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Society and class in the Great Gatsby
Society and class in the Great Gatsby
Society and class in the Great Gatsby
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The characters’ lives in the novel The Great Gatsby revolve around the desire for social status, and wealth. The characters believe money will give them happiness which was proven to be wrong. The illusion of happiness and correlation to wealth led to the characters downfall. The four characters Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, and Myrtle assume that wealth will give them happiness. They live their lives to achieve happiness but their wealth ultimately leaves them lonely or dead. The characters in the novel are blinded by wealth and proved to create distress and sadness instead.
Jay Gatsby struggles throughout his life to obtain the lifestyle of the wealthy to be happy. Gatsby grew up in a poor home and longed to life a life that was wealthy because that
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was believed to make an individual happy. Living with a lower class community Gatsby looked up to the rich and believed money made them happy. Once Gatsby meets Daisy he tries to create an illusion of personal wealth and power. “It took me three years to earn the money that bought it” (Fitzgerald 90). Gatsby lies about his wealth and says it was inherited to impress daisy. He owned a large home full of extravagant materials and parties but that did not make him happy because he did not have Daisy with him. Even though Gatsby always wanted to be wealthy, that was not enough happiness for him. His home and wealth mean nothing when he did not have Daisy because his true happiness was with her. Gatsby was never happy because wealth did not give him the comfort and happiness that he desired. Daisy was brought up with extravagant clothes and houses but that has never made her happy. Her lust for wealth ultimately leads to Gatsby’s death. Daisy was unhappy with her life and used Gatsby to give her a sense of happiness. Gatsby reconnects with daisy and expects her to stay with him because he now has status and money. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy then that she should go to Tom and say: I never loved you” (Fitzgerald 109). Daisy falls for Gatsby because of his wealth and considers leaving her husband for Gatsby. Tom and Daisy’s relationship is full of lying and cheating even though they have the ideal home and wealth. The extravagant home they live in created an image of happiness but Daisy was always empty. Daisy was trapped in their big home and felt happiness and freedom when she was with Gatsby. Money did not bring Daisy happiness but the feeling of someone loving her gave a feeling of contentment. Tom’s wealth did not give Daisy the love she yearned for but left her with an empty feeling and a broken marriage. Tom Buchannan is born with money but that does not make him happy or content with his life.
Tom married a beautiful woman named Daisy who also had a high status and wealth. Unlike Gatsby, Tom was born into a family with money which gave him privileges that others could only imagine. “His family were enormously wealthy-even in collage his freedom with money was a matter of reproach” (Fitzgerald 6). Tom’s wealthy family and upbringing made others believe he was a content man but in reality Tom was insecure and miserable. Tom becomes so focused on his wealth and its pleasures that he loses his wife who was also unhappy. Even with the ideal life he is still miserable and cheats on his wife to feel some pleasure. Tom has a relationship with George Wilson’s wife and buys her love with material goods such as coats, jewelry, and lavish parties. Tom treats Wilson’s wife to material goods but he is still empty inside with no emotional attachment or happiness. This character was portrayed as a strong and rich man but soon realizes that money did not bring him happiness but left him …show more content…
empty. The character Myrtle is extremely materialistic which gave her temporary happiness but it also lead to her death.
Myrtle longs to be with Tom because he was rich and noticed her.Tom gives her the desired lifestyle which she longed to be part of. “My dear,” she cried. “I’m going to give you this dress as soon as I’m done with it. I’ve got to get another one tomorrow” (Fitzgerald 36). Tom bought her material goods which gave her feelings of happiness and love. Wilson did not have wealth and social status to offer Myrtle and so she found a man who could give her what she wanted. Tom’s money did not bring her happiness but led her to believe he cared for her which was not true. Myrtle seemed to adopt the lifestyle of Tom because the casual spending made her happy and gave an illusion of the perfect life. Myrtle’s greed for Tom’s wealth and perceived happiness which ultimately causes her death. Tom’s wealth that supported her proved to be empty as he left her for Daisy. Myrtle stayed with Tom because of his money but that is why she was killed in the end. Money did not give her the happy life she wanted. Tom’s money made her believe she was loved but that was empty
promises. Overall, these characters were under the impression that wealth came with happiness which was not the case. Wealth did not work in favour of these characters but instead gave them superficial happiness and a false idea of love. The characters Myrtle and Gatsby longed to have wealth and contentment but that ultimately lead to their death. Daisy was attracted to Gatsby’s wealth rather than his love for her which did not bring her happiness. Tom lived the ideal life but was never actually happy with his wealth. The characters Fitzgerald created struggled to understand that money does not bring happiness which led them to their downfall. In conclusion, the characters’ lives were destroyed because of their obsession with money which did not give them happiness.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.
Jay Gatsby, taken in by a bittersweet fruit, drags himself through filth. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby becomes wealthy to achieve his American Dream, but he fails to achieve it because of the corruption and disillusioning effects of materialistic society.
Through his vivid depiction of the valley of the ashes in the acclaimed novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald unveils the truth about 1920s America: economic prosperity did not guarantee happiness and resulted in depreciating conditions for those that were not able to connive their way to the top.
