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How Did F Scott Fitzgerald Use Class Differences In The Great Gatsby

555 Words3 Pages

In his novel, The Great Gatsby, he writes about the idle but permanent rich, temporary rich would be rich and the patient, envious poor, though the focus is always on the first group. To materialise their dream, Americans had to do all they could, honestly or dishonestly, in order to make themselves more comfortable. During the 1920s, America was characterised by class differences. People from the poor areas and families constituted a lower class, people from the rich areas and people from the aristocracy constituted the upper class because the major goal of most Americans was to achieve happiness; each class had to struggle on its part to gain its happiness according to its will. Then, the upper class tried to dominate the lower classes in …show more content…

There were the Whites on the one hand, and the Black, the Jews, and other inferior races on the other hand. At the time when Francis Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, he wanted to satirise the American society concerning the many Blacks and other so called inferior races, which were maltreated by Whites. This is evident as he uses some characters to reflect the reality of racism in America. For instance, the original name of Gatsby was James Gatz he changed his name in order to have another name which will help him to reach ambition, it is a name of Jewish origin. Jews were treated as an inferior race. In this struggle of attaining joy and fortune, inferior races were to be minimised and intermarriages between Blacks and Whites existed but they were not encouraged because love at that time was conditioned by wealth, marriage was only possible between equals and some people were victims of their colour, origin and class. This is the case of Gatsby in the novel, which did not succeed to marry Daisy because of his race and social

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