In contrast to commonly held beliefs, the fact remains that that money does in fact buy happiness, as well as pretty much everything else in the world. While shocking to many and sure to destroy many people’s dreams, lots of people have known this for a while. Although class may seem fluid and transmutable, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald represents social class as an impermeable barrier and contributes to the theme of the novel that American society has fundamental flaw. Fitzgerald displays wealth and social class as an inescapable thing through the metaphor of West Egg and East Egg. The narrator, Nick writes, “I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires ... [but]
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Near the end of the book, describing his son, Mr. Gatz laments, “Jimmy [Gatsby] was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something.” (182). This is ironic in that in spite of all his resolves, in spite of all the work he did and the expectation that he would succeed, Jimmy Gatz died in the pursuit of his belief, died for trying to change something in the world. Any reader has the expectation that because Jay Gatsby “was bound to get ahead” and he had such a large number of resolves, that of course he would succeed. How could he not? Yet he didn’t, and got punished for trying to escape the class system and change the barrier between old wealth and new wealth and forge a better future. This punishment of course, came in the form of death (though not by a rich person). Indeed, Fitzgerald shows us that his dream would never succeed, with the line, “He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (189). Even from the start, then, Gatsby should never have had any hope of succeeding. The figurative language here (“vast obscurity” -- an oxymoron, since if something seems “obscure”, how can the size be known?) and the direct link to the American Dream …show more content…
Both Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby became victims of American society, in both different and similar ways. Myrtle Wilson died for directly opposing the class system. Gatsby died for opposing the class system as well, but his death reveals something subtler, a fundamental flaw, in that no one can get ahead no matter how much they try, for any efforts to change life are doomed from the start. Throughout the whole book, Fitzgerald tells us that the American Dream must be wrong, that there can be no hope until we change society, and that the inherently unfair social class system is the real problem underpinning the
Near the end of the book, describing his son, Mr. Gatz laments, “Jimmy [Gatsby] was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something.” (182). This is ironic in that in spite of all his resolves, in spite of all the work he did and the expectation that he would succeed, Jimmy Gatz died in the pursuit of his belief, died for trying to change something in the world. Any reader has the expectation that because Jay Gatsby “was bound to get ahead” and he had such a large number of resolves, that of course he would succeed. How could he not? Yet he didn’t, and got punished for trying to escape the class system and change the barrier between old wealth and new wealth and forge a better future. This punishment of course, came in the form of death (though not by a rich person). Indeed, Fitzgerald shows us that his dream would never succeed, with the line, “He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (189). Even from the start, then, Gatsby should never have had any hope of succeeding. The figurative language here (“vast obscurity” -- an oxymoron, since if something seems “obscure”, how can the size be known?) and the direct link to the American Dream …show more content…
Both Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby became victims of American society, in both different and similar ways. Myrtle Wilson died for directly opposing the class system. Gatsby died for opposing the class system as well, but his death reveals something subtler, a fundamental flaw, in that no one can get ahead no matter how much they try, for any efforts to change life are doomed from the start. Throughout the whole book, Fitzgerald tells us that the American Dream must be wrong, that there can be no hope until we change society, and that the inherently unfair social class system is the real problem underpinning the