Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Great Gatsby and the effect of social class
Great Gatsby and the effect of social class
Great Gatsby point of view negatively impacted by Nick Carraway
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Great Gatsby and the effect of social class
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that displays the representation of social classes in the early 1900s. Moreover, New Money is represented by Gatsby, who acquired his new found fortune by bootlegging alcohol throughout the Prohibition of Alcohol in 1920. Gatsby is not allowed to live his life carelessly due to the fact that he obtained his wealth and at one point was considered ‘a penniless young man’. On the contrary, Old money is represented by Daisy and Tom Buchanan, who were both born with their enormous wealth. The Buchanans are entitled to living a carefree life because they have enough money to do whatever they please. Last, No money is represented by Myrtle and George Wilson, who reside in the Valley of Ashes …show more content…
Both of their parents gave them the wealth that they have along with their high social status. The Buchanans and all other members of the East, are not responsible with the enormous amounts of wealth. Tom and Daisy live as they please, doing whatever they have the urge to do. Often, words like ‘selfish’ are used to describe people who live like this. The two live their lives doing what they want to do, always knowing that someone will come behind them to pick up whatever messes they have made. A quote from The Great Gatsby supports this, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”(Chapter 9. Page 170) Furthermore, Nick states this to Tom when the two are discussing Myrtle being run over by the car that is being driven by Daisy. When Nick says this, the fact that the Buchanans have been ruined by their own riches is proven, it has made them careless people with no moral …show more content…
The residents here do not have money to be careful or careless with. The Valley is often described as literally covered in grey dust. Ironically, one particular resident, Myrtle Wilson, is the one thing throughout the valley that is not covered in this layer of ash. Throughout the course of the novel, Mrs. Wilson tries to act as if she belongs to one of the higher classes, when in reality, her husband, George Wilson is an unhappy man who owns a run down auto-shop in the valley. Myrtle and Tom are both cheating on their spouses by having an affair with each other. Moreover, Myrtle is attracted to Tom due to the fact that he is a dominant male who is wealthy. In Chapter two Myrtle states that, "I told that boy about the ice." Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. "These people! You have to keep after them all the time.”(Chapter 2. Page 69). In this quote, Myrtle makes herself look like an unattractive snob by putting down a servant after he did not bring her the ice as he had requested. She acted like she was better than him. When in reality, they are on the same social
Myrtle Wilson came from a working class family with a low social standing. Due to her family’s lack of money, Myrtle’s options were limited to marrying men of equal or lower economic status than herself. As a result, Myrtle married George Wilson, a poor car mechanic. In her relationship with George, Myrtle lacked control due to her status as a woman and was thus forced to listen to her husband. However, because of her lower status, Myrtle did learn to use her physical attributes to her own advantage. In other words, Myrtle knew how to exaggerate her physical beauty in order to attract men such as Tom Buchanan; who would pay her with money and expensive gifts in return. Thus, “there is a clear connection between the material disadvantages” Myrtle faced and her lack of morals; given “the paucity of her allotment of the fundamental decencies” (Voegeli). In other words, because of her lack of economic backing, Myrtle Wilson grew up as a woman of lower class with less options in life; which limited her social power and drove her to act unlike any high class lady. Thus, Myrtle’s only option for increasing her status was through material services such as her relationship with Tom Buchanan. All in all, Myrtle Wilson’s economic status limited her to the life of a low class woman and her power others in her
Unlike Daisy, who comes from old money, Myrtle is from the lower middle class. Myrtle hopes to climb the social ladder by cheating on her husband with Tom Buchanan.
...people. Tom and Daisy have one thing in common which is their excessive behavior which definitely causes great impact and influence on other people, especially those innocent people like Gatsby, Nick, the Wilson family, and even themselves. Tom is excessively wealthy, aggressive, and abusive while Daisy is excessively careless and neglectful. Tom and Daisy’s extreme behavior causes other people around them to suffer but they do not know or do not even care. That is the nature of rich people which is described by Nick: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things … and then retreated back into their vast carelessness...” (179). Tom and Daisy cause the death of Gatsby and other innocent people but neither of them come to justify themselves. The power of money seems to blind their eyes, block their mind. These kinds of people only hurt the society.