As a young man, Jay Gatsby was poor with nothing but his love for Daisy. He had attempted to woe her, but a stronger attraction to money led her to marry another man. This did not stop Gatsby’s goal of winning this woman for himself though, and he decided to improve his life anyway he could until he could measure up to Daisy’s standards. He eventually gained connections in what would seem to be the wrong places, but these gave him the opportunity he needed to "get rich quick." Gatsby’s enormous desire for Daisy controlled his life to the point that he did not even question the immorality of the dealings that he involved himself in to acquire wealth. Eventually though, he was able to afford a "castle" in a location where he could pursue Daisy effectively. His life ambition had successfully moved him to the top of the "new money" class of society, but he lacked the education of how to promote his wealth properly. Despite the way that Gatsby flaunted his money, he did catch Daisy’s attention. A chaotic affair followed for a while until Daisy was overcome by pressures from Gatsby to leave her husband and by the realization that she belonged to "old money" and a more proper society.
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.
During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind.
Conclude ideas that are related between the great Gatsby & modern society and say how things have changed over time
Wealth can be a noble thing or a dangerous thing, depending on who does what with it. In The Great Gatsby, the wealth of Jay Gatsby was used for a multitude of reasons, the main one being to get the attention of Daisy. In contrast, the Joad family’s wealth, in The Grapes of Wrath, was staying together throughout the loses and hardships. One of the aims of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was to show how money and materialism could change a person again and again until they were hardly the same person anymore. In comparing their work it is clear that Fitzgerald and Steinbeck felt that materialism changed people for the worse. While both of their novels deal with wealth and poverty, each novel conveys its message from a very different perspective-
The Great Gatsby “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, depicts the vast social difference between the old aristocrats, the new self-made rich and the poor. He vividly interprets the social stratification during the roaring twenties as each group has their own problems to deal with. Old Money, who have fortunes dating from the 19th century, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The New Money made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth. As usual, the No Money gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving them forgotten or ignored.
It’s been ingrained into the fabric of society that to be truly happy in life, one needs to be wealthy. The characters in The Great Gatsby show this is not always the case, and that wealth is not always as important as one would believe. Society has always placed a significant importance on being rich, being wealthy. It makes one believe that being wealthy is the only true way to live a happy and fulfilling life. With this in mind, many readers are going to look at the characters in The Great Gatsby, such as Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, and fantasize about one day living the lifestyle that they live. While many characters in The Great Gatsby would appear from the outside to be living the American Dream, it what lies underneath this image of
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich couple, seem to have everything they could possibly want. Though their lives are full of anything you could imagine, they are unhappy and seek to change, Tom drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) just so he has something to talk about. Even though Tom is married to Daisy he has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and has apartment with her in New York.. Daisy is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her relationships with Tom or, Gatsby are seen, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom is having an affair, yet she doesn't leave him even when she hears about Gatsby loving her. Daisy lets Gatsby know that she too is in love with him but cant bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy forever leaves Gatsby for her old life of comfort. Daisy and Tom are perfect examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, and without purpose.
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.
At first glance, The Great Gatsby is merely a classic American tragedy, portraying the story of a man's obsession with a fantasy, and his resulting downfall. However, Fitzgerald seems to weave much more than that into the intricate web of emotional interactions he creates for the reader. One interesting element is the concepts of greatness each has. For Daisy, it lies in material wealth, and in the comfort and security associated with it. Daisy seems to be easily impressed by material success, as when she is touring Gatsby's mansion and seems deeply moved by his collection of fine, tailored shirts. It would seem that Tom's relative wealth, also, had at one time impressed her enough to win her in marriage. In contrast to that, Gatsby seems to not care a bit about money itself, but rather only about the possibility that it can win over Daisy. In fact, Gatsby's extreme generosity gives the reader the impression that Gatsby would otherwise have never even worked at attaining wealth had it not been for Daisy. For Gatsby, the only thing of real importance was his pursuit of Daisy. It would seem that these elements are combined, too in the character Myrtle.
The first time she makes an appearance is in the “unprosperous and bare” setting that is her husband’s garage (29). Her walking straight towards Tom Buchanan and ignoring her husband (30) symbolizes what she is doing in her marriage: shunning moneyless George Wilson in favor of well-to-do Tom. It is obvious that she is not a woman of wealth; however, that is exactly what she wants to be. In order to be an elite, she “must cross a vast social divide to reach the territory of the upper class” (Donaldson 192). In addition, Myrtle likely acquires knowledge of the rich and famous from Town Tattle (Little 12). Through the magazine, she is presented with a glorified version of money, a glossed over image of elegant parties with women in fashionable dresses. She tries to emulate this image at her party by changing into a dress and exuding contempt (35), “pitifully [attempting] to put on airs” (Little 192). She later blatantly reveals her disdain for her lack of money through her complaint about her husband’s borrowed suit, saying that she “lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon” after returning her husband’s suit to its owner (39). However, it is her death that money impacts the most. When she dies, she is running towards Gatsby’s car. Gatsby informs Nick that “it [seems] that she… [thinks] we were somebody she [knows]” (151). Given that, she is running towards Tom, the person she believes would
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was born into a life of poverty and as he grew up he became more aware of the possibility of a better life. He created fantasies that he was too good for his modest life and that his parents weren’t his own. When he met Daisy, a pretty upper class girl, his life revolved around her and he became obsessed with her carefree lifestyle. Gatsby’s desire to become good enough for Daisy and her parents is what motivates him to become a wealthy, immoral person who is perceived as being sophisticated.