Wealth and Class - Atonement and The Great Gatsby - first draft (unfinished)

Using reference to the novels, examine the attitudes toward class and wealth in Atonement and The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby, written in 1925, was heavily influenced by the politics and what was happening within society at the time. The 20’s was and is known very well for being the ‘Big Boom’, where Wall Street was running at its best and it was a lift from the misery that the first World War has caused. Speak easies were big and the number of rich was on the rises, although only approximately five percent of the population was rich. Atonement, however, was written in 2001 so it could not have been influenced by what was happening as it takes place in 1935, just after the Wall Street crash.
Wealth and social class is a constant lingering theme throughout both of the novels.
In The Great Gatsby, the differences in social status and wealth have a huge impact on what happens to the relationships and how long they last. Jay Gatsby, “the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West" and then soon "came into a good deal of money", gradually builds up a persona to impress a girl. Daisy Buchanan, the woman whom Gatsby spend a large portion of the novel trying to impress, appears to live in her own “artificial world” that is manicured to perfection. Daisy later in the novel betrays Gatsby after telling him that she loved time and then saying that "I love you now – isn't that enough?” She then insults him further when the “love of his life” doesn’t turn up to his funeral. From what we’re told, Gatsby started his life alone as “he had never really accepted…his parents”. Gatsby was alone.
The flower, the daisy, has white petals around the outer edge with a yellow centre; yellow is frequently used as a way of representing corruption and demise, while white is linked with the idea of wealth, innocence and expense as white is a hard colour to keep clean, proving the idea of wealth as they have the money spend constantly washing or replacing the clothing. Meanwhile, Daisy does show signs of innocence, especially when she talks about “girls”. She says that all the best things a girl “can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”. This is due to the way she is brought up in her social class, believing that women were the beautiful trophy that hung onto the man’s arm, searching for guidance. Although, if she had truly gone along with this, she could have married Tom and ‘turned a blind eye’ to his affair but she didn’t.
Later in the novel, Gatsby describes Daisy’s voice as being “filled with money”. This gives evidence towards the ideas that Gatsby adores the idea of wealth and makes Daisy sound more desirable. He doesn’t love her, but what she stands for, which is wealth and security. It also makes her sound as though she is owned by someone who lives “high in a white palace, the king's daughter, the golden girl”. Nick had also previously described her voice as being “the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again”, which again links back to the idea that she is, or at least stands for something desirable.
While both the Buchanan’s, Gatsby, Nick and Jordan are all at the Buchanan’s home, Daisy chose to blurt out “Let's all go to town!” The fact that she just suggests it out on the blue, on a truly hot days shows that the rich don’t care and know that they’re able to use their money freely. They float along in a dream where they can do as they want, when the want.
The day before her wedding, Daisy receives a gift that is a “string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” The fact that Tom, her fiancé at the time, buys her something so expensive shows that the old money are so willing to through their money around like it’s endless. And, it seems as though he believes he can secure the deal of marriage and buy Daisy with an expensive set of jewels.
Tom Buchanan is of Old money, living in “East Egg” with Daisy and their daughter, who is well known to hate and point out all of the negative points about being of New money, like Gatsby and Nick. But, Daisy is the same and that is one of the main reasons the idea of a relationship between her and Gatsby could never be. Tom values wealth and his own possessions, Daisy being one of them, above all of things. An example of this is when he’s talking to Nick about the “nice place here. It belonged to the Demaine oil man”. He feels the need to add that it “belonged to the Demaine oil”, thinking that it would impress Nick and make it a little more important.
Tom, at one point, described those who are financially inferior and those who are classed as New money to be “bootleggers”, people who broke the law during the prohibition and smuggled in alcohol to speakeasies. He is quick to label Gatsby as a bootlegger and then when Daisy gives the hint that she’s leaving him for Gatsby, he says that “she's not leaving me! Certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring to put on her finger!”. He, yet again, is putting someone of ‘a different class’ below him, just to help with his argument.
Tom then goes on to use the fact that he is Old money and has done something great with himself, while Gatsby got his money from a less respectable trade, when he calls Gatsby “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere.” He refuses to lose his wife to a “Nobody”.
While you have “East Egg” and “West Egg”, there is also the poorer areas of down known as the Valley of Ashes, where Willson and Mirtyle live.
In Atonement, characters Robbie and Cecilia soon find themselves falling hopelessly for each other, despite their class and social difference. Cecilia is the daughter of a wealthy household, while Robbie, hired by Cecilia’s father, works on the grounds. Cecilia, unlike the rest of society, does not batter an eyelid at the idea of him being ‘below her’ on the social ladder.