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Examples Of Social Stratification In The Great Gatsby

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Social Stratification The Great Gatsby has many themes, including defective love, wealth, isolation, deception, and compassion. However, the main one that stands out is social stratification, which is how society ranks you based on your wealth. It practically represents that the poor stay poor and the rich get to indulge in their wealth and splendor. During the 1920’s it was very common to party and drink, even though drinking was illegal since January 16, 1919 (Source 3). Gatsby was known for throwing extravagant parties at his mansion. He didn’t always have that kind of money. He almost proves social stratification wrong, that is until the end of the novel when it is uncovered that he earned his money illegally through bootlegging. Al …show more content…

He was love struck for Daisy, and that caused him to do things that an ordinary person wouldn’t do. This defective love is eventually the death of him, literally. Nick is the narrator of the story. He isn’t the most important person in the novel, but he is important to the story line. Without Nick there would be no story. Daisy, Nick’s cousin previously knew Gatsby before she married Tom. The difference between Gatsby and Tom was that Gatsby was poor and Tom was very wealthy. Daisy came from a rich family so her parents approved of Tom just because of his money. They didn’t care about how he treated her or what personality that he had. (Source 2) is a cover of Life Magazine from the 1920’s is a replication of the lifestyle for many people in the 1920's. All they did was party. Tom was definitely one of those people. He partied all the time, and even had an affair with a lady named Myrtle, who had a husband herself. This lifestyle is a perfect example of the 1920’s. This wasn’t uncommon. With all that said, The Great Gatsby is a novel about wealth, deception, isolation, compassion and defective love. Social stratification is the main theme of the novel and it gives

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The theme of The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is, the upper class is a very shady set of people who are dishonest and unfaithful. Characters like Nick, Gatsby, Tom and George have twisted views on their own reality due to unfaithfulness and dishonesty. Nick is constantly lied to in the story, for example, Gatsby lied to him about where he got his money. Lies, similar to the one above, give Nick s twisted views on the reality of his friendship. Gatsby has a twisted view on love due to Daisy marrying Tom right after he left for the war.

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Partygoers in the 1920’s were the most reckless of them all. They would get drunk or high, they would also have flappers that would dance and the parties were usually huge. An example in the book about how reckless parties were in the 1920’s is at the first party Nick went to he saw “one of the girl in yellow was playing the piano and beside her stood a tall red haired young lady from a famous chorus ,engaged in the song. she had drunk a quality of champagne and during the….song she had decided that everything was very very sad… she was….singing and was weeping it”(55-56).This is a perfect example because she was drunk and was trying to sing but that didn’t really work that great. She and so many other people were like this at parties like

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1357 Words | 6 Pages

Fitzgerald used Tom as a way for the reader to understand how people could so easily abuse their privilege in society at the time. Due to his wealth and lifestyle, Tom takes it upon himself to abuse the privilege he has to get away with anything he wants. He is described in the novel as, “Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body”. This is exactly what happens throughout the book with his affair with his mistress named Myrtle.

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Daisy was in love with Gatsby, but married Tom because of his wealth and Gatsby was drafted for World War II. In the film, when Gatsby asks Daisy why she didn’t wait for him, she says “Because rich girls don’t marry poor boys, Jay.” In fact, Daisy does love Gatsby but classism was the chasm separating them. Melodramatically, Daisy cries out to Gatsby- I love you now- isn’t that enough?

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The Great Gatsby is an American novel written by Scott Fitzgerald. On the surface, the book revolves around the concept of romance, the love between two individuals. However, the novel incorporates less of a romantic scope and rather focuses on the theme of the American Dream in the 1920s. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s as an era of decline in moral values. The strong desire for luxurious pleasure and money ultimately corrupts the American dream which was originally about individualism.

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The impact of socioeconomic status can be examined through a myriad of lenses. F. Scott Fitzgerald aims to show the relationship between socioeconomic status and power. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom’s character shows that socioeconomic status is equivalent to power within the novel. Tom puts great pride and emphasis on his socioeconomic status and wealth.

