Social Classes in the Great Gatsby
1.Introduction
F. Scott Fitzgerald is famous as one of the greatest authors of the twenties. He is referred to as a member of the "Lost Generation". His books deal with the idealism and the disillusion of the post-World-War-1 decade and also with the struggle of the American society to find spiritual happiness and material wealth (Di Bacco 525). Long describes Fitzgerald as "central to the American twenties" or "historian of the golden twenties". "He names the Jazz Age" (177). In his novel The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald describes the social circumstances in the USA in the 1920s with typical representatives of in this time existing social classes in the post-war decade.
Wilson can be seen as a representative of the poor people of those days. This class is widely ignored by numerous sources but so important for that time because they made up the majority.
The former poor Gatsby stands for the newly rich because he lives the "American Dream". Although he takes the illegal way he succeeds. In most historical reviews, this class is regarded as the symbol of the Twenties although it made up the minority.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan represent the established rich, the leisure class. They provide a contrast to the impoverished Wilson and the former poor Gatsby.
Fitzgerald gives the reader a good insight of how life was in the twenties through contrasting the different classes.
2.Social Classes of the Nineteen-Twenties in The Great Gatsby
The twenties are also called "The Roaring Twenties" or "The Gilded Age" because prosperity flourished in those times. Various classes existed and co-existed during this decade like I mentioned before: the established rich, the newly rich, and the poor. But, of course, there was also a middle-class.
2.1 The Established Rich: The Buchanans
People who were born into rich families, into the lap of luxury, e.g. by inheritance of family estates or savings, are called the "established rich". The source of their riches come from
F. Scott Fitzgerald is famous as one of the greatest authors of the twenties. He is referred to as a member of the "Lost Generation". His books deal with the idealism and the disillusion of the post-World-War-1 decade and also with the struggle of the American society to find spiritual happiness and material wealth (Di Bacco 525). Long describes Fitzgerald as "central to the American twenties" or "historian of the golden twenties". "He names the Jazz Age" (177). In his novel The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald describes the social circumstances in the USA in the 1920s with typical representatives of in this time existing social classes in the post-war decade.
Wilson can be seen as a representative of the poor people of those days. This class is widely ignored by numerous sources but so important for that time because they made up the majority.
The former poor Gatsby stands for the newly rich because he lives the "American Dream". Although he takes the illegal way he succeeds. In most historical reviews, this class is regarded as the symbol of the Twenties although it made up the minority.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan represent the established rich, the leisure class. They provide a contrast to the impoverished Wilson and the former poor Gatsby.
Fitzgerald gives the reader a good insight of how life was in the twenties through contrasting the different classes.
2.Social Classes of the Nineteen-Twenties in The Great Gatsby
The twenties are also called "The Roaring Twenties" or "The Gilded Age" because prosperity flourished in those times. Various classes existed and co-existed during this decade like I mentioned before: the established rich, the newly rich, and the poor. But, of course, there was also a middle-class.
2.1 The Established Rich: The Buchanans
People who were born into rich families, into the lap of luxury, e.g. by inheritance of family estates or savings, are called the "established rich". The source of their riches come from