Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is based on a man named Jay Gatsby and his idealistic infatuation to a girl named Daisy that he met while he was young. Gatsby was not of a wealthy family and therefore Daisy would not marry him. Gatsby devoted his life to getting what he needed to win Daisy. After the war Gatsby became a bootlegger to attain what he needed to win Daisy. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various objects such as class, wealth, and social position as symbols to portray the lack of moral and spiritual values of people and the different aspects of society in the 1920's.

Class is a major part of the story. It varies in all the characters. Take for instance George Wilson, he barely has any. George looks really low in live when compared to Gatsby or Tom. He works in a garage, doesn’t really care what goes on, lives a sheltered life and has low self-esteem. Then look at Tom who thinks he runs everything. He has a trophy wife, huge ego, and doesn’t work for anything. Yet Tom is still a stuck up person in a way. Between East and West Egg the class changes quite dramatically. Tom is from East Egg and that part of town’s class is ‘superior’. In the 1920’s, the class system is how everyone was viewed. During that time a lot of immigrants came from overseas and struggled for jobs, money, and items that displayed wealth to be viewed as high class.

Gatsby tries throughout his life to gain wealth in order to obtain Daisy. Fitzgerald shows Gatsby obtaining his American dream with fancy cars and houses. When Gatsby and Daisy first met however, Gatsby was in the war and very poor. Daisy was born in and grew up in a wealthy family and therefore the lifestyles of the two collided. Gatsby finally became wealthy and indulged himself in riches with the mindset that he could get Daisy finally. He bought a gigantic house that appeared to be an imitation of the Hotel de Ville in Normandy. Gatsby, considered ‘new money’, gained his wealth through doing illegal operations, such as bootlegging. Tom was born into a rich family and is considered ‘old money’. The 1920’s