Examples Of Social Stratification In The Great Gatsby

Throughout history the stratification of our social class system has been represented to us in many different ways but the main idea is held constant. Although there are many pieces of content that have been given to those in America, many are still unbeknownst to the extent of the separation that there is between classes. As time progresses this gap between classes will only continue to grow if those in society do not join together to derive an idea, attempting to stop this growing divergence. A specific movie that depicts the social stratification and clusters within our society is The Great Gatsby. The classes within this movie are divided between the wealthy elite, the newly rich, the old rich, and the working class within our society. …show more content…
Many who live in our society who are born to a low social class believe in this ideology that if they work hard and receive a good education, then they will be given the chance to prosper within their lives and move up through the social class structure. Although this idea is possible, there is a very minimal chance of this actually happening because of your ideologies that you grew up upon. This example is perfectly portrayed through the lifestyle of Nick Carraway. Upon receiving an Ivy League education at Yale University and moving to New York to pursue his interests in the bond industry, Nick Carraway believed that he has hit this self actualization point in his life, which was living the American Dream. Mr. Carraway tried extremely hard to acclimate to the West Egg traditions within society that consisted of going out nightly to extravagant parties thrown by Jay Gatsby, depending on materialistic items, and dealing with the corruptness of money scandals within society. There even is this social diversification between the two wealthy sections in Long Island. West Egg and East Egg Long Island are different based upon where their wealth comes from and due to this they share a competitive edge on which wealthy class is deemed to be better. West Egg, Long Island is seemed to be at a lower status because …show more content…
They did not associate with those who were below them and looked down upon those who were not apart of their social this. This ideology directly correlates to Pazzanese’s text The Rich and the Rest. Those who are considered “the rest” in society have little to no interaction with the socially elite because they cannot keep up with their lifestyle. According to those who are apart of this elite class, they deem regular and everyday people to be lower than they are regarding their way of life. There is this inheritant competitive advantage to those who are apart of this wealthy elite because they are given more opportunities to succeed. These opportunities consist of an inheritance of wealth or receiving a better education while growing up such as going to private schools and having personal tutors. Usually those who are wealthy seem to have more connections within their field of interest which could help guide their children when they enter the workforce. The purpose for writing this piece was to inform those who are below the rich about the extensive inequalities that are found from this gap of wealth. Nick Carraway, the main character of The Great Gatsby revolves around this notion of having a competitive advantage in society because, even though he was not as wealthy as other characters such as Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he still came from a