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The importance of social class in the great gatsby
The importance of social class in the great gatsby
The importance of social class in the great gatsby
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Daisy Buchanan, one of the richest from the East Egg refuses to accept the unsatisfactory life that she leaves and paints a illusion of happy fool to deal with the truths she cannot accept. In the “old money” social class that Daisy belongs to, she lives a disinteresting life where their immense inheritance is only subtly displayed to the world. Daisy's ultimate desires is a life of happiness, colossal wealth filled with adventure. Yet, such a life is impossible, and it defies the social expectations of the high-class inhabitants of the East Egg. Unable to deal with the imperfections and tediousness that are apparent in Daisy’s life, she creates the facade of a foolishly happy woman as they are the only ones who are truly content. This type of mindest stereotypically …show more content…
reflects the people the she craves to live as. During dinner with Nick, Daisy boats in “a thrilling scorn” (17) that she has “seen everything and done everything” (17) and brags about her sophistication. However, Nick immediately feels “the basic insincerity of what she had just said” (17). Daisy wishes everyone to believe that she is a woman that has it all and plays the act of someone who truly enjoys her life and the privileges it offers. Despite her optimism, her act is overdone and she cannot hide the disappointment of her life. Living an extremely sheltered life, Daisy is a woman that pretends she is unaware of the world around her. She acts as if her husband is rather intelligent only because he reads books with complicated vocabulary and pretends to be oblivious to her husband’s affair. By ignoring reality and being absent to the truth, she believes acting as a woman who is unaware guarantee happiness in life. Her fantasy is further fueled by the abundant material wealth that is present in the West Egg. Daisy, as she reunites with Gatsby rediscovers her love for him as his material wealth is displayed. Daisy, when she enters Gatsby’s house “bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily” (92) as she is reminded of his material wealth. One would expect Daisy to be more emotional reuniting with her former love rather than the wardrobe he possesses. Through Nick’s description, it is highly evident that Daisy is worshipping the numerous shirts that Gatsby owns. The illusion of a fool that she has created causes her to believe material wealth that will further her happiness. Yet, she does not bother to realize that material wealth will never guarantee her happiness and her chase for materialistic goods will lead her nowhere.
Gatsby has not gained his wealth through legal methods and the money he has could be lost at any given moment. If Daisy recognizes the truth about Gatsby's immoral rise to wealth, it would further separate her from the idealistic, content life of her illusions. Further fed by her own illusion, Daisy assumes that running away with Gatsby will lead her to happiness. During Gatsby and Tom’s altercation, Daisy and Gatsby's affair becomes common knowledge. Tom mocks both characters, stating that Daisy would never leave him for a common man such as Gatsby. Motivated by the illusion of the materialistic life that she could live with Gatsby, Daisy responds “I [will] though, with visible effort” (133). The use of “visible effort” by Nick states that she, through her own foolishness is attempting to delude herself into believing that she will be happy with Gatsby. Tom, then begins to expose Gatsby’s crimes and Daisy’s illusion begins to crash and burn. She finally understands that the “perfect life” that she so desperately craves for is rather
impossible. Though she realizes her mistakes, Daisy must still suffer the consequences for the illusions she creates to deal with the her conflict against society. When she enters the car with Gatsby, she is nervous and steers Gatsby’s car into Myrtle Wilson, ending her life. Her nerves stem the delusions that she has build, expressed to the world and now mocked and humiliated by her husband for the fantasy she has created. Though she does not die herself, Daisy becomes a woman that is responsible for another’s death. Those of the East, who have inherited money have their own set of ideals where flaunting wealth through material goods is frowned upon. Daisy Buchanan from the East is in conflict the tedious manner of living. Presented with multiple choices in the summer of 1922, Daisy never truly thinks about the choices that she is offered as a fool never would. These cause her to make multiple choices that eventually lead to the death of Myrtle. Without the illusionary world that she has created to suit her needs, Daisy would not lie to herself and understand that her dreams are unattainable. In the end, the same illusions of happiness that she has created to oppose societies laws lead her to become a murderer and she must live the rest of her life with this fact.
