Social Classes In The Great Gatsby Essay

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald offers a commentary on variety of themes- justice, power, greed, betrayal, the American dream and more. Of all the themes, social commentary of the different classes in the 1920s is most the developed throughout the book. Fitzgerald set up his novel into different groups, each portraying a different class during the 1920s. Each social group has its own problem to cope with, revealing the instability of the society. In the end each group has its own issues that it needs to deal with, showing the instability of the society. By creating the different social classes-old money, new money, and no money, Fitzgerald sends a message about the superiority running through every society. By reading The Great Gatsby through a historical lens, the novel becomes a commentary on the elitism of the 1920s society rather than a man’s desire for a previous love.
The most obvious group that F. Scott Fitzgerald attacks is the wealthy. Within the wealthy there are two different groups the “old money”, one whose family was wealthy for generations . Primary examples of this class in the Buchanan’s and Jordan Baker, both of whom were born into wealth and did not have to work to maintain there wealthy status.The Buchanan’s and Jordan baker are the primary example, both of them where born into wealth. The “old money” people do not have to workwho do not work fill their time with superficial means of ,entertainment. In the novel they go to parties, golf and have affairs with all their spare time. Tom has the pattern of picking lower class women to sleep with,their powerlessness makes his own position seem much more superior. Being with women who aspire to be like him makes him feel more confident that he is a...

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...as an object to satisfy his desire. Myrtle is blinded by her hopefulness to move up that she doesn’t realize that Tom will never accept her into his circles. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Myrtle as way to depict the desperateness of the less wealthy of the time.
The Great Gatsby is more than just a novel, it is a social commentary that brings the Jazz age to life. F Scott Fitzgerald captured the insecurities of each social group and portrays it through their actions. The period of economic growth in the 20s made the people of the time loose all their sensibility to other human beings. Every person only cared for themselves which hurt the people around them. By reading this novel through an historical lense, we should learn that we are just as important as the person next to us no matter how much money they have, so that every person deserves to be treated with respect.

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