The Many Facets of Society in The Great Gatsby Throughout The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald contrasts the lives of people who have old money, people who have new money, and those with no money at all. Those with old money, like Tom Buchanan, were born into their fortune and live a life of luxury without any hard work. Gatsby is a new money man who has gained all of his wealth in his lifetime in order to impress Daisy. People with no money, like George Wilson, work hard their whole lives and never get rich. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes social commentary on the social stratification in the 1920’s through the characters Tom, Gatsby, and Wilson. First, Fitzgerald uses Tom to make social commentary on social stratification in
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The reader learns that George is poor soon after he is introduced. Poor people are expected to try to achieve the american dream through hard work. When Tom and Nick stop at Wilson’s garage to get Myrtle, George asks Tom, “‘When are you going to sell me that car?’” (29). From this statement, the reader learns that George is poor and Tom is using that fact to give himself an excuse to stay connected with Myrtle. At the end of the book, George is devastated that Myrtle was killed. Myrtle’s death was a shot to the chest for George. After Tom, Nick, and Jordan arrive on the scene, “His eyes would drop slowly from the swinging light to the laden table by the wall and then jerk back to the light again and he gave out incessantly his high horrible call” (146). George was made crazy by the ordeal. Fitzgerald is making social commentary on how poor people will never become rich and how the American dream is dead. He is also commenting on the fact that people with no money are the people who lose the most in this society. George loses Myrtle through no fault of his own, and the people responsible go unpunished. The society that George faces makes him seem beat down and defeated. Fitzgerald uses George Wilson to make social commentary on poor people in the
The reader learns that George is poor soon after he is introduced. Poor people are expected to try to achieve the american dream through hard work. When Tom and Nick stop at Wilson’s garage to get Myrtle, George asks Tom, “‘When are you going to sell me that car?’” (29). From this statement, the reader learns that George is poor and Tom is using that fact to give himself an excuse to stay connected with Myrtle. At the end of the book, George is devastated that Myrtle was killed. Myrtle’s death was a shot to the chest for George. After Tom, Nick, and Jordan arrive on the scene, “His eyes would drop slowly from the swinging light to the laden table by the wall and then jerk back to the light again and he gave out incessantly his high horrible call” (146). George was made crazy by the ordeal. Fitzgerald is making social commentary on how poor people will never become rich and how the American dream is dead. He is also commenting on the fact that people with no money are the people who lose the most in this society. George loses Myrtle through no fault of his own, and the people responsible go unpunished. The society that George faces makes him seem beat down and defeated. Fitzgerald uses George Wilson to make social commentary on poor people in the