Socioeconomic Classes In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

A person being elevated from the sea rejoices until they find themselves in the crushing pressure of space; as money helps people ascend from one world of problems, it crushes them in the pressure of an entirely new world of expectations. The Great Gatsby tells the story of Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby in 1920s New York and the love triangle between the three, as told by Nick Carraway, shaped by the limitations and expectations of each of their respective economic statuses. The roles of each character within their gender identity, sexuality, and socioeconomic status influence their autonomy. Social expectations and norms based on economic status control most, if not all, of the lives of the characters. It is the reason Gatsby was unable to marry

Gatbsy tells Nick about his past, or more accurately, he tells Nick about a past, not necessarily his own. It’s the path Gatbsy created for his new life as a rich man, the sparkling version of his past, meant to raise Nick’s appreciation for Gatbsy. "I am the son of some wealthy people in the midwest—all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors were educated there for many years. It is a family tradition." (65), says Gatsby. Gatby’s new future required him to have a new past; if he wanted to have any kind of future with Daisy, he couldn’t reveal his real past and status as new money as it would lower him in rank and destabilize his future plans. Gatsby knows what would happen if he were deemed unworthy of Daisy’s presence, as it had happened before when he was leaving for the war. Jordan tells Nick, "Wild rumors were circulating about her—how her mother found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say good-bye to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectively prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family for several weeks". (75) Daisy and Gatsby were kept apart by not only the war that pulled Gatsby away but the expectations that pulled at Daisy, prompting (or leading to?) Gatsby’s need to seem like old money in the present. We can draw from this that Gatsby climbs his way up to the top of the social hierarchy because otherwise he would have no chance at what he really wanted, which was to be with