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How Does Fitzgerald Use Class Structure In The Great Gatsby

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Fitzgerald’s use of class structure compares almost directly to that of the class structure in the 1920’s. While The Great Gatsby is an almost exact representation of the 1920’s, it primarily focuses on the darker aspects of the roaring age. The Great Gatsby has characters from multiple financial backgrounds; from characters like Tom who come from money, or characters like Gatsby who came from almost nothing and worked hard to get to where they are, Fitzgerald brings out social and class structure throughout the novel. Fitzgerald shows how vastly different new money and old money are from each other. The Great Gatsby shows Marxism and class structure by comparing East and West Egg, how old money views new money through Tom, and the embarrassment from being a self made man. East Egg and West Egg have been compared numerous times throughout the course of The Great Gatsby. Almost every …show more content…

While Tom hates Gatsby and sees him as less because he is a bootlegger like the rest of the newly rich, Tom seems to exclude Nick from this stereotypical judgment. When talking about Tom, Nick describes, “We were in the same senior society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.” (Fitzgerald 10) Although Nick was from West Egg, he felt as though he was accepted by Tom. Tom viewed Nick differently than the rest of those in West Egg because he stems from old money, while Gatsby does not. Tom also views Nick apart from West Egg because Tom is married to Daisy, Nick’s cousin, who, much like Nick, derives from old money. At almost all points of time that Tom and Gatsby are together, Tom gives snide remarks about Gatsby and invites hoping that he would get the hint. They may both be from West Egg, but Nick and Gatsby are viewed vastly different from each other in the eyes of

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Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor and Daisy’s cousin, and cautiously assists their relationship. Nick and Gatsby live in the West Egg area of Long Island, while Daisy lives across the way in East Egg. Fitzgerald uses these neighborhoods to symbolize the differences between the newly and old rich. In the novel, Nick and Gatsby are both newly parevenus individuals who do not come from a rich family. Carraway is earning his way to wealth in the banking industry, while Gatsby received his wealth predominantly from bootlegging.

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518 Words | 3 Pages

Nick is a more reserved character, he keeps to himself, and tries to stay out of drama as much as he can. Nick moved from the Midwest to New York because he wanted to create a new, better life for himself. Although Nick is wealthy, he does not go around flaunting his money like Jay and Tom. Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor and is more of an observer. In “The Great Gatsby” the text states, “They had forgotten about me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me now at all” (Fitzgerald 96).

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1258 Words | 6 Pages

Social Economic Lens In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald the effect of different social classes and the influential ways of the viewed higher classes demonstrates how hollow and ignorant having money and being perceived as wealthy can make a person. Compared to how the lower-class characters are viewed and treated by the upper class. The Great Gatsby is a good representation of seeing literature through a social-economic lens, this is shown in many different ways in the story. The reader is shown the ignorance of the upper class, the things that the characters do not know they have compared to the lower classes, and the opportunities they do not have, the little things that the rich take advantage of.

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701 Words | 3 Pages

Both men had come up during the prosperity of the 1920s, a time when the american dream was ideal. Despite being of the same social class, East Egg residents continued to used their address to divide and look down upon West Eggers. West Egg would continuously be known as “the less fashionable of the two…” and would be treated as less for this reason (Fitzgerald, 5). This can be shown by how Gatsby is treated by Mr.

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1083 Words | 5 Pages

The Great Gatsby is a story of a man’s desire to reunite with a loved one and how every character desires to diverge from the 1920s societal norms. The story begins with a man named Nick Carraway. Nick begins with a short synopsis of his life before arriving in West Egg. Nick, whose profession is working in the bond business, bought a house on West Egg. Eventually, Nick meets a wealthy man named Jay Gatsby.

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Through the viewing of both versions of The Great Gatsby, it is revealed that they have some obvious similarities, but the differences

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Shyanna Alspaugh Mrs. Smith English 11 13 May 2015 Great Gatsby An island outside of New York were two sides, East and West Egg . In the island, were characters that shared different morals and did things a lot different from one another. These characters were known as Nick, Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom. In this story different themes were displayed some of these themes include the following lies and betrayal, social class and money, and love and marriage.

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to show the corruptness that money and power can bring upon not just an individual, but an entire class of society. The divide between the upper class of “Old Money” and

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747 Words | 3 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby describes the life of Jay Gatsby in the 1920’s. The novel shares his love story and his loneliness. A major question the author raises is how does wealth impact class structure and society? Fitzgerald answers this question through the distinction between “New rich” and “Old rich” and the significance of East and West Egg.

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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.

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During the twenties the economy of the United States was changing greatly. Due to the establishment of the prohibition of alcohol the billionaires were those who would smuggle the goods to society. The Great Gatsby is a novel which portrays the different societies of the United States during the twenties differently. F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses on revealing the types of lives lived by each social group. Throughout the book we are exposed to the marginalization of women and the lower class during the time, since the important individuals in society were the wealthy people who impacted the economy of the country.

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995 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald characterizes the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values. One of the major themes explored in this novel is the Hollowness of the Upper Class. The entire book revolves around money including power and little love. Coincidentally the three main characters of the novel belong to the upper class and throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows how this characters have become corrupted and have lost their morality due to excess money and success and this has led them to change their perspective towards other people and they have been portrayed as short-sighted to what is important in life. First of all, we have the main character of this novel, Gatsby who won’t stop at nothing to become rich overnight in illegal dealings with mobsters such as Wolfsheim in order to conquer Daisy’s heart.”

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295 Words | 2 Pages

Gatsby’s undying efforts to gain Daisy’s attention by throwing grand parties, advertising his wealth, and paying her visits never go unnoticed. The true characteristics of each class are displayed throughout the way they each respond to certain situations and the choices they choose to make. The characters lie, cheat, break laws, and murder. The Great Gatsby ends in a tragedy which F. Scott Fitzgerald foresees society is ultimately leading towards. The great Gatsby explores themes of social classes and the corruption of the American dream through the failure of poetic justice.

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911 Words | 4 Pages

Even though he instantly pegs Gatsby for a bootlegger more than someone who inherited his money. This shows that Tom does feel a bit threatened by Gatsby, Tom wants to make sure Gatsby gets knocked down thoroughly. But Tom is also the only one who sees Gatsby for who he really is. This is where Nick’s judgement of Gatsby has

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991 Words | 4 Pages

The Wealthy Destroy the Lower Class in The Great Gatsby One of the themes that Fitzgerald incorporates into The Great Gatsby is how careless the wealthy are and how they destroy the lower class. Fitzgerald shows people how badly the wealthy can treat the poor and how they don't care. Throughout the entire book, we see time after time of how careless the wealthy are and how their actions destroy the lower class. They don't even treat the lower class well at all.

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