Inequality in “The Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald

Introduction

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that explores the issue of social inequality in America through its central character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby remains one of the most iconic literary figures of the 20th century and continues to captivate readers with his alluring aura of mystery, wealth, and sophistication. The character of Gatsby embodies the aspirations and dreams of millions of people, particularly in the context of popular culture, where the image of a wealthy white male is highly appealing. Despite progress, American society continues to celebrate wealth and privilege, as evidenced by the disproportionate representation of rich white men in positions of power and their lavish lifestyles. However, where there is wealth, there is also poverty and inequality, a theme explored in The Great Gatsby. Through its portrayal of the American Dream, The Great Gatsby highlights the persistent social issues of wealth, privilege, and inequality in American society. In this paper, I claim that Fitzgerald reflects alienation in the bourgeois society using the image of Gatsby, who is the isolated person tormented by emotions, making the novel the example of the Gothic fiction.

Thesis

The first part of this paper explores the socioeconomic context of the 1920s as depicted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, to shed light on the approach to wealth and social patterns of the time. The book The Roaring Twenties by Tom Streissguth, provides a comprehensive examination of the cultural, social, and political climate of the United States during the 1920s. According to Streissguth, this period was “a decade of change and contrast,” marked by the country’s rapid urbanization, with over half of the population residing in cities (Streissguth 11). In his article, Lee offers insight into the themes of wealth, class, and the American Dream in The Great Gatsby. The novel showcases the impact of urbanization on society through the character of Gatsby, who moves from the countryside to the city in pursuit of a better life. It allows to define the novel as the example of “the bourgeois discourse” in the Gothic modernism style (Lee 127). This socioeconomic context serves as a backdrop for examining the social status and its associated privileges.

In the second part of this paper, the focus is on the issue of social class and its impact on the protagonist’s value in the novel. The characters in the story are privileged individuals who do not have to worry about financial stability, whereas the newly rich, such as Gatsby, must buy into the illusion of the “old money” rich to attain social relevance. This contrast between the two worlds highlights the artificiality of social class and the futility of striving for a higher status.

In the final part of the paper, the missed opportunities in the novel to address crucial issues like social class, gender, and race are discussed. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s decision to make the protagonist a wealthy white man speaks to the author’s limitations and the time’s social context. The absence of commentary on these crucial issues represents a missed opportunity for Fitzgerald to delve deeper into the complexities of the 1920s and create a more inclusive and representative portrayal of society.

Socioeconomic Context

The Great Gatsby is set in 1922, four years after the end of World War I, which allowed Fitzgerald to reflect on the impact of the new socioeconomic context and the way in which the global conflict gave start to flourishing American society. The article by Diadechko explores the ways in which F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel develops “the focus on American Dream doctrine, New York of the 1920s, the conflict between “the old money” and “the new money”, feminism and fashion, alcohol and crime, music, cars” (Diadechko 7). Between 1920 and 1929, the US experienced an economic boom characterized by immense growth of industries, including construction and trading on the stock market.

As the wealth of many Americans grew, they reached a new social status, the nouveau riche. In the novel, both Jay and Nick are WWI veterans, and it is Gatsby’s service that facilitates his journey from “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere” to the wealthy owner of a mansion on Long Island (Fitzgerald 123). Despite the fact that many came from questionable origins, the amount of money they made in the 1920s led in a culture of materialism and an increase in advertising. The transformation of many people had undergone due to money put them in new positions of authority, which was essential to the economic development of that time.

The technological development of society also serves as a background to Gatsby’s ultimate demise in the novel. While automobiles were introduced before the turn of the twentieth century, their popularity exploded in the 1920s, when decreased prices and consumer credit enabled Americans to acquire them. Both the liberating and destructive qualities of an automobile are clear in the novel as Jay’s expensive and modern car became the source of his demise after the accident. Finally, Gatsby’s ambition of winning Daisy and living happily ever after with her failed, just as the period of American affluence ended with the stock market crash in 1920. By 1930, over four million US residents were jobless, with the number reducing year after year “until it reached fifteen million by 1933” (Diadechko 10). To conclude, the novel mirrors the socioeconomic context characterized by rising consumerism and foresees the inevitable disillusionment of society through its plot.

Social Class Issues

The characters involved in the storyline of The Great Gatsby can be differentiated into the representatives of the old money, new money, and no money classes. Old money is defined as the inherited wealth of established families belonging to the upper class. The concept is reflected in the characters of Daisy and Tom Buchanan, who embody the essence of old money in their attitudes and actions. They appear very proper on one side, and on the other side, they do not care how they may affect the lives of others. Fitzgerald writes, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 39). The two never had to worry about making money for themselves and lived a careless life since their birth, thus their outlook on life and social status were highly privileged.