There is Myrtle Wilson’s gaudy, flashy hotel paradise in which she can pretend that she is glamorous, elite, wanted and loved. She clings fiercely enough to this ragged dream to brave the righteous anger of Tom Buchanan by voicing her jealous terror that he will return to his wife. There is a desperation to her full, spirited style of living, she wants so much to escape the grey, dead land of the Valley of Ashes that she colours her life with any brightness she can find, be it broken glass or diamonds. Nick describes land she finds herself in as a wasteland, a desert, saying "this is the Valley of Ashes -- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air" (page 29).
He reveals how separated the American culture is as a whole. F Scott Fitzgerald uses figurative language to shape the portrayal of the setting by contrasting light vs. dark, comparing the Valley of ashes to the East Egg. For instance, Fitzgerald quotes, “where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills”, utilizing a simile to exaggerate and emphasize that the ashes are taking the form of hills, which essentially is all trash. The ashes are a symbol of the hopeless and dead, the social corrosion that is yielded from the unrestricted pursuit of wealth, as the upper class nourish themselves with regard simply to self pleasure. Fitzgerald states, “where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys”, a form of imagery that gives the audience a visual aid to emphasize how prevalent the ashes are. These claims prove that the valley of ashes is a darken city bewitched with poverty and illness. With the pile of ashes growing larger, the classes of society further disjoin, removing their opportunity to escape and acquire their American Dream. By Fitzgerald using figurative language it makes the storyline come alive in the readers mind. He symbolizes certain emotions within the reader to embody and visualize the contrast between the Valley of Ashes and the East Egg as if we were there with them. Scott Fitzgerald also uses figurative language to
Why is the novel so intrigued by Myrtle Wilson’s “immediately perceptible vitality” (30), on the one hand, yet almost viciously cruel in its mockery of her upper class pretension on the other hand? (see for example, pp.29-35 where Nick contrasts Myrtle’s “intense vitality” with her and her sister Catherine’s laughable attempts to posture themselves as modern society women. Indeed, Nick twice remarks Catherine’s plucked and redrawn eyebrows as affronts to her “nature” (see p.34, and again at the very end on pp.171-172). What’s up with that?)
She views her husband as nothing as clearly illustrated in The Great Gatsby when the novel states “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye.” walking through him is showing she doesn't even view George, Her husband, as though he is in the room, She just goes straight to Tom because he’s her ticket out of this life Myrtle put herself into. She then says to her George, “Get some chairs, why don’t you, so somebody can sit down.” She just wants to make plans with Tom. Her husband is only distraction to her. She has no relationship with her husband. As soon as she found out that he had borrowed his suit she knew her would all be going downhill. Myrtle was now a victim of her own desperation, because of her marriage to
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich couple, seem to have everything they could possibly want. Though their lives are full of anything you could imagine, they are unhappy and seek to change, Tom drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) just so he has something to talk about. Even though Tom is married to Daisy he has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and has apartment with her in New York.. Daisy is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her relationships with Tom or, Gatsby are seen, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom is having an affair, yet she doesn't leave him even when she hears about Gatsby loving her. Daisy lets Gatsby know that she too is in love with him but cant bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy forever leaves Gatsby for her old life of comfort. Daisy and Tom are perfect examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, and without purpose.
