The Theme Of Class In The Great Gatsby

Improved Essays
The Great Gatsby Society and Class
F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel, The Great Gatsby. One of the themes is how people behave depending on their social status. Social Class is an important theme in the book. Gatsby throws huge, elaborate parties in hopes Daisy will hear about them and attend one. Gatsby doesn’t know that Daisy would never go to one unless she’s invited, because she sees it as a lower-class type of party. Tom and Daisy look down on the people who go to the types of parties Gatsby throws because of the way they behave.
When Gatsby invites Daisy to one of his parties Tom comes along and immediately stats judging everything, including Gatsby saying “a lot of these newly rich people are just big
bootleggers

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In order to keep Daisy, Tom informed her know about all the dishonest business Gatsby was involved in. Daisy is shocked with this news and goes back to the comfort of Tom when she says, “Please, Tom! I can’t stand this anymore.” Then, Tom exercises his supremacy when he suggests Daisy and Gatsby drive home together next stating, “Go on. He won’t annoy you.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From the depiction of literacy, significances, and impacts of literacy which are shown in the three novel; TSOP, TBD and GG, what actually Fitzgerald wants to show to his readers related to the literacy can be seen. Related to the interaction, Fitzgerald want to show that reading and writing skills can affect people who have it and also the people around who are around the one who applied it, that it can make people get close to each other yet it also can create gap among people. And related to the class system, Fitzgerald wants to show that literacy is not inherited, but it is gained. It can change someone’s status in the society if they are willing to use it properly just like Amory who can makes his way to become superior and popular even though he is a middle-class man.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the nineteen-twenties it is seen that social class was filled with deception in addition, skepticism. This is emphasized in the book, “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Social class was shown in The Great Gatsby throughout the entirety of the book. For instance, when Gatsby drives thru the Valley of Ashes in his luxurious car, you can see the comparison between high social class, and also low social class. Deception was a major theme throughout the book.…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Gatsby as part of the AP Curriculum? "Is this book interesting?", "Will my students enjoy it?" , "Is this novel truly AP Level?". These are just a few of the many questions that run through a teacher 's head when he or she is selecting a novel for their AP English Class. AP stands for Advanced Placement, and the whole objective of an Advanced Placement English Class is to give students a glimpse of what a college class is like, but more so to prepare them for the Advanced Placement English Exam.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As watching the clips of The Great Gatsby, there were some different classes, that were clearly treated differently depend on the wealth of a person. In the beginning of the movie, there is a scene that Nick Carraway meets Tom Buchanan at his port and ask Tom Buchanan with an admiration that if the whole field is Tom's, which shows that Tom is wealthier than Nick. Also, Myrtle Wilson, wife of George B. Wilson, have an affair with Tom because George is a poor man who owns the drug store. Along the scenes, Tom abuses and orders George just because he is richer than him. I was surprised how obviously the film showed the different classes within the people and, even, the rich people tried to have different classes among them such as an inherited…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "Just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." (Chapter 1, Paragraph 1-3, The Great Gatsby). In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, we are introduced with the story of Jay Gatsby, a poor boy of mysterious origins who rises to great wealth and prestige. In 1922, a young man from Minnesota named Nick Carraway moves to New York, where he rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island.…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Fitzgerald 1)This quote could be be viewed in two different ways, which are that he is taking this as an inspirational comment or it is Nick's father bragging about their money. Social class was a big achievement and was taken seriously back in the 1920’s. In this time period the social class that a person has defined their wealth and power. In the book The Great Gatsby there are three main social classes consisted of old money class, new money class, and the lower class, the characters within these social classes have different powers which make them act in ill-advised ways.…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the novel social class defines who the person is and how they are viewed by others. This affects relationships between the characters such as Myrtle and Tom, Daisy and Tom, Myrtle and Mr. Wilson, and Daisy and Gatsby. Social class creates an inequality in the relationship of Myrtle and Tom, chaotic and hurtful relationship between Daisy and Tom, unhappiness between Myrtle and Mr. Wilson, and prevents a loving relationship between Gatsby and…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Gatsby is a Modernist novel by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It deals with the situation of society in the Roaring Twenties, in the volatile time between World War I and the Great Depression. The Great Gatsby is a story that wrestles with a lot of themes, two of which are isolation and unattainable desires. One theme in this book is the loneliness and shallow connections that characters make. Gatsby frequently has hundreds of people at his house for parties, but it is often remarked that they know nothing about him, nor do they care to.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Parties are used to bring people together and more importantly show off to everyone else how rich and powerful you truly are. In F, Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the book 's namesake, new money Jay Gatsby is infamous for his exquisite parties while old money Tom Buchanan throws dinner parties with his mistress. These parties are almost polar opposites, Gatsby’s parties are very large and well known while Buchanan 's are done in secret. Furthermore, Gatsby and Buchanan are from very different social classes, Gatsby of new money and Buchanan of old money. Also, Jordan Baker mentions that she believes that larger parties are more intimate than smaller ones.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The places where these characters live classifies what type of socioeconomic group they are in. Wealth status exhibits the character’s type of socialization in their jobs and relationships. According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is a man well known for hosting big parties when Tom speaks about Gatsby, “ I know I’m not very popular. I don’t give big parties”(130). In these parties, however it is interpreted that Gatsby is not very sociable during these parties.…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The guests that enter Gatsby’s party are not civil, upper-class people; they are actually people whose lives are…

    • 1205 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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]…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The major conflict that takes place throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is Mr. Gatsby himself trying to win over the love of his life Daisy Buchanan, even though she is married herself and he lets nothing get in his way of that. To start off, Gatsby buys an extremely lavish mansion in West Egg, that is directly located across the bay of Daisy 's home, in East Egg. While Nick himself lives next door to Gatsby, once he arrives back into town for the summer, he goes to East Egg to visit his cousin Daisy and meets her friend Jordan Baker. Jordan remarks that Nick must know Gatsby, while Daisy states, “Gatsby, what Gatsby?” (Fitzgerald 11).…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Coming from The Great Gatsby written by Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s parties to symbolize something that the readers would never expect. Gatsby’s parties are symbolized at the beginning of the book as rowdy parties where the rich have lots of fun by drinking and spreading rumors. By the end of the book, Fitzgerald had completely changed the meaning of the parties to that Gatsby held them to show off his wealth to Daisy and so she could come and see him. By doing this, it can be known that the rich were very selfish in the 1920s and only wanted to benefit themselves. Fitzgerald himself begins the story by showing the readers what many people during the 1920s considered to be a party.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays