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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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