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Examples Of Social Stratification In The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby is arguably Scott Fitzgerald’s most excellent portrayal of the American society in the 1920s when the country was undergoing an unprecedented economic boom. Through its theme of a romantic and prosperous love, the novel offers a strong indictment of the normalization of competing interests that bordered on greed and selfishness. Jay Gatsby, the novel’s principal and central character, seems to know everybody and yet is still somehow unknown to everyone. Gatsby is an extremely ambitious young man who challenges and breaks out of the shackles of social stratification with the abundant fortune he obtains throughout the years by insisting devotion to his pursuit of the American dream. Gatsby also utilizes this massive affluence …show more content…

As the story progresses, the novel rushes to Gatsby's abrupt death as the intricacies of America’s social setup of the 1920’s are brought to the fore. The Great Gatsby’s ending, defined by Gatsby’s death and Nick’s return to the Midwest, represents Fitzgerald’s harsh indictment and forbidding nature of the American dream; as well as the coexistent evisceration, an inevitable reality with bleak consequences, where the wealthy and most successful survive at the expense of achievers such as Gatsby. Gatsby’s death towards the end of the novel is a philosophical abstraction that offers a deeper analysis of the nature of life and being rich during the American economic boom of the 1920s. A close analysis of Gatsby’s character reveals an underlying truth, and justifies the ending of the novel. Both Nick and Gatsby are considered outsiders in a closely knit community of privileged, wealthy individuals represented by Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker. While Tom and Jordan share a long history of aristocracy and affluence and being raised in a privileged environment, Nick and Gatsby embody a completely different class

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The Great Gatsby Rhetorical Devices

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The Not So Great Gatsby In the cataclysmic novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes an array of rhetorical strategies to produce a tortuous and stratified narrative of unrealistic wealth, passion, and aspirations of ambitions. In Chapter eight this can be revealed by Fitzgerald using a shifting tone from solemness, to peaceful, then imagery to capture the painless death of Gatsby, and lastly an insightful perspective to recount the tragedy of the many deaths occurring in this final, fatal chapter of the book. Fitzgerald asserts the fantastical ethos of the Roaring Twenties. However he also censures the American Dream and how it manipulated the domination of wealth and authority in order to propose the idea that it will never be more than an illusion.

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The Great Gatsby Hero Quotes

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Reckless parties, vehicular manslaughter, and the unwarranted death of a man who is innocent all describe Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. This novel is set in the roaring twenties in the New York City/Long Island area, and it displays the divisions of social status and the division of the divisions of social status during this time in the United States. Nick Carraway takes the reader through his journey of moving to the East Egg of Long Island from the western United States, and during his journey he witnesses the reunion of past lovers, the struggles of the American dream, and the untimely death of two people who just wanted wealth and love. While it is commonly accepted that Jay Gatsby is a hero, it is very evident that he lacks

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The 1920’s was a very interesting time in United States history. After all World War I had ended and many Americans did not realize that the Great Depression was in the near future, so the 1920’s fell between these two dramatic events. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby teaches many morals, but none more important than the duality of the 1920’s. Duality is evident in Gatsby's dreams, his death, his lover Daisy, his wealth, and his parties, which all reflect the duality of the 1920’s. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald makes the concept of achieving the American dream seem improbable.

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The Great Gatsby is a classic novel of a man’s infatuation over a past lover and his hopes for their rekindled romance, and future together. However, at its core, F. Scott Fitzgerald is depicting the corruption during a time of wealth and economic prosperity, the 1920s. The idea of the American Dream is that through hard work and determination, anyone can become successful and wealthy. Several characters in the Great Gatsby demonstrate how the desire for wealth and power corrupted the American Dream for many during the roaring 20s. Jay Gatsby is a prime example of how the American Dream can be corrupted by the yearning for money and status.

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