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The Great Gatsby Social Mobility Analysis

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One of the continuing concerns of American thought has been the need for sympathetic comprehension of social and personal situations during the beginning of the 20th century. After discussing certain crucial trends which have accompanied the industrial growth along with the unique form, which was assumed in Western Europe, we now turn our attention to the organized belief systems which have gained prominence in America during its phenomenal economic growth. A special interest is the role of ideology and its suitability for informing and sustaining a national effort. Americans, like people in all well-established nations have a cluster of core values which have had time to reach a rather stable accommodation to one another. During 20th century, …show more content…

One type of social stratification ideology, we saw there, consists of those that focus on the process and amount of social mobility. And we saw that evidence from a variety of sources, including public opinion surveys, shows that there has been and continue to be in American society an ideological belief in the existence of a large amount of social mobility when men have spoken of America as the land of “opportunity”, they have meant that social mobility was easy for people of talent and that many Americans had been able to show themselves of this character. Francis Scott Fitzgerald through The Great Gatsby situates himself among the distinguished group of major American writers of 20th century, including people like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, whose works have echoed the illusions and disenchantments of the American Dream. As a concept, the American Dream incorporates a complex of moral, social values and romantic ideologies on social-political level; the dream is the ideal opportunity for all, of advancement, social or in a career, regardless of one’s origins. This vision of “open” society was formulated in opposition to “close” European social systems, where power and wealth were concentrated in the hands of the aristocratic …show more content…

Free, compulsory public education is a concrete effort to see that basic equality of opportunity extends at least through childhood. Thereafter, it is not expected that men will remain equal in any or every way, or there would be no need for so much stress on individual advancement. Each man is expected to rise as high as his abilities will carry him, climbing over those of inferior talents and falling short of those who are superior to him. Fitzgerald was raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Though an intellectual child, he did poorly in school and was sent to New Jersey Boarding School in

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Throughout the annals of American history, the advocation for freedom, and the absorption of ideals such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been at the forefront of the American belief. These beliefs were implemented in 1776 through the Declaration of Independence. This document was ratified by recalcitrant Americans who would not tolerate subjection to tyrannical rule. The American people hoped this document would seal their fate in relation to Europe, and prove to them, and frankly the entire world, that they were a separate, sufficient nation. But as the years unfolded, the realization that America would continue to be considered an inferior nation arose.

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During the 1920’s, many people were power-hungry. They all wanted to be at the top and be the richest of the rich and be able to buy whatever they want. The 1920’s was a time where people were able to go from rags to riches, industries were growing and making money, and it was also the era of the Prohibition, a law that banned alcohol. “The Great Gatsby” was able to reflect on noticeable and non-noticeable aspects of the 1920’s. It reflects on the postwar disillusionment, the rise of the nouveau riche, and how business became the new religion for the United States.

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There are a vast amount of negative effects that are caused by the political machine in both history and today's modern society. One problem that is present throught both history and now is corruption. As shown with Boss Tweed in the 1800s and most politcs today, politicians can use the political machine for their own financial wants and needs. As an example, Boss Tweed used the political machine to create fake leases and vouchers to increase his wealth, which, as a result, financially drained New York City. Another problem is that political machines will often be negative for canidates not involved in the machines.

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Throughout the history of literature, many authors have tried to reveal a clear understanding of the American Dream. And whether it is possible to achieve lies all in the character the author portrays. The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye are prime examples of this. F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, the authors of these titles, respectively, fashion flawed Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, with one important desire: the longing to gain what they can’t have; acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Each being different in their own ways as well.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby illustrates that materials and possessions are crucial to the plot development and represent the social status of the characters. First automobiles subsist throughout the story to highlight the differences between “new money” and “old money”. Consequently, automobiles are crucial to the conclusion of the novel. In addition, some characters live in small apartments and homes others live in elaborate mansions, which is signifies their social classes. Clothing is used as a means to show social class or pretend to be in a higher one.

