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Class Structure In The Great Gatsby

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The 1920s was a crazy time period in history - there were prohibitions and so much energy in cities. F. Scott Fitzgerald who authored The Great Gatsby, wrote about his view of this era and how it impacted him. The 1920s was such a party era due to WWI ending and loved ones coming home. Due to the war ending, not only were family and friends coming home but women and other races had to go back into their places. In the Great Gatsby, the main character Nick Carraway moves to one of the most energetic cities anyone could go to – New York City. It was time for a new start for him, job wise as he later became involved in the bonds. The class structures were very distinguished during and after the war. The hardest time for the classes were after the war. In the novel, Nick was very knowing of what class he was in because he spent a lot of his time with the upper class even though he was in the middle class. The levels of class structure in the 1920s was very distinct. You have to be what you are stereotyped as. That’s why in The Great Gatsby you were either in East or West Egg. In the novel and in this era, it was hard to come from the bottom to …show more content…

The point was either you have a bunch of money and you are spending it on whatever prohibition is saying don’t do or working to get by. One character, Wolfshiem, is characterized by the quote of his personality “I see you looking at my cuff buttons…human molers (72)”. He is a man who spends money on extravagant items. Gatsby is a man who would spend money on all things needed for a party but was in the lower class til he got to upper class. He got his money by “sold grain alcohol over the counter (chapter 7, The Great Gatsby). Another character is a man who grew up with money. Chapter 1 explains Buchanan “enormously wealthy – even in college his freedom with money was a matter of reproach (The Great

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