Jay Gatsby represents new money, and his difference from Tom and Daisy is reflected in the fact that he had to work to earn his wealth and social recognition. Even though rich and very privileged, Gatsby is not as reckless and carefree but appears less careless and willing to ruin relationships. For example, he can forgive Daisy for marrying another man because he understands that his absence could have been detrimental to the longevity of their relationship. However, Jay uses his newly-acquired social status to win her back – all of the lavish parties he organized were designed to attract Daisy’s attention and spark her interest anew. A crucial scene in the novel showing that such a strategy worked and Daisy’s shallowness overcame her is when Jay showed her his wardrobe. “They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before” (Fitzgerald 72). It cannot be doubted that had Gatsby not gotten wealthy, Daisy would not have given him any attention.

Social class differences are also present between the rich in the novel. Fitzgerald makes a commentary on how new money representatives cannot acquire the same social status as old money through the East Egg and West Egg comparison. From the perspective of Nick, West Egg was “the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. […] The [house] on my right was a colossal affair by any standard – it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy. […] It was Gatsby’s mansion” (Fitzgerald 7). The description of houses in West Egg shows that people living there strive to become members of a higher social class, although, through imitation. Even though the residents of West Egg could afford the same lavish lifestyle, their position in comparison to old money residents of East Egg cannot be bought. Thus, Gatsby’s house is a replica of a French building, which shows his lack of originality and desire to fit in.

In contrast, Tom and Daisy lived in East Egg, and the description of their home is illustrative of that. Fitzgerald writes, “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water… Their [Tom and Daisy’s] house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay” (Fitzgerald 8). East Egg is the epitome of aristocracy, with its white palaces with beautiful lakes. However, it appears that the wealth belongs in East Egg, while in West Egg, the lavish estates such as those of Gatsby’s seem out of place and pretentious.

Missed Opportunities

The Great Gatsby is written under the influence of the patriarchal white-dominated society, which results in the lack of consideration for matters related to gender and race. In the novel, there is no female character that exhibits strength or could invoke admiration. This is a missed opportunity on the part of the writer, who did depict the inequality within social classes, even among the rich, and could have provided more commentary on how women were viewed as possessions and things to ‘win over.’ Even though Daisy is well aware of her husband’s cheating, she decides not to start an argument because she wants to live a comfortable life. The character’s personality can be further questioned when she says, “I hope she’ll be a fool,” referring to her daughter, Pammy – “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 118). Such a depiction of a female protagonist in the novel shows that her role as a person is insignificant, and she acknowledges it herself.

In the novel, Black New Yorkers are barely present, and when they are mentioned, it becomes clear that the author does not address race and its implications for social status. As Nick describes his car ride with Gatsby through Blackwell’s Island, he mentions, “a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl” (Fitzgerald 54). In this passage, there is nothing that can advance the story or is necessary to mention. Alhalb’s article applies postcolonial criticism to the interpretation of Fitzgerald’s novel, writing that “Gatsby reflects that period of gendered, ethnic, and racial anxieties. The First World War and the industrial trajectory of the twentieth century” (Alhalb 1). As a result, the three Black persons that pass the two characters are essentially incidental extras. The commentary on how race relations changed during the 1920s could have been important because the period fell under the Segregation Era and the New Negro Movement. Besides, there is a mention of weariness on the part of Tom who articulates the anti-Black view: “if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged” (Fitzgerald 13). It remains unclear whether Fitzgerald reinforces his character’s ideas or uses them as a way of commenting on racial inequality.

Conclusion

In the patriarchal and white-dominated society of the 1920s, the value of a person is diminished to their wealth and the position they have in society. No matter how hard Jay Gatsby tried to fit in into the ‘old money’ society by creating a different past and a new present, the stratification of social class is impossible to escape. While Fitzgerald knocked the class issues ‘out of the park,’ he did not offer an alternative to the society that he was describing and fell into the trap of depicting women as vapid while failing to delve deeper into racial inequality that ran rampant in the 1920s.

Works Cited

Alhalb, Ayman Dawood. “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in Scope of Postcolonialism Theory.” International Journal of Literature Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 2022, pp. 01–08., Web.

Diadechko, A. “The Reflection of the Era of the ‘Roaring Twenties‘ in the F.S.Fitzgerald’s Novel «the Great Gatsby».” Fìlologìčnì Traktati, vol. 12, no. 2, 2020, pp. 7–14., Web.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Pocket Books, 2020.

Lee, Derek. “Dark Romantic: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Specters of Gothic Modernism.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 41, no. 4, 2018, pp. 125–42. Web.

Streissguth, Thomas. The Roaring Twenties. New York: Facts on Files Inc, 2007.

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