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The Roaring Twenties, known as the decade of the 1920s in the Western World, consists of dramatic changes in social values. The cultural differences between the 1920s and the Victorian era changes people's behavior, where they become more free-will, youthful and carefree, despite of being more conservative before. People are more open-minded and found satisfaction through the “open pursuit of sex, money, and booze” (Berman 53) as they suggest their wealth and status in the society. New York City had become one of the cities where materialistic wealth has become the key of happiness and the standard to judge people's success, further leading Americans to pursue each other in a negative, acquisitive way. Through the different scenes and characters of the famous novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores how the society twisted the original idea of

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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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He also states that money cannot buy you everything, especially your position in society. Fitzgerald is trying to tell society that money is not the most important thing in the

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¨The Great Gatsby¨ The Great Gatsby" is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and was first published in 1925. It is a classic work of American literature that explores the decadence and excess of the Roaring Twenties. Two of the main characters discussed in the book, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, contrast one another.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is considered the typical American novel, known for its emphasis and twist on the American Dream. Some people, such as Jeffrey Decker, disagree with this view on the book. Decker insists in his article, “Corruption and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Skew a Traditional American Tale”, that the loss of faith in the hope of social mobility and the idea of the self-made man in The Great Gatsby is a direct cause of the anti-immigrant attitudes due to the rising tide of immigration in the 1920s. I have mixed feelings about Decker’s argument. He blames the loss of trust in social advancement and the independent man on the rising tide of immigration in the 1920s.

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I. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is depicted as a mirage due to its ultimate lack of fulfillment, outsider’s inability to obtain it, and the corruption it causes. A. Those who have achieved their idea of the American Dream are ultimately unfulfilled emotionally even though they possess tremendous wealth. B. The American Dream is a mirage, and thus unattainable as it limits success of an individual by their class and ethnic origin. C. Not only is the American Dream exclusive and unfulfilling, but it also causes corruption as those who strive for the American Dream corrupt themselves in doing so and the old rich hide behind their wealth in order to conceal their immoralities.

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During the 1920s, America seemed to be a land of glamor and luxury. Underneath the beauty, however, was a vast underworld of crime: bootleggers and gangs ran rampant, controlling even members of the government. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he tells a tale of that decade, which appears glamorous but is filled with corruption. The novel makes a naturalism argument about the impossibility of changing social class, revealing that only a facade of mobility can be achieved through debaucherous actions.

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The American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success, prosperity, and social mobility through hard work, determination, and initiative. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby attempts to achieve social mobility but ultimately fails due to the constructs of old vs new money. An argument is shown that the American Dream is just that, a dream, and that happiness cannot be achieved through wealth. In the novel, the super poor are stuck in their social class, unable to move because they live in the valley of ashes, which represents poverty and the corruption and social decay that came with the lavish and careless lifestyles of the rich.

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The American dream states that any individual can achieve success regardless of family history, race, and/or religion simply by working hard. The 1920’s were a time of corruption and demise of moral values in society. The first World War had passed, and people were reveling in the materialism that came at the end of it, such as advanced technology and innovative inventions. The novel The Great Gatsby exploits the theme of the American Dream as it takes place in a corrupt period in history. Although the American Dream seemed more attainable than ever in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby demonstrates how materialism and the demise of moral values in society leads to the corruption and impossibility of the American Dream.

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Class status has to do with a series of different aspects that relate to the degree of luxury in terms of wealth and lifestyle. From a generic viewpoint, class refers to a wealth concept that characterizes your lifestyle, assets, and family income. Although there are three generic categories for assessing one’s level of wealth (lower, middle, and upper class), is it possible for there to be a significant fluctuation in amount of wealth over a long period of time that culminates to a change in lifestyle? This question is one of the central themes of a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald known as The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a key character in this book that attained a lot of wealth throughout their lives, but passed away by the completion of the story.

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