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Have you ever noticed someone getting bullied for not having money, or their social status? Whether it is online or in person. We all have seen some type of this in one way or the other. The book, The Great Gatsby, is a great example of this. Tom makes fun of Gatsby to degrade him in front of Daisy.

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1920’s Class System Throughout Gatsby During the 1920’s there is a major class structure in American society. Class structure is between the rich and the poor, the men and the women, even old money and new money. Fitzgerald portrays the class system to show that people will put others down to make themselve’s feel better, even if they really are not any better than anyone else.

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Aiaz Ibrahimi Great Gatsby December 14, 2014 Mr.Cambell Socioeconomic Inequality Some will always be above others, destroy the inequality today, and it will appear again tomorrow (Ralph Waldo Emerson). In the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald the speaker shears the gap between the western and eastern part of the United States by the rich and poor. However, as in American society states that all men were to be created equal but were all men to be created equally? One may believe that the state of equality is one thing while others may believe in a much different aspect on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness according to the Declaration of Independence.

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When Tom had forced him to go to the gathering while Tom was with his mistress, Nick didn’t really seem comfortable to be around Myrtle 's family because they don’t have the money that the rich do. When the accident happened Nick didn’t really want to stop and see what happened because it happened at the gas station where Murtle lived and when he had seen her dead body he didn’t care. He didn’t care about the situation until he had found out the Daisy was driving the

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Tom's background is the total opposite from Gatsby's. Tom comes from a wealthy family unlike Gatsby who lied about his background and Tom even hired someone to investigate Gatsby so he could catch him in his lie. Tom is nosey, rude, racist, and a hypocrite. During the novel, Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and he shows her off and even brings Nick to meet her which was really weird because that's Daisy's cousin so why would Tom want Nick to know about her. If Tom really cared about Daisy he would of treated her better from the start not of waited till he noticed someone else had her attention.

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"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone… just remember that all the people in this world haven 't had the advantages that you 've had". From the very first page of his most popular work, The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald sets for a very straightforward idea; whatever your social status is, there is more to a person besides the money on their pocket. Social status is a prominent factor in Fitzgerald`s work, extravagant parties and an expensive lifestyle are characteristics that characters in his stories pose, and this factor contributes the plot of the stories gratefully. This might be because of setting, most of Fitzgerald 's stories, like The Great Gatsby and Winter Dreams; take place in the roaring twenties. During this time, America became an "urban society"; people like Jay Gatsby, the main character of The Great Gatsby, and Dexter Green from Winter Dreams, moved from small towns to big cities.

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1792 Words | 8 Pages

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald Wrote The Great Gatsby about events and people in his life. “He became well known for “describing in Semi-autobiographical fiction the privileged lives of wealthy, aspiring socialites’”(“Zelda”). The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald brought his own life experiences into his book although it is said that it is just a coincidence. Throughout the Great Depression, times were hard and the book showed the decadence of the time prior to this. Being middle-class with no money is hard on individuals causing them to act out in ways to fit in with the crowd.

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In The Great Gatsby, social status is a significant element in the book as it separates the haves from the have nots. However more importantly, social status portrays the personalities of people belonging to different classes. In the end, you are stuck in the class you are born into, and attempting to change classes only leads to tragedy and heartbreak.     In The Great Gatsby, there are three main social classes portrayed. These are old money, new money, and no money.

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In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, social class is a key theme, as seen by every character having their own distinct class. Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and even Nick are old money, Gatsby is new money, and the Wilson 's are no money. In short, the more money you have, the better off you will be. In the epigraph of the novel, there is a poem by Thomas Parke D 'Invilliers, who is a fictional character created by Fitzgerald himself. This poem is about using materialism to win over the affection of someone, which is exactly what Gatsby tries to do.

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