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Social class theory in the great gatsby
Social class theory in the great gatsby
The influence of the jazz age on America
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In The Great Gatsby, a classic American novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Valley of Ashes, East Egg, and West Egg are the three main regions surrounding New York City, a “racy, adventurous” city that epitomizes the American Dream (65). A cultural revolution, illustrated by the motif of geography, is occurring at the time setting of the book—the Jazz Age or the “Roaring” Twenties (69). During these tumultuous times, the capitalist economy roared on, but economic inequality between classes also grew. Klipspringer sings during Daisy’s visit to Gatsby’s mansion, “The rich get richer and the poor get—children” (95). Each of these main settings represents an element of the societal hierarchy that emerged in America during the Jazz Age, and establishes …show more content…
People, such as George Wilson, live among the dirty ashes, losing their vitality while the rich enjoy extravagant parties around them. The description of the valley of ashes demonstrates how the ashes grow “like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens… [taking] the forms of houses and chimneys and…of men” (23). Fitzgerald’s use of simile in the aforementioned description of the ashes in the valley establishes the reader’s understanding of the “worn-out” George Wilson and others who live there (136). The ashes affect the surrounding natural features, and then slowly drain the life out the residents. The gray imagery of the valley of ashes also represents the decay of the lives of the poor and the failure of the American Dream. The fire of the American Dream has burnt out, much like the “ash-gray men” (23). The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, a pair of fading “blue and gigantic” eyes painted on an advertisement board, watch over the valley of the ashes as if they are God (23). Distraught about his wife’s death, George Wilson says, “God sees everything”, illustrating the significance the eyes have in his perspective (160). By using anthropomorphism, Fitzgerald demonstrates how these eyes of “God” watch disapprovingly at the moral decay of the rich that pass through the valley and the decline of the American Dream for the miserable
Due to rapid urbanization as a result of the growth of industrialism, the east was a metaphorical bloodbath consisting of people doing whatever they could to get ahead of their fellow man. It was a vicious arena where only those with a competitive edge would prosper and all others would fail miserably. With big business there were very few winners, but those who were on top held an unfathomable amount of importance and wealth over the rest of the citizens. Such as Gatsby’s acquaintance Meyer Wolfsheim, who through immoral measures gained enough sway in American life that he supposedly became “the man who fixed the World’s Series” (Fitzgerald 52). In the setting of The Great Gatsby, those who were bested by their fellow man lived fruitless lives in the valley of ashes, scrounging for every penny. Those who succeeded lived with the rest of the upper class in either East Egg or West Egg. East Egg represented “old money” and harbored those with large inheritances who had possessed wealth in their family for years. These citizens had lost the drive and desire in their lives that once fueled their ancestors to create the fortune which citizens of East Egg used to carry on their legacy of wealth and prestige. Citizens of East Egg had reached a state of complacency and had accepted what their lives had come to. Daisy acts as the epitome of a complacent East Egg resident
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic, The Great Gatsby, tells a story of how love and greed lead to death. The narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway, tells of his unusual summer after meeting the main character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s intense love makes him attempt anything to win the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan. All the love in the world, however, cannot spare Gatsby from his unfortunate yet inevitable death. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald utilizes the contrasting locations of East Egg and West Egg to represent opposing forces vital to the novel.
“This is a 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”(Fitzgerald 2). Tom and Nick a driving through a place between West Egg and New York, which is an industrial zone where the lower class lives. Here alone we can see how the poor class lives their daily lives in filth, but the rich live in shiny clean houses.
In this quote, the Valley of Ashes is portrayed as a “desolate area of land” where the glory of West Egg and New York are separated by a valley characterized as “grotesque,” dim, and “crumbling.” Fitzgerald includes this setting to describe important characters, such as Myrtle Wilson, who have an extreme influence on others because they are considered impoverished and trashy with no class. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes despair and poor lifestyles, which is why Myrtle is able to be used by Tom, who, in disdain, no longer shows feelings for his wife. The road is also personified to represent those who reside in the West Egg, who are snobby and want nothing to do with the poor.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, set in early 1920’s New York, tells the story of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his lasting affection for Daisy Buchannan. Mr. Gatsby is attempting to lure Daisy’s love as the couple split before Gatsby went to war. However, throughout the novel, the reader encounters unethical characters along with a complex intertwined plot that incorporates themes from early 20th century society. The true essence of the novel, and the major themes of the story, are captured and symbolized in one key paragraph in Chapter 5, page 86. This paragraph combines the motifs of time and Gatsby's great desire to go back to the past; it further reflects the emergence of phoniness and greed as important elements.
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
Fitzgerald uses setting to criticise society’s loss of morality and the growth of consumerism after the Great War. The rise of the stock market in the 1920s enabled business to prosper in America. However, although the owners of industry found themselves better off wages didn’t rise equally, causing the gap between the rich and poor to grow markedly. Parkinson argues that the settings “represent [these] alternative worlds of success and failure in a modern capitalist society”. The valley of ashes symbolises this failure and moral decay, acting as a foil to the affluent “world of success”, East Egg, and highlighting that the lower classes must suffer to support its existence. This setting is introduced in Chapter 2 and is described as where “ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”. The personification of the environment creates the sense that these failures are rooted in the land, suggesting that poverty is an inescapable part of American society. This is emphasised through the use of tripling which creates a sense of endlessness. By describing the men who live there as “crumbling through the pow...