Life is about making a positive impact on those around you, not trying to accumulate vast wealth. However, it is well-known that members of society are bound to choose riches over one's own or others happiness. To add, it is important to acknowledge, especially when considering selfish women like Daisy Buchanan. Studies show, that often people are unaware that their actions have an affect on those around them. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is corrupt through her materialistic, obsessive views on life, despite Gatsby’s dysfunctional views on his version of the American Dream. With this, one can prove that Daisy Buchanan is a self-absorbed, vacuous socialite whose decisions lead to the destruction of both Jay
One of Myrtle’s friends saw Myrtle in an expensive, yet mesmerizing dress that projected her wealthy persona in every angle. Myrtle simply smirked and replied in a carefree tone: “ It’s a crazy old thing, I slip it on when I don’t care how I look like” (Fitzgerald 31). Myrtle may be significantly poor but has a smart and cunning mind abilities to bend people to her will. Myrtle always wanted to be wealthy and to do that she uses Tom to get what she wants. Her arrow is accurate like Hawkeye’s and fast as Green Arrow. When all the disappointed guest questioned Myrtle about where the ice was for their alcoholic drinks, in a quickly and annoyed voice said: “I told that boy about the ice, These people! You have to always keep after them” (Fitzgerald 32). For a low-class woman, whose home is the valley of ashes, Myrtle has a very snooty personality as if she was a European monarch getting their daily diamond embedded into their crown. She is convincing her friends and won Tom’s heart, this filthy woman is one step closer to achieving her goal. Myrtle also knows what she wants, due to her acting like a European monarch and getting the heart of a rich man to be her
The first time that the reader catches an insight of Myrtle, Fitzgerald develops Myrtle to be a mere object of Tom's’ desire. Fitzgerald does this to extenuate the fact that Tom will not move on past Daisy to be with her. Tom “got some women” that supposedly is a secret but there is a lack of secretism on Myrtles end seeing as she is now calling during evening meals from “New York” just to talk to Tom. This further proves that she is in need of attention, something her husband can not fully give her at any random moment of the day. Myrtle is willing to express herself even when she’s already married. It reveals that she is deceiving her own husband, who is later mentioned in the novel. This allows for Myrtle to be looked down upon by the reader, it also entails her to be seen as an attention seeker. Again, Fitzgerald appeals to present-day behaviors by allowing Myrtle to be viewed as someone who wants to be showcased. Almost everyone can relate that they’ve wanted attention in their life at some point. This connects Myrtle to the reader's past or current feelings. Fitzgerald uses this to let readers feel compassion for Myrtle which emphasizes all she needs is for someone to properly love her, treat her, and show her what she needs to do to become successful in her
The way she is treated by Tom expresses society’s acceptance of objectification of women and possession of a mistress. Society’s belief that wealth equals happiness influenced Myrtle terribly in her decisions and personality. When George finds out that she is seeing someone else, he locks her up in the upstairs and even goes as far as to tell her that they are going to move to get away from the person she has been seeing: “’I’ve got my wife locked in up there,’ explained Wilson calmly. ‘She’s going to stay up there till the day after tomorrow and then we’re going to move away” (Fitzgerald 143). Tom’s dominant behavior portrays that even though women were slowly gaining more rights, men were still treating them like they were not equals.
Due to Tom’s abundance of wealth that has been passed from generation to generation, the Buchanans are labeled as “Old Money” and although Daisy is also wealthy, she still uses Tom as a financial backbone to support the cost of her lifestyle. Nick, the narrator, describes Tom and Daisy as “careless people . . . [who] smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 125). This description is vital to comprehending the extent to which Tom and Daisy are influenced by their wealth.
The novel is filled with symbolism showing poverty and hopelessness. One of the reoccurring symbols of poverty is the valley of ashes. It symbolizes the failure of the American Dream and the poverty that the lower class citizens suffer from, due to its grey, opaque layer of hopelessness filled ash that covers the homes of the poor citizens who will never be able to achieve their dream of wealth. Within the novel, the valley of ashes is described as “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke” (23). This description further explains the hopeless filled town that the lower class citizens live in that unmotivated them to search for opportunity.
Tom Buchanan can give Daisy Buchanan social position where Gatsby's money was earned very fast and could be taken just as fast. ’’ They were careless people, Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made’’. The thing that held Daisy Buchanan and Tom Buchanan together was their money and how much power they had together.