How Does Fitzgerald Present The Change In The Great Gatsby

The period of the 1920’s was a time of great consumerism, materialistic focus and the establishing of the newly rich, a time period given the name of the roaring twenties for a reason. This period is best portrayed by a historical fiction novel written by an american author F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby”. Through this novel there is a great divide amongst social classes. The high class people are separated into two perspectives, the “new money” and the “old money”. The narrator and one of the main characters of the novel, Nick , introduces the readers to a variety of people from various social classes. Jay Gatsby is the protagonist of the novel and belongs to the new money while Tom Buchanan, his love rival, is a member of the old

money. Besides being separated through classes, they are separated geographically located in the West and East egg. The people from the East Egg are the old money, they are respected people whose families have lived there for generations through which their wealth grew. The West Egg are members of the new money, they are often laughed upon although they are equally wealthy, they cannot be compared with those from the East Egg. Jay Gatsby as a member of the newly rich is mocked and judged by the society since as it is unclear to them how he has reached such excessive wealth. Despite their judgemental views they continue to enjoy in his luxurious without any interest on connecting with Gatsby. A few people truly know Gatsby and the reason why he has become who he has, all because of his powerful love for Daisy Buchanan his old love that he has wished to reunite with for five years. Throughout this novel, Fitzgerald is exploring Gatsby’s attempts to become the upper class and in return how he is being mocked and judged by the members of the “old money”.
Tom Buchanan, a member of the “old money” who are situated on the East Egg is a representative of the whole old rich community. Fitzgerald describes the wealth that they behold excessively. The use of visual imagery throughout the novel is vital to the depiction of the excessive wealth. Fitzgerald describes Tom and Daisy’s home as a “house being even more elaborate that he (Nick) had expected. It is a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walls and burning gardens-finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though the momentum of its run. The front was broken by a line of french windows glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon” (6). As mentioned previously, Tom as a representative for the whole “old money” community this is what the homes of these people looked like. Color symbolism is very important in the contrast of their homes as the readers can see that Tom is always more sophisticated with his choices whereas Gatsby is expressing his home in more colorful ways especially during his parties. In this very specific description of Tom and Daisy’s home, Fitzgerald uses an allusion to Georgian Colonial emphasizing on the idea of the “old money” to the readers as the Georgian Colonial stands for tradition, symbolizing their stable future as opposed to the “new money” which they mock throughout the novel. Not only does Fitzgerald depict the materialistic part of the “old money community”, but he also does an outstanding job with depicting their behavior. At the very end of the novel, the upper class are described as very arrogant people when Nick the novels narrator interprets Daisy and Tom as “careless people , who smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (179). This quote is highly significant to the behavior of the “old money” people. Fitzgerald’s purpose is to represent Tom and Daisy as being very corrupted by their colossal wealth through their characterization. Not only does the quote portray the two as selfish people but it also exploits how their perception of life itself is changed, they obtained many materialistic objects that none of them mattered to them anymore due to the large amount that they had possessed.
Jay Gatsby, the protagonist of the novel is a member of the “new money” community and throughout the novel is constantly marginalized and represented as someone who no matter how much wealth he possesses he will never be in the same lane as the “old money”. The “new money” are considered to be equally rich but as they do not have the appropriate background therefore they are mocked by the “old money”. Fitzgerald uses visual imagery to portray the materialistic aspect of the “new money”. Throughout the novel, readers learn that Jay Gatsby is an extremely wealthy man. His mansion is described as a “factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy” (5). In this description Fitzgerald uses symbolism of the Hotel de Ville in Normandy to highlight Gatsby’s wealth. The connotations of Hotel de Ville suggest to the readers that a mansion that is of extravagant size and glorious beauty. This depiction of Gatsby’s house created such an image in the readers minds that enabled them to understand Gatsby’s wealth as such a home would demand a lot of money.
Throughout the novel, Gatsby’s attempt to be on the level of the “old money” is clearly evident.

Gatsby is portrayed to be as a good person according to his behaviour, wealth and his dreams. No matter how Fitzgerald portrayed him as a good person, the readers were able to witness his change in behaviour. Gatsby’s main goal is to win over Daisy’s love and impress her by his wealth. In chapter 5 when Gatsby and Daisy reunite he invited her and Nick to his extraordinary mansion and gave them a tour. When they are situated in his ball/music room, Gatsby is commanding Klipspringer “to not talk too much but to play the piano”. This quote is revealing more about Gatsby’s characterization while in the presence of Daisy he displays manipulative and demanding behaviour. This quotation from the novel has strong effects on the readers because Fitzgerald causes the readers to contemplate the idea of Gatsby impressing daisy. Fitzgerald makes the readers question whether this is Daisy’s influence on Gatsby and does he really believe that she will be impressed by him imitating the arrogant and demanding behaviour of the “old money” people. If Fitzgerald hadn’t used the interesting choice of diction “old sport” the readers would have assumed that this was Tom speaking. Other then the fact that Gatsby changes his behaviour in order to be accepted as “old money” in order to gain Daisy’s love, he is also mocked by Tom Buchanan. For instance, in the novel Tom’s response to Nick’s statement that Gatsby attended oxford is a strong example of Gatsby being mocked as he rejects Nicks claim immediately when he states “an Oxford man! like hell he is! He wears a pink suit." (122). Tom cannot simply believe that Gatsby has attended Oxford, because the connotations of Oxford positive for the upper class, meaning that Oxford is a old but very prestigious school, everything that Gatsby is not in Toms eyes. The pink suit is symbolic to Tom’s perspective of this claim that Gatsby attended Oxford

as Gatsby is exhibiting his “new money” wealth meaning that his taste in style is conservative and tasteful as the original upper class should possess.
To sum up, the “new money” and “old money” are parts of the upper class, the new money being the new rich and the old money being the glamourous old rich who have a background of being wealthy. In the novel Gatsby’s main goal is to win over Daisy and her love through his wealth and attempt to get on the level of the “old money” which is where Daisy belongs to. Even though the “new money” are considered to be non conservative and less responsible to a large extent, people from that community such as Gatsby, a man with a kind heart who still cares about other people who mean something to him unine the “old money who possess so many things that they simply stopped caring about not only the materialistic objects but also the people that they once cared for.