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Conclusion for the social classes in the great gatsby
Conclusion for the social classes in the great gatsby
Conclusion for the social classes in the great gatsby
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Elijah Choate Ms. Maggert Honors English III 06 April 2017 Careless Money In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, social classes are tremendously influential to morality. The rich are divided up into groups that live in opposite “eggs” of Long Island, New York City. The West Egg is described as being the land of “New Money” and the East Egg is characterized as being the land of “Old Money”. Right in between both of these “Egg’s” lies an infamous area of dismay and hardship called “The Valley of Ashes” where almost peasant appearing individuals reside. These working class individuals are portrayed throughout the book as being hardworking and morally belittled by the upper class as if those that aren’t rich aren’t worthy of even being in the presence of those that are. …show more content…
Rich and powerful people have gotten away with numerous crimes and scandals throughout American history, solely because of the number that’s in their bank account. For example, Orenthal James Simpson, or more commonly known as OJ Simpson,was found not guilty of the crime of murder in the court of California, county of Los Angeles, just because he had the money to buy the cream of the crop when it comes to lawyers. He had a full deck of judicial powerhouses that included Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, and Robert Kardashian. Simpson was allowed to keep generating sports memorabilia during his trial, which allowed him to afford his "Dream Team" of lawyers — which Business Insider notes costed him an estimated $50,000 a day. So, with the help of a virtually unbeatable team of lawyers, OJ got off scot-free with the crime of murder. This goes hand in hand with Tom and Daisy and how they have the money and power to never be held responsible for any wrong doing or scandals that they’re involved
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s obsessive pursuit of goals suggest that Fitzgerald believe that obsessiveness and constant desires often lead to a wrong psychological impact, destructive of one’s traditions, morals, and would have an unplanned end of the lesson or life.
The Great Gatsby,written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, is a very well-known book throughout America. It is considered “Fitzgerald’s finest work” and “got known as one the greatest american novels ever written.”(Biography.com Editors) Even though it is seen as a great novel, it was challenged due to the “language, sexual references,” (Lombardi) and the bad behavior the novel includes to be able to describe the jazz age perfectly.
In the book, The Great Gatsby, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, there seems to be conflict between old money and new money. New money meaning that they have inquired wealth recently, and old money meaning they have inherited the money from their ancestors and have been building up their powerful social connections for many years. Fitzgerald portrays new money as being reckless and unwise with their wealth by lavishly spending their money on new cars,new clothes and parties. On the other side of the spectrum, old money individuals are presented as being more responsible and knowing how to handle their money. The difference between these two social classes goes beyond the way they spend money, but, in their personalities also; the new money groups tend to be more caring and lacking in social graces while old money are deeply selfish and inconsiderate. This conflict between the two ranks is very interesting in that even though the book takes place in the 1920s, this concept is fully evident in our society today.
In both The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" by Flannery O'Connor, the protagonists are searching for some type of fulfillment in life, and they both believe that they can obtain it through material belongings and behaving in a carless fashion. Both protagonists, Jay Gatsby and Mr. Shiftlet, do obtain material possessions thinking that these possessions will make them happy; however, neither are able to obtain a sense of fulfillment. F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby and Flannery O'Connor in "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" illustrate their disapproval of searching for fulfillment in life through possessions and careless behavior through motifs of greed, foreshadowing, and symbolism in order to allow their audiences to feel the same rejection toward searching for fulfillment and happiness in wealth and careless behavior.
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald criticises the increase of consumerism in the 1920s and the abandonment of the original American Dream , highlighting that the increased focus on wealth and the social class associated with it has negative effects on relationships and the poorest sections of society. The concept of wealth being used as a measure of success and worth is also explored by Plath in ‘The Bell Jar’. Similarly, she draws attention to the superficial nature of this material American Dream which has extended into the 1960s, but highlights that gender determines people’s worth in society as well as class.
Benjamin Franklin once said “Money has never made man happy, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness." This is arguably one of the most cliché quotes of all time. If money cannot provide happiness, then what exactly can it do? The characters of Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan open a door to a world in which money was the sole motivation for their success and the only reason for their power. When the reader uses a Marxist critical lens during chapter four of F. Scott 's Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, the social hierarchy reveals how Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan utilize the importance of money and social power to manipulate others in their lives.
Three works Cited Materialism started to become a main theme of literature in the modernist era. During this time the economy was good causing jazz to be popular, bootlegging common, and an affair meaning nothing (Gevaert). This negative view of money and the gross materialism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby serves to be a modern theme in the novel. Throughout the novel, the rich possess a sense of carelessness and believe that money yields happiness.