She was materialistic and only saw the lavish lifestyle, and lived void of a good conscience. She ran off with Tom because she saw his wealth. Even with endless dresses, and polo horses, Daisy still wanted more. Reunited with Gatsby after meeting in Nick's house, she walked with Gatsby to his house. It was only when she realized the huge mansion across her own house belonged to Gatsby, that she truly wanted to be back with him. Walking in the house, hand in hand, ignoring Nick who follows behind, it seemed the two were reunited by love. In his bedroom, "he took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel. (Fitzgerald 92)" Gatsby is clearly extremely wealthy, able to afford whatever suits his interest, and he was in the mindset that he would buy anything for Daisy. Daisy seeing this, "suddenly, with a strained stained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. 'They're such beautiful shirts,' she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds (Fitzgerald 92)." She doesn't cry because she has been reunited with Gatsby, she cries because of the pure satisfaction all his material wealth brings her. When Tom's wealth was not enough, she ran off to something more
Gatsby’s quest to acquire Daisy was enlarged by his colossal obsession with the idea of being reunited with her, until the time actually came in which something so simple as a tea date was all he asked for in order to meet her. The purpose of acquiring such wealth and an extravagant home seems so pointless when Gatsby decides to meet with Daisy in Nick’s underwhelming cabin. The extravagancy of his vision deeply contrasts the modesty of the acquisition of his goal in this case. This shows a different side of Gatsby and his visions on what he thought would happen when he reached his goal and what actually occurred. Gatsby starts to panic when his visions do not occur when Nick and Gatsby are sat in Nick’s home, waiting for Daisy, Gatsby argues “Nobody’s coming to tea. It’s too late...I can’t wait all day” Fitzgerald 85). Gatsby is clearly very antsy and nervous about seeing Daisy again. He was very deeply in love with her and after 5 long years of waiting to see her again and they are finally reunited. All of his plans will be put into action and all of this planning will make him terribly self conscious
When he first meets Daisy, Gatsby becomes infatuated with his idea of her, or rather, the false persona that she creates of herself. In fact, Gatsby reveals that “she was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known” (155). Gatsby was so impressed with Daisy mainly because of her wealth and her status; it is what he wants. However, Daisy chooses Tom Buchanan over Gatsby, solely because of his social status. As a result, Gatsby revolves his whole life around her: he becomes wealthy, creates a new image of himself, and buys a house across the bay from Daisy. For instance, he fabricates lies about how “ [he is] the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west” (69) and how “ [he] was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (69) in order to impress her. These lies end up altering others’ perspectives of him - not necessarily in a positive way - and impacting his life as a whole. Daisy unwittingly transforms Gatsby into a picture-perfect image of the 1920s: lavish parties, showy cars, and a false illusion of the attainment of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s newfound wealth and success, he never fully accomplishes his dream: to get Daisy. Gatsby’s final act for the sake of Daisy has no impact on her feelings towards him. When Gatsby claims that he crashed into Myrtle and killed her, Daisy carelessly lets him do so, which ultimately results in his death. To make
He never wanted to give up on her, so he tried to recreate their past in hopes of rekindling a love they once had. “Gatsby's gospel of hedonism is reflected in his house, wild parties, clothing, roadster, and particularly in his blatant wooing of another man's wife. Daisy, a rather soiled and cheapened figure, is Gatsby's ultimate goal in his concept of the American dream. However, he falls victim to his own preaching. He comes to believe himself omniscient-above the restrictions of society and morality. His presumption extends to a belief that he can even transcend the natural boundaries placed upon human beings. He will win back Daisy by recapturing the past” (Pearson). Gatsby lies about his lifestyle including the parties, clothing, and almost all of the other aspects he reveals about himself, to impress his teenage love, Daisy, who also happens to be Tom’s wife. He believes he can win Daisy back from her husband by throwing lavish parties, and putting on a deceitful lifestyle in an attempt to lead her in believing he qualified to be one of the elite. “The book's chief characters are blind, and they behave blindly. Gatsby does not see Daisy's vicious emptiness, and Daisy, deluded, thinks she will reward her gold-hatted lover until he tries to force from her an affirmation she is too weak to make. Tom is blind to his hypocrisy; with "a short deft movement" he breaks Myrtle's nose for daring to mention the
Apparently being wealthy is not all Gatsby wants, but also wants love from Daisy. He loves her so much he wants her to break Tom’s heart and come with him. This man is clever and cold hearted like Lord Voldemort and Sauron. Jordan glanced at Nick and told him in a calm tone, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). Gatsby’s way of being in love with Daisy is to be a creepy stalker, never giving her space and always spying on her.
