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How Does Social Class Affect Society In The Great Gatsby

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In life those who surround us have the greatest effect upon our lives. A person’s ability to collect friends of a certain social class is vital to the type of life that they will live. Although it is the dream of all people to live with immense wealth, the others of the same social standard can tend to act in a way that can damage the people around them. A result of being surrounded by this type of person is seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, in which many characters are hurt by the behavior of the rich people around them. In this novel three characters, Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson, play important roles in explaining how social classes cause society to become dysfunctional and can lead to chaos and even death. …show more content…

Again Tom Buchanan is the driving force in the deterioration of two lives. Both Myrtle and George Wilson end up dead and it can be traced back to him. Tom and Myrtle were having an affair and even had an apartment in the city. Although it seemed Myrtle loved Tom, he was abusive. In fact at one point “Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (37). Tom never felt any repercussions for his action because Myrtle decided to stay with him and not press charges due to her interest in his money and lifestyle. As stated in the previous paragraph, Myrtle Wilson was hit and killed by a car driven by Daisy. The reason that Myrtle ran out in front the car is because Tom drove Gatsby’s car into the city and she saw him getting gas earlier that day. If she had not seen Tom driving that car then she would have let it pass and would not have run to stop it. When George Wilson began to think clearly following his wife’s passing, he left his shop and visited Tom in search of who Myrtle was having an affair with. When Tom told him, he swiftly went to Gatsby’s house, shot Gatsby, and then shot himself. The destruction that Tom, although it may have been inadvertent, caused was catastrophic and led him to flee town in search of a new place to call

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However, the other time in the book when he uses violence is much more cruel than Tom’s actions. To avenge his wife, he tries to figure out who owns the yellow car that killed Myrtle. After doing that, he immediately shoots Gatsby, the owner of the car, with his gun upon finding him. After killing Gatsby, he then takes his own life; that is why “the gardener saw Wilson’s body...and the holocaust was complete” (Fitzgerald 173). At the time, Gatsby is swimming in his pool.

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In the novel The Great Gatsby, F.Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of “wealth can breed carelessness” using the literary devices and/or techniques of irony, irony, and point of view. From Nick 's perspective, the wealthy characters of this story tend to act ignorantly and care nothing else besides themselves, which would impact others, including the actions shown by Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan. First of all, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the theme of “Wealth can breed carelessness” using irony. In the text, a conversation between Jordan and Nick, “‘They’ll keep out of my way,’ she insisted.

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Tom Buchanan is an arrogant, controlling man, who does what he wants not considering about how his actions influence those around him. Tom is also the earliest person to use physical violence in the book, striking Myrtle in a fit of rage when she would not stop shouting Daisy 's name. "Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy 's name. "Daisy! Daisy!

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There were the same people, or at least the same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same multi-colored, many keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn't been there before.” Nick classified all the rich people who went to Gatsby's party as the 'same sort' since they are copying from each other's image. They do not have their own identity and is only known as the 'group' of rich people, who do nothing, but entertain themselves with illegal drinking and partying. The unpleasant feeling that Nick has is the rich people's thought and belief of the materialism corruption of the society.

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Later on in the novel the violence escalates, “The death car, as the newspapers called it, never stopped...” (Fitzgerald 137). This quote is referring to Myrtle getting hit by a car. This incident causes a reaction from her husband, George Wilson. From his reaction we get to see a glimpse into the nature of man.

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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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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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Myrtle is slain by her quest for capital; Wilson becomes insane from his wife's affair and subsequent death; and Gatsby loses what he looked for his entire life, the past. All of these characters prove the tragic message that no matter one's dreams or ambitions, no matter one's money or determination, they can still fail or even die as a result of their

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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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Polo player Tom Buchanan had an ongoing relationship with George Wilson 's wife Myrtle that ended very dramatically with the death of Myrtle in a car accident as well as causing the murder of Jay Gatsby. It was not till this time where George started to realize that his wife was having an affair and this made him very upset as Nick says “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world and the shock had made him physically sick. ”(Fitzgerald 130). Tom took Gatsby 's car to get gas at George 's garage on his way to the city to meet with Gatsby. While getting gas Myrtle saw that it was Tom in the car and was upset because she was locked in a room and wasn 't allowed to see anyone.

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(Fitzgerald 41). This scene shows Tom’s wealth and power; Tom feel Myrtle had no right saying Daisy’s name so he hit her to make her behave. He thinks of Myrtle of more of a pet he can control

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In “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald presents editorial on an assortment of topics, — equity, control, insatiability, treachery, the American dream. Of the considerable number of subjects, maybe none is more all around created than that of social stratification. The Great Gatsby is viewed as a splendid bit of social discourse, offering a clear look into American life in the 1920s. Fitzgerald deliberately sets up his novel into particular gatherings in any case, at last, each gathering has its own issues to battle with, leaving an effective indication of what a problematic place the world truly is. By making unmistakable social classes — old cash, new cash, and no cash — Fitzgerald sends solid messages about the elitism running all through each stratum of society.

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Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby by F Scotts Fitzgerald love and money motivates every character. They all had made decisions based on love and money, no matter the consequences, no matter if it was good or bad they still made those decisions through the love they had for someone and their desire for money. Tom Buchanan 's love for daisy was pure and true throughout the book the great gatsby he even made some hard decisions all out the love possesed for her. A very critical part of the the novel was when tom 's wife had killed George Wilson 's wife Myrtle Wilson in a automotive accident. When George came to tom about what happened questioning him about who killed his wife, Tom could see that George was furious and would be willing to do anything to the person who killed his beloved wife.

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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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Tom lied to George as well in order to keep his affair secret. He then ends up saving himself and killing Gatsby by blaming Myrtle 's death on Gatsby in the quote, ”He ran over Myrtle like you 'd run over a dog and never even stopped his car" (178). He explains this here, “There was nothing I could say, except the one unutterable fact that it wasn 't true” (178). Over time, the consequences begin to take effect on George and his mental health goes downhill due to the shadieness of the upper class. He goes as far as locking his wife up in a closet, “‘I 've got my wife locked in up there,’”

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