Social Classes In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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“‘Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.’” Phineas Taylor Barnum. Money is something that everyone wants in life; money can be a good thing but also a bad thing. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a middle-aged man named Gatsby is trying to reconnect with his long-lost love from past years. Fitzgerald, the author, shows how money can affect a community and how it can shift social standards for a town/city. He shows this by creating a book about Feast v.s. Famine, how money makes social classes, and how money makes people do crazy things. Money is one of the most powerful things in the world; we see this in The Great Gatsby. If you compare social classes to money, look at keeping up with the Joneses. Keeping up with the Jones talks about how you need to stay up to the neighborhood standards, what is new, and what people like. …show more content…

I say this because in the book you have these two secluded places near the water, one is called East Egg and the other one is called West Egg. These places are made of money, East Egg is old money and West Egg is new money. Between these two places is The Valley Of Ashes, this valley is very run down and the poorest people who work in factories live there. One example of this horrible seclusion is, “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” (Fitzgerald 23). This quote is very important because it demonstrates what the less fortunate people have to live in. The people who live in the Valley Of Ashes are effectively living in a factory because the conditions are so bad. This is also saying that they aren't as good as West and East Eggs, so they have to have that reminder of their famine every day. Not only did money make social classes, but it also caused people to think they deserve better than

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