For five years, Gatsby was denied the one thing that he desired more than anything in the world: Daisy. While she was willing to wait for him until after the war, he did not want to return to her a poor man who would, in his eyes, be unworthy of her love. Gatsby did not want to force Daisy to choose between the comfortable lifestyle she was used to and his love. Before he would return to her, he was determined to make something of himself so that Daisy would not lose the affluence that she was accustomed to possessing. His desire for Daisy made Gatsby willing to do whatever was necessary to earn the money that would in turn lead to Daisy’s love, even if it meant participating in actions...
Daisy’s original impression of Gatsby is evident in her early letters to him, “...he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself- that he was fully able to take care of her” (149). Daisy loved Gatsby under the false hope that they belonged to the same social class. She grew up surrounded by riches, never working a day in her life, and she could not comprehend the struggles of a man who must work for the food he eats each day. Daisy knew that she must marry when she is beautiful, for being a beautiful rich girl of good social standing was her highest commodity and most valuable chip in marrying well. In order to live a secure life, she had to find someone the had the means to provide for her extravagant lifestyle, and the deep care for her that would allow Daisy to do as she pleased. The only definition of love Daisy knew was one of disillusioned power and commitments under false pretenses in order to keep the wealthy continually rich. Daisy acknowledges the false pretenses of marriage for the wealthy in how she describes her daughter’s future. She tells Nick, “‘And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this
Gatsby downfall came when he sacrificed his morality to attain wealth. Gatsby realises that the illusion of his dream with Daisy, demands wealth to become priority, and thus wealth becomes the desire overriding his need for her [Daisy’s] love. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, pg 104) and that Gatsby has lied about his past. In a society that relies on luxuries, Gatsby throws parties to attract Daisy’s attention. Also, Gatsby expresses that same need to keep busy, just as Daisy does, in a society of the elite. Nick describes Gatsby as "never quite still, there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand" (Fitzgerald, pg 68). Gatsby fills his house "full of interesting people...who do interesting things" (Fitzgerald, pg 96). Gatsby's dream is doomed to failure in that he has lost the fundamental necessities to experience love, such as honesty and moral integrity.
Nick describes Gatsby as “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life(Ch.3).” Such description unifies the appearance of Gatsby with people’s expectation of a man who accomplished the American dream. The obsession with wealth often blinds people from the potential crisis. The crisis of having everything they worked and struggled for redefined if the reality fails them. Just like strivers who chase the American dream, Gatsby also spent his whole life in pursuit of his American dream, which Daisy was a major component of.
Gatsby is a dreamer, he dreams that one day he and Daisy will be able to be together once again. To achieve this dream Gatsby has made himself a rich man. He knows that in order to win Daisy back he must be wealthy and of high social stature. Gatsby becomes rich, has a beautiful mansion, nice things, things like shirts “They’re such beautiful shirts. . . it makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful clothes” (pg.98).Gatsby believes his dream will come true because of all the money and nice things he has. The way that Gatsby becomes rich is in a way the demise of his dream. Gatsby becomes wealthy by participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. Daisy eventually learns about this and it is one of the reasons she will never again be with Gatsby. The other reason is Daisy a...
