Social Structures In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells a story about social structures and how impossible it is to achieve the American Dream. The story takes place in the villages of East Egg, West Egg, and New York City in the 1920s. It depicts the rigid class system of the time and how hard it was to move up in status. Narrated by Nick Carraway, one of the main characters in the book, who witnesses the withering of the American Dream for Jay Gatsby and the shallowness of the upper class. Each character in the book has a unique personality, characterized by descriptions of where they lived. The people of West Egg were of “new money”. The population in East Egg inherited their families’ riches making them of “old money”. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the houses owned by Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan depict each one’s personality and how they want to be perceived by others; overall these homes show the need to display one’s social class in the 1920s.

He was a new wealth man who loved to draw attention to himself and please everyone he met. When Nick Carraway moved next door, he compared his bungalow to the house next door, Gatsby’s house, "The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard - it was a factual imitation of some Hȏtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden." (5). The point that his house was an “imitation” of the real thing is showing that his wealth is a cover for his true self. Gatsby wants to be noticed as a man of great wealth who lives a magnificent lifestyle, he wanted attention and to impress everyone he met. "His bedroom was the simplest room of all-except where the