The 1920s was one of the most successful times in U.S. history. The book “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows just how extravagant everything is. The class structure in the book is similar to the real world 1920s. There are three different class structures in the novel. Fitzgerald shows how there is an affect on their personalities Due to the amount of money they have.
In “The Great Gatsby” the three class structures are, old money is in the east egg, new money is in west egg, and poor in the valley of ashes.The old money is the people who grew rich before the new money class. New money in west egg is full of a bunch of people who have recently become rich. The poor, valley of ashes, is the low-income group of people who don't make a lot of money and are left in the waste of the rich. in an article written about the social status in Great Gatsby it says “ The characters in the
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the new money are people who spend their money carelessly they, are trying to be flashy and buy the most expensive things they can find like Jay Gatsby.the old money are people who choose to spend their money wisely and are not irresponsible, however they are rude and don't care about other people's feelings like Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald shows Tom explode on Gatsby by saying "She's not leaving me!" Tom's words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby. "Certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he put on her finger."( Pg.132 Fitzgerald) this quote shows that jay Gatsby got his new money wealth from selling illegal alcohol while Tom has been wealthy and earned it through hard work. Tom only thinks of Gatsby as a “swindler”.
In conclusion Fitzgerald shows that the difference between old money and new money is a big difference and they have separate personalities and different views on life. The class structure was a major problem in the 20s as shown in the