Class Distinction

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Class Distinction
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Background

• one of the ideals of American dream was free of
  class distinction that every person has the
  opportunity to be whomever they hope to be.
• it is almost as if there are unspoken laws
  understood by low and high classed individuals
  alike. 

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• . 

Parallel lives of Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby
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Myrtle

• represents the low and ignorant class of America,
  tried to break the social barriers and thus
  pursues wealth by any means necessary
• she becomes false for abandoning and dismissing
  her own social foundation, approach to entering
  the rich class

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• She was not being herself, but almost putting on
  an act to perform as an upper class lady. 
• her affair with Tom Buchanan, who represents the
  rich upper class.  represents the falseness and
  decay in class distinction. 

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 Jay Gatsby

• He too desires Daisy Buchanan in all of her
  upper-class glory.
• Daisy is presented as wealthy and she also comes
  from a rich background.  Gatsby is rich, but
  comes from quite a different upbringing and
  earned his money in an illegal way. 

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• Gatsby tries to fit himself into another social
  group, and so he too is false.  Moreover, Daisys
  wealth is presented as pure and clean, while
  Gatsbys achieved wealth is gaudy and tasteless. 
  
• Gatsby, in his extreme insecurity about class,
  cannot believe that anyone would befriend him if
  he did not possess a mansion and make several
  million dollars per year.

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Daisy and Tom

• the rich are often "careless people," and that
  they "smashed up things and creatures and then
  retreated back to their money...and let other
  people clean up the mess they made.
• Tom Buchanan graduated from Yale, and comes from
  a privileged Midwestern family. Tom is a former
  football player, a brutal bully obsessed with the
  preservation of class boundaries

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• Daisy, who is wealthy and beautiful, symbolizes a
  way of life which is remote from Gatsby's and
  therefore more attractive Daisy, a married woman
  who comes from a wealthy family.
• Though Gatsby now has money, he has 'new
  money'--in other words, he has not come from a
  long line of wealthy individuals. This, in some
  ways, makes him inferior, at least in the eyes of
  Daisy and her husband.

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• Tom and Daisy are capable only of cruelty and
  destruction they are kept safe from the
  consequences of their actions by their fortress
  of wealth and privilege.

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West Egg and East Egg

• West Egg represents the newly rich, Jay Gatsby
  and Nick Carraway, is tolerant, open-minded,
  quiet, and a good listener, the exact opposite of
  Daisy and Tom who are fickle, shallow, and
  sometimes bored with their wealth.

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• East Egg and its people, especially Daisy and
  Tom, represent grace, taste and people who have
  inherited their wealth.
• What East Egg possesses in taste, it lacks in
  heart. It would seem as if only the East Eggers
  can afford to act careless and inconsiderate of
  other peoples feelings. Those who live in East
  Egg prove themselves to be careless, arrogant,
  and inconsiderate bullies who feel they have no
  need to care about others and their feelings
  because they have money.