Class Conflict In The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was written in a time of great change in American society, some of which is discussed in the novel. Fitzgerald represents the class conflict seen in the Twenties with the story of a man’s climb from poverty to riches, motivated by his fantasies regarding his lover, and his ultimate inability to join her in the highest echelon of society. Fitzgerald uses the homes of characters as a symbol of the subservient role the lower classes are relegated to in society. To understand the role of the poor in society, we must look at the home of the Wilsons and the events that occur there. First, the environment in which the home is situated represents the struggle the poor find themselves in. Fitzgerald describes
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The geography is key here. Situated in East Egg, the Buchanan house is described as having “gleaming white...windows” (Fitzgerald 8). The “red-and-white...colonial mansion”had a lush green lawn that extended a quarter-mile in each direction, coupled with a dock (Fitzgerald 6). The house and its surroundings exude purity and health, cut off from the dirty industrial quarters the lower classes are relegated to. The upper class lives in a place where they don’t even see the neighborhoods of the poor. The distant, almost fantastic land they inhabit is an excellent exhibit of just how meager the lifestyle of the lower class is due to the greed of the upper class. Second, the lower class inhabitants of the house are subject to violence at the hands of the upper class. Tom, the character that best symbolizes the upper class, breaks his wife Daisy's little finger. Tom’s violent acts are used by Fitzgerald to shed light on the abuse the poor suffer at the hands of the wealthy. Through the analysis of homes as a symbol in The Great Gatsby, we come closer to understanding the role the poor are relegated to in society. The poor are forced to suffer, through the polluted environment of the valley of ashes, the false hope of joining the upper class sowed by tabloid magazines, and the endless violence perpetuated by Tom and others of his class, oppression at the hands of the wealthy. The Great Gatsby
The geography is key here. Situated in East Egg, the Buchanan house is described as having “gleaming white...windows” (Fitzgerald 8). The “red-and-white...colonial mansion”had a lush green lawn that extended a quarter-mile in each direction, coupled with a dock (Fitzgerald 6). The house and its surroundings exude purity and health, cut off from the dirty industrial quarters the lower classes are relegated to. The upper class lives in a place where they don’t even see the neighborhoods of the poor. The distant, almost fantastic land they inhabit is an excellent exhibit of just how meager the lifestyle of the lower class is due to the greed of the upper class. Second, the lower class inhabitants of the house are subject to violence at the hands of the upper class. Tom, the character that best symbolizes the upper class, breaks his wife Daisy's little finger. Tom’s violent acts are used by Fitzgerald to shed light on the abuse the poor suffer at the hands of the wealthy. Through the analysis of homes as a symbol in The Great Gatsby, we come closer to understanding the role the poor are relegated to in society. The poor are forced to suffer, through the polluted environment of the valley of ashes, the false hope of joining the upper class sowed by tabloid magazines, and the endless violence perpetuated by Tom and others of his class, oppression at the hands of the wealthy. The Great Gatsby