How Does Social Class Occur In The Great Gatsby

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This romantic novel of the 1920’s by F Scott Fitzgerald recounts the story of Nick Carraway who moves to the East Egg to learn how to run a business. Then he meets a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who he becomes close to through talking as he is his neighbour. Slowly he learns the past of Jay Gatsby and the reason why he lives his life like that and his pursuit to achieve the American Dream. The pursuit of the American Dream is not found only by Jay Gatsby but many other characters. Social class within the story shows the characters from one another. The Great Gatsby is placed in a Capitalist society of the 1920’s where the class system was in existence. The Upper class were set for life, throwing parties and the lower class were trying to…show more content…
The class difference in a Marxist society does not exist as all the people are equivalent to one another. First, upon closer inspection to the novel we can see that Jay Gatsby chase for the American Dream as we see the dirty things he does to obtain it, we also see Daisy as she too wants to life the American Dream and lastly we see Myrtle as he pursuit for this dream life. “It is a story about failure and death an idealistic quest for unworthy goals, and the almost total collapse of the principal characters” (Nagel). We see that wanting more than what you have can downfall. Therefore, in a capitalist society it is possible to obtain “The American Dream” as the different social class exist but Marxism states that this dream is impossible to achieve because everyone should be equal to each other. The pursuits of the American Dream in the story lead to the downfall of the…show more content…
Although Daisy’s downfall was not as significant as the other characters, her desire for more was not attainable as you cannot exceed more than what you have. Although Daisy living in a rich family in a upper class life with Tom, once she finds out that Gatsby is richer and he throws parties she gets closer to Gatsby to gain wealth and live in a rich life. Her happiness was money and wanted to get ore and settle with the American Dream. “She never loved you, do you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.”(). We see that the reason why she married Tom was because of his wealth and Gatsby was poor at the time where they were dating and she was tired of waiting for Gatsby to become rich so he married Tom. But she didn’t wait long enough as Gatsby turns rich and she then starts “falling in love” with Jay. “Do you always watch for the longest time of the year and miss it? I always watch for the longest day of the year and miss it.” (). Her life becomes pointless as the wealth makes her life boring as she has mostly everything she needs but as the story proceeds she wants to seek more. Her greediness makes her want more and if she gets more money her life would be set. She seeks happiness as she would need nothing to worry about. Money is the solution to her problems as she can seek money for her problems. “Petty Bourgeoisie is the fact that in
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