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Wealth And Social Class In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

2747 Words11 Pages

American culture during the 1920s is easily summed up in three words: money, women, and deceit. Money fueled everything from the economy to relationships, women were at the forefront of men’s desires, and deceit allowed men to get all of the money and women that they desired. These themes expressed in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald are rather indicative of the culture that people had in America at the time, which is especially prevalent in the abundance of references to wealth and social class in some way, shape, or form throughout the novel. The importance of wealth and money is a distinctive aspect of the Roaring Twenties, which is why it is such a prevalent aspect of the novel. The novel is written in the voice of the main character, Nick Carraway, after the initial events of the summer that he spends in New York, and it tells the story …show more content…

This place is hardly even that far from East and West Egg, so those not even a few miles away live in affluence. The contrast between the living conditions between these two areas is extremely apparent and one of the worst impacts of wealth on individuals without it. This concept is also shown by Gatsby’s mere existence in East Egg. His house is massive and luxurious, he has servants answering to his every beck and call, and everything is at the tips of his fingers. He can afford almost anything. “Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons [wait] from a fruiterer in New York-- every Monday these same oranges and lemons [leave] his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There [is] a machine in the kitchen which [can] extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour.” (39). Gatsby is able to afford this luxury of hundreds of fruits that are likely even more expensive than if he bought them himself at a grocery store because they are from somebody with a fruitier title.

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