Examples Of Social Classes In The Great Gatsby

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The Social Classes Where in today's society, the social roles really have not changed that much since the book was published. There will always be people who like to show off their money with fancy cars and big houses, though ordinary people still keep this world running, even if someone may see it or not. The article “What Determines How Americans Perceive Their Social Class?” by Robert Bird and Frank Newport, shows readers the different ways people interpret social classes in today's society. Also, the authors help provide stats and percentages to help show which social classes people identify as. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is still relevant for modern readers because it shows the different ways social class were …show more content…

In The Great Gatsby, readers can see multiple types of social classes being shown, such as classy ones, the showoffs, ordinary people, and the lower class. These are some of the main social classes people can see in The Great Gatsby. When a person looks at it, it’s very similar to what today's social classes look like. In The Great Gatsby, one of the main characters, Gatsby likes to show off his wealth with his fancy house and the parties he has every week. Fitzgerald shows Gatsby being a showoff during this scene, “On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus”, furthermore “on Mondays eight servants including an extra gardener. the night before” Furthermore “Every Friday five crates of oranges.a butler’s thumb.” also, “At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers. to know one from another.” and finally “By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived,” (Fitzgerald Pg 47). All these quotes explain and show all the work Gatsby has to do just to get one of his many parties together. It just shows how he wants to make an image for himself and really just wants to show off as a very wealthy and modest person. In today’s society, the way people view social classes has not changed since the 1920s. There are still the wealthy, the showoff, the ordinary people, …show more content…

The authors help to show readers the different ways social classes are viewed, and the stats and percentages to back that up. In the article, the authors want readers to understand the different ways social classes can be interpreted and the stats on the different levels of people in those classes. In a part of the article, the author explains the different ways people identify what social class they are as shown in this quote, “While in many minds there may be a lower class and an upper class in American society today, relatively few Americans at any income or education level like to think of themselves as being in those classes. Americans with very low socioeconomic status are just as likely to see themselves in the working or middle class as in the lower class, while Americans with very high socioeconomic status view themselves in the upper-middle class rather than the upper class,” (Bird and Newport). This quote helps to show the ways people view social classes and how social class hasn't changed, the jobs didn't change much and the lower class citizens and middle class do not care too much about their class. The higher class cares a lot more about it than all the classes combined because they don't want their

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