Gatsby had been working for so long to make Daisy his, that somewhere along the way his love turned to obsession. His Dream is not the pure thing it started out to be. His first step in fulfilling it was to become wealthy, which he did through corrupt means. He was filled with hope that once Daisy saw his wealth and how much he still loved her, that she would leave her husband Tom and come be with him. He even “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 83). In an attempt to make this come true, he and Daisy began to have an affair. The amorality and dishonesty of this only solidifies the fact that Gatsby’s dream was corrupted by his desire to have Daisy, as if she were an object not a person. Gatsby also never took into account that Daisy may have already fulfilled her dream. She was, even throughout her affair with Gatsby, content with her life with Tom because he gave her the life of luxury she had always dreamed of. Daisy’s dream was corrupt from the beginning. Her desire for money won over her desire for love. As for Gatsby’s dream with Daisy, “it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city…” (Fitzgerald
When Nick visits Daisy she tells him the story of how her daughter was born, “It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about––things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling.” By leaving Daisy behind at a time when she most needs him, Tom loses his value of companionship with Daisy. He no longer fits the three criteria that Daisy feels she needs in a man. Daisy knows that Tom no longer loves her and is having an affair with another woman, but despite all of this, Daisy has no intention of leaving him (20). This is because Tom, despite no longer fulfilling her emotionally, is still better for her financially and socially than if she left him to live alone. If Daisy wants to stay in her class, she has no option other than to stay with Tom. When Daisy finally sees Gatsby again, she suddenly has another option besides staying with Tom. Daisy knows that Gatsby has true feelings of love towards her, but leaving Tom would prove to be risky as it could tarnish her reputation and by extension her social stability. Daisy is now struggling between taking a risk for love and maintaining a safe, stable life she is ultimately unhappy
Gatsby believed that status could be achieved through gaining monetary wealth, and tried to impress Daisy with extravagant parties and fancy cars, not realising that he could never be a part of the “distinguished secret society” to which she and Tom belonged. Gatsby dedicated five years of his life to work towards attaining Daisy, but as time went on, his vision became increasingly grandiose, and he began loving an idealised illusion of her. Daisy is unable to live up to his expectations, not of her own fault but because of the “colossal vitality of his illusion”. Gatsby, in his feverish desperation to win Daisy, abandons reason and believes that he could revert everything back “just the way it was before”.
A beautiful young lady that possessed the aura of grace, luxury, and sophistication. Attributes that the poor “midwestern” boy always wanted to attain. Gatsby saw Daisy as an embodiment of all his dreams and he instantly fell in love with her. In an attempt to impress Daisy, Gatsby lied about his social status. Claiming he was a wealthy “oxford man”, so that she will see him fit as her sweetheart. They fell in love with each other, but Gatsby had to leave for the war. Daisy did not wait for Gatsby’s return and married a young man from an aristocratic family named Tom Buchanan. The news broke Gatsby’s heart and he decided to dedicate most of his life pursuing Daisy and acquiring the wealth he believed is necessary to win her back. On the earlier parts of the novel, the author made the readers feel such admiration to Gatsby’s relentless pursuit for love. Making his rags to riches tale the epitome of the American dream. From his hard work to earn all the wealth he has, to all the extremely lavish parties he threw for Daisy to notice. The text suggested that Gatsby’s ability to dream and make it seem real
Gatsby believes in the aforementioned "American Dream." Thus, Gatsby believes that money alone will allow him to enter the upper class. However, the unspoken truth of the "American Dream" is that class mobility requires money and the culture typical of the upper class. Gatsby becomes wealthy, but his lack of this culture prevents him from fulfilling his goal of social mobility. Writer Andrew B. Trigg discusses Gatsby 's inability to climb the social ladder: "culture provides a barrier to entering the top echelons of the leisure class" (Trigg.) Throughout The Great Gatsby, Gatsby 's lack of taste is evident, which leads to the upper class 's rejection of him. Gatsby repeatedly displays his wealth in excessive ways. Gatsby throws extravagant parties, buys flamboyant clothes, and purchases an opulent car and mansion. Throughout the novel, these displays of wealth are met by criticism from those that Gatsby is trying to impress. Tom Buchanan, Daisy 's husband, and a man of inherited wealth, detests Gatsby. In Chapter seven, Tom frequently criticizes Gatsby for his gaudy displays of wealth. First, Tom criticizes Gatsby 's car: " 'Come on, Daisy, ' said