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Pedro Hernandez
Professor Jorgenson
English 114B
May 6, 2014
Society and Class
Reading books have stood the test of time. Books are read because they give insight on
social issues that will forever be around. In "The Great Gatsby" we see issues and themes like
power, wealth, love, and gender. The issue that stood out to me the most was the issue regarding
society and class. Society now is a society that judges people based of their social class. The
upper class looks down on people under them. We can see this in "The Great Gatsby" when we
look at Nick. Nick is looked down because he is not as rich as the other in his group. Once born
into the lower class, it is very hard nearly impossible to move up in class and reach the upper
class. Gatsby was one of the people who was able to do this. "The Great Gatsby" revolves love,
deception, and most importantly society and class.
Upper class, is elite group of people who have a good amount of money. In "The Great
Gatsby" we see into the world of the rich and famous. The interesting part is the way we see this
new world. This new world is being looked at from the eyes of Nick Carraway, Nick isn't as rich
as Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan who are the people he associates himself with. This is seen
when Nick says " I lived at West Egg, the well, the least fashionable of the two...(Pg.14)" West
Egg and East Egg are places located in Long Island which is where "The Great Gatsby" takes
place. When Nick says he lives on West Egg he says that it is not as good as East Egg. This
shows that Nick isn't as rich as the people who live on East Egg, people like Tom and Gatsby.
Nick is never to give his opinion because he isn't really respected by Tom and his group because
he lives in East Egg. This looks as if Tom and his group look down on Nick.
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The upper class looking down on people in the lower class is very common in society now. In
the article "Social Darwinism Isnt Dead" by Matthew Hutson he says "If youre doing well, you
believe success comes to those who deserve it, and those of lower status must not deserve it".
This is an example of the upper class looking down on the classes, because upper class doesn't
think the lower class deserves to be in their lifestyle. The upper class doesn't understand the
struggles of the lower class so therefore have not right to say they don't deserve that upper class
lifestyle.
As soon as you're born, you're either given the elite life or the normal life. The lifestyle
you're born in is the lifestyle you'll probably live your whole life. Social mobility is hard to
achieve. Social mobility is when you have the ability to move from social class, for example
from the lower class to the upper class. Social mobility sounds harder than it sounds. In the
article "The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of social Mobility" by Gregory Clark he
states with surprising consistency across countries and eras, mobility is found to be painfully
slow." This means social mobility is hard to achieve on a global scale. There are very rare cases
where social mobility happens. Examples can be seen in "The Great Gatsby". Jay Gatsby was not
born rich so he had to find a way to become rich. We see this when Gatsby says "she only
married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me (Pg 130)" this shows that
Gatsby was not always rich. He not being rich led to Gatsby not marrying Daisy. Gatsby had to
work his way up to the top to once aging be reunited with Daisy. This shows that Gatsby
achieved social mobility. Also its shows another way how upper class looks down on other
classes, because Gatsby was not allowed to marry Daisy because she was rich and he was poor.
There is a huge gap between the rich and the poor and it keeps getting bigger and bigger every
day. In the article "Poor Prospects in a "Middle Class" Society" by Gary Lapon he says
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"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2011, there were 46.2 million people living below the
federal poverty level". This means that there is a huge amount of people living in poverty
compared to the amount of people not living in poverty.
Daisy not being able to marry Gatsby is also a good example of society is split up
because of class. In the article I read called When Richer Weds Poorer, Money Isn't the Only
Difference by Tamar Lewin she says people who marry across class lines are also moving
outside their comfort zones, into the uncharted territory. Marrying across class lines is not a
common thing but when it does happen it wont last because some people arent willing to adapt
to the new territory. This shows how two different lifestyle cant coexist because they dont have
the same amount of money.
In conclusion "The Great Gatsby is a great novel to read. This book offers so much
because of its wide range of themes and social issues that can be applied to our own life. This
book will always continue to be a classic and can mean something different to everyone. I
recommend this book to everyone it will keep any age entertained.







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Work Cited
Hutson, Matthew. Social Darwinism Isnt Dead. The Slate Group. 3 January, 2014
Lewin, Tamar. When Richer Weds Poorer, Money Isn't the Only Difference. The New York
Times. 19 May, 2005