The Role of Social Class in “The Great Gatsby”

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...

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...om because behind George’s back, Tom is having an affair with his wife Myrtle Wilson “thickish figure of a woman” (p.23). Within the Valley Of Ashes there is Wilson’s garage “the interior unprosperous and bare” (p.22) but also the famous Doctor T.J.Eckleburg advertisement “They look out of no face, but instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose” (p.21). The Doctor T.J.Eckleburg advertisement has a connection with the character George Wilson because, the morning after the accident the ‘sunlight lit up the billboard’, Wilson believes that this was a sign from God. The eyes of Doctor T.J.Eckleburg are through Nick’s viewpoint “the giant eyes of Doctor T.J.Eckleburg kept their vigil, but I perceived after a moment, that the other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away” (p.99)