventually, that mindset had caught up to him. He had tried to show Hurst 2 Tom that Daisy loved Gatsby more than her own husband.

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Near the beginning of “The Great Gatsby”, Nick is in the home of Daisy, his cousin, and her husband Tom. An incident has just occurred where, apparently, Tom’s mistress has just called the home and, it also seems, this arrangement is widely known. We see in Daisy’s conversation a cynicism and a disconnected tone as if she is constantly bored, as if life has almost broken her and the only thing that keeps her going is that she has a luxurious life that she has settled into with her husband Tom. She has accepted his affairs and the pain they inflict to keep living the life she knows. Her conversations flit along on the surface of life because there is no depth there.

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Reaching a higher class and wealth are aspects of success that many aspire to achieve. Although that may be true, in reality, as a person begins to expand their goals toward the American dream, they tend to spiral downward and crash in the end. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, pertains to an ambitious character; falling short of the American dream, resulting in a tragedy. Specifically, the book follows a young man named Gatsby and his dream to finally meet the love of his life, Daisy, who he hasn't seen in five years. Gatsby goes to great lengths in order to grab Daisy’s attention, by throwing lavish parties, which he had to achieve by becoming a bootlegger.

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The author explains that Gatsby did all in his effort to get better for Daisy, but ended up dying in the midst of it. The author depicts this by stating, “Furthermore, his success obviously doesn’t last – he still pines for Daisy and loses everything in his attempt to get her back” (Wulick). The author also brings in the idea of George and Myrtle Wilson trying to achieve the American Dream. It is mentioned that George wants a better life just as much as Myrtle does. However, Myrtle seeks a better life through Tom and having him buy her materials.

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Many people’s aspirations in this time period are starting life poor and ending life rich. Gatsby is the son of destitute farm workers, and he dies a member of the new upper class. But Gatsby’s dream is to rekindle his love with Daisy Buchanan, and he fails on this account. Nick says Gatsby “want[s] to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (110). Gatsby is completely obsessed with Daisy, and he even has a book of clippings of her (93).

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Society is obsessed with forward progression, but even with this contemporary societal ideology we cannot shed the shackles of the past. With each step forward in trying to rid the world of these harmful realities of the past, we cannot completely move on due to the nature of society being built on the shoulders of history. In current society strong movements attempt to rid the world of such fallacies such as racism, classism, and patriarchal influences. But even with such strong movements, we fail to see the main chain to the past, religion. Religion, whether intended to or not, fosters a hurtful message underneath the directive of understanding.

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Gatsby says “Her voice was full of money.” This shows that he associated his love with Daisy to his pursuit of wealth and power. He wants Daisy because of the wealth that she represents. Gatsby wanted Daisy more than anything else. He could not move on.

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Gatsby were reluctant to accept the fact that Daisy was no longer belonged to him. Although he acts like an upper class and have lots of money, but those people who born in rich family were still consider he as lower stages. Many readers consider Gatsby 's dream as a burst of American dream, however, it’s not true. Gatsby blindly chasing Daisy, and consider her as the final goals of his whole life, in the end, his dream broken. If he can see through the surface, and found the truth, the tragedy will never

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866 Words | 4 Pages

The negative consequences of lives based on materialism and idealism are prominent in the characters of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both Jay Gatsby and the Buchanans are prime examples of the detriments that materialism and idealism can have on the true value of life, while Nick Carraway presents a foil by showing the positive impact of a more humble lifestyle. Wealth and idealism are key factors in many of the events of Gatsby’s life, many of them negative. After he is unable to marry Daisy due to his lack of wealth, he shows unrealistic idealism to the extreme. He believes that amassing a large amount of wealth will compensate for his lack thereof in the past, and thus entirely erase the past five years that Daisy has been

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an appropriate title for the novel because Gatsby himself is great. He is great because he is able to fool everyone that he is and always has been a person of high social and economical class, he is great because he isn’t like Tom and Daisy, he isn’t as careless. Remember you don’t have to be good to be great. And as the critic Matthew J. Broccoli notes, Gatsby “is truly great by virtue of his capacity to commit himself to his aspirations.” (Bruccoli 22)

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“They were careless people, 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” (Fitzgerald 179). This quote captures the advantages the upper class has because of their money. Tom and Daisy’s actions left three people dead, yet they received no punishments .They put all their baggage on the lower class, and left them to pick up the pieces.     In The Great Gatsby, the theme of social class is very significant in the book. Scott F. Fitzgerald used the theme of social class to show the reader that it plays a much bigger role in life.

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