The settings in The Great Gatsby reflect the socio-historic context of the novel and the nature of different characters’ pursuits of happiness. Gatsby’s residence defines him as a member of the nouveaux riches as its description makes his property seem tastelessly new, as suggested by the ‘thin beard of raw ivy’ that unattractively exposes efforts to appear aged, and characterless as a ‘factual imitation of some Hôtel-de-Ville in Normandy’ implies it is a plain copy with no creativity expended for its creation. The interior of Gatsby’s home ...
The beginning of The Great Gatsby introduces readers to two places that will be important settings throughout the rest of the novel: The West Egg and the East Egg. These two places are described as being distinctly different, and this contrast between two places is continued when comparing the Valley of Ashes and New York. Based on the use of color and basic physical description, the West Egg and the Valley of Ashes are typically made out to be the lesser in comparison to the East Egg and New York. At first, the distinction between these places can be seen as simply a matter of money: who has the most and who is new verses old money, but there is also a matter of personality that seems to divide these places.
As depicted by Scott F. Fitzgerald, the 1920s is an era of a great downfall both socially and morally. As the rich get richer, the poor remain to fend for themselves, with no help of any kind coming their way. Throughout Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the two “breeds” of wealthier folk consistently butt heads in an ongoing battle of varying lifestyles. The West Eggers, best represented by Jay Gatsby, are the newly rich, with little to no sense of class or taste. Their polar opposites, the East Eggers, are signified by Tom and Daisy Buchanan; these people have inherited their riches from the country’s wealthiest old families and treat their money with dignity and social grace. Money, a mere object in the hands of the newly wealthy, is unconscientiously squandered by Gatsby in an effort to bring his only source of happiness, Daisy, into his life once again. Over the course of his countless wild parties, he dissipates thousands upon thousands of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to attract Daisy’s attention. For Gatsby, the only way he could capture this happiness is to achieve his personal “American Dream” and end up with Daisy in his arms. Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is somewhat detrimental to himself and the ones around him; his actions destroy relationships and ultimately get two people killed.
The Valley of Ash is a very unique setting unlike the other settings of The Great Gatsby. The Valley of Ash shows a desolated and impoverished land haunted by unpleasant day to day mentality. You could say it is like a buffer zone between East and West egg, perhaps a representation of no man’s land. No man’s land was the land between the Allies and Axis trenches in World War I which had just ended in the narrative of the book. It’s a twilight zone caused by the raging war between the nations, or between West and East egg. Another symbol of the Valley of Ashes is the moral decay hidden by the outer beauty of the Eggs, and conveys that beneath the embellishment of West Egg and the older fashion charm of East Egg lies the same immorality as in the valley. The valley is created by industrial carelessness and is a sorrowful result of capitalism. It is the setting to the only poor characters in the novel.
By exploring the physical site of the valley, followed by the inhabitants of the valley – George and Myrtle, George representing the working class and Myrtle the exception, extending this to the references of the valley to Gatsby’s humble origins, the Valley of the Ashes represents the low social mobility and the failure of the American Dream.
The Valley of Ash, the least described region of the book, is an impoverished region connecting the prosperous, the wealthy New York City and the wealthier Long Island. The neighborhood is a “dismal scene” (23), which Nick Caraway is forced to view every time he rides the train into the city. The name valley of ash is an informal name deriving from the sheer quantity of ash, littering the city. Ashes cover and define everything in the city: the “ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”, the “houses and chimneys”, and the “men”. Similarly, the residents of the valley are hardly characterized by Caraway, because he cannot understand them. The smoke “obscures” and “obfuscates” the actions of these men both literally and figurative: a rich man like Caraway cannot understand the pure and intolerable poverty. The residents of the valley are plain and not very interesting. Most predominately featured ...
Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, location is a critical motif. The contrasts between East and West, East Egg and West Egg, and the two Eggs and New York serve important thematic roles and provide the backdrops for the main conflict. Yet, there needs to be a middle ground between each of these sites, a buffer zone, as it were; there is the great distance that separates East from West; there is the bay that separates East Egg from West Egg; and, there is the Valley of Ashes that separates Long Island from New York. The last of these is probably the most striking. Yet, the traditional literal interpretation does not serve Fitzgerald's theme as well as a more figurative one would--the "Valley of Ashes" is not literally a valley of ashes, but is rather a figurative description of the middle-class values and suburbia that clash with those of New York as well as East and West Egg.
Social class and status is also emphasized through the barrier that exists between East Egg and West Egg which symbolises “old money” and “new money” effectively, and the corruption of morals as witnessed and expressed by the narration of Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald shows that for all the lavishness of society there is ultimately unfulfilled dreams, corruption and separation, and in the case of Gatsby a tragic end to a tragic hero of the lower class.