The Great Gatsby – For the Love of Money. F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), is about many things that have to do with American life in the "Roaring Twenties," things such as the abuse of alcohol and the pursuit of other pleasures, including that elusive entity, the "American dream. " Mainly it is the story of Jay Gatsby, told by Gatsby's friend and neighbor, Nick Carraway, a bonds salesman in New York. Three other important characters are Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson. Nick is distantly related to Daisy, whose wealthy husband, Tom, went to college with Nick.
Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, there is a constant theme present: social class. Fitzgerald makes a connection between the theme of social class, and the settings in the novel for example The Valley of Ashes which is described as a “desolate area of land” (p.21) and a “solemn dumping ground” (p.21) which is where the poor people live. The Valley of Ashes is situated between West Egg and New York, West Egg being the place where the aspiring classes are situated, which is the “less fashionable of the two” (p.8), this is where Gatsby lives. West Egg is the place of ‘new money’, Fitzgerald shows this by the idea of the main character Jay Gatsby, rumoured to be selling illegal alcohol (prohibition) which means he is quickly making vast amounts of money.” Who is this Gatsby anyhow? Some big bootlegger?”(p.86) Gatsby shows off the amount of wealth he has by his fabulous parties and oversized mansion. “There was music from my neighbour's house through those summer nights. In his enchanted gardens, men and girls came and went like moths, among the whispering and the champagne and the stars.”(p.33) Fitzgerald uses the word ‘enchanted’ to paint a visual picture of what the house and the scene looks like, a magical and enchanted castle, with elegant furniture. This is in comparison to East Egg where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live, in a house where “The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside” (p.10). East Egg being the place of ‘old money’ which is made from the inheritance of their past generations, the people who live it East Egg are mainly well educated, historically wealthy and live quite elegantly, but they are also quite ‘snobbish’. Gatsby’s background does not fit into the social standards of East Egg...
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows Nick Carraway when he moves East into New York and becomes entangled in a deadly circle of greed and jealousy. Nick is pulled into a love triangle between his distant cousin Daisy Buchanan, her husband Tom, and the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby, who lives next door. As Nick and his neighbor develop a strange comradeship, information begins to surface about Gatsby’s past that show his deep infatuation with money, appearances, and his first love, Daisy. When a tragedy involving Tom’s mistress Myrtle Wilson occurs, the novel delves into the connections between dreams, hope, power, and status- all things that eventually lead to misery for Nick. Throughout this book, Fitzgerald reflects on a few themes, namely the effect wealth has on his characters, as well as how their lives were destined to fail because of expectations and entitlement. Each problem, limitation, and fear these characters have revolves around one thing- money. Fitzgerald makes the strongest case for the theme of “wealth is power and power corrupts” in his novel The Great Gatsby.
Money can buy happiness for a short amount of time, but after a while, they will require even more. The Great Gatsby shows a great example of money cannot buy happiness and portrays this very well. F. Scott Fitzgerald in the novel, The Great Gatsby, implies that money cannot buy happiness.
Although the novels contrast each other in regard to historical background in many ways, they also share some similarities. For instance, even though The Great Gatsby mainly focuses on the flourishing lives of the wealthy, there is also evidence of the poor in the novel. The narrator mentions a place known as the Valley of Ashes, “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 and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 27). The inhabitants of the Valley of Ashes demonstrate that there will always be poverty in society, no matter
Wealth plays an enormous factor in today's day to day life. Having money greatly impacts how someone looks at you, both good and bad. Working for money can display that the person was not born with what they have, they earned it. However their are some people who are born with money, and this can make another person who worked to earn their money very agitated.In F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby characters range from rich living in the West Egg or poor living in The Valley Of ashes.
For centuries, money has been an ever-prominent force in the decisions and actions of humans. The American Dream is a utopian ideology achieved through hard work in a well-established society, during the 1920s, immigrants would immigrate from Europe to Canada and the United States in search for a well-payed job to support their families abroad. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fatty Fitzgerald illuminates the powerful effect of money in creating and changing people in the American society of the 1920’s. Long Island, split into two sections, the East egg, representing old aristocracy, and the West Egg of the newly rich, Fitzgerald depicts the constant struggle between
Fitzgerald also puts the immortality of old as well as new money front and center later in the book. It starts with tom cheating on his wife, but also advances later when Daisy ends up killing Myrtle. She allows Gatsby to cover up that she was actually the one driving. Furthermore, after Gatsby's death Nick does not come forward to say what actually happened. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they 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" (187-188). That means multiple people connected to old money have decaying morals. Moreover, it shows how Gatsby, even coming from new money, has a corrupted sense of morality much in the same way as the old money characters. These decays in morals are partly contributed to the fact that most old money people are ignorant towards lower classes.