The Great Gatsby: Class and Punishment

Throughout history, there has been a divide between the upper and lower class. Often, the richer community has been protected by society whereas those who are poorer suffer. The Great Gatsby is about a man, Jay Gatsby, who falls in love with Daisy Buchanan, someone who comes from old money. Despite Gatsby’s wealth, he, along with the poorer characters in this novel, often get hurt both physically and emotionally by Daisy and her husband Tom. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to illustrate the differences between the upper and lower class, suggesting that the actions of the rich negatively impact the poor, highlighting the insignificance of the lower class in the eyes of the rich.

Throughout the book, Tom treats people who don’t have money with little to no respect, showing how rich people see poorer people as inferior or unimportant. Wilson is a poor man who makes a living by repairing cars. Tom offers to sell Wilson one of his cars to help him out, but is very unreliable with his business. On multiple occasions, Tom threatens to hurt Wilson’s business for no reason other than to show his power. “‘No it doesn’t,’ said Tom coldly. ‘And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all’” (Fitzgerald 25). Tom threatening Wilson’s livelihood over one small comment shows how he doesn’t care about poor people, and doesn’t treat them with basic respect when working with them. Tom doesn’t understand what it’s like to need money like Wilson does, as he has always had some from his family. When Tom is at Myrtle’s apartment, Myrtle starts talking about Daisy, and, “Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 37). Tom’s violence towards Myrtle, whilst staying calm around people of the same social class as him, shows that he doesn’t see poorer people as important enough to show civility around them. Even Myrtle, someone who Tom cares about, gets hurt by Tom’s lack of respect towards people of a lower class.

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s newfound wealth and his tragic life show that even if someone has money, they can never become ‘rich’ in society’s eyes, as there is, as Dianne E. Bechtel, a teacher of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of New Mexico, points out, a “historically sanctioned power structure” (Bechtel) between the old money and the new money, represented with the East and West Egg. Although Gatsby is rich, he is still not given the respect that people like the Buchanans are given. Despite his hard work to achieve his wealth, Gatsby dies young and alone, whilst Tom and Daisy live their lives peacefully, “gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald 150). The Buchanans’ ending vs. that of Gatsby’s, Myrtle’s, and Wilson’s, all of whose deaths were, directly or indirectly, caused by the Buchanans’s carelessness and lack of regard for other people’s lives, shows that there is essentially no way to escape this unfair and oppressive system, and those who are lifted up by it are constantly hurting those who are not.

Furthermore, Fitzgerald uses symbolism to portray the negative effects of the rich’s actions on the poor by killing Myrtle at Daisy’s hand. In chapter 7, Daisy and Gatsby are driving back from the city when Myrtle runs out into the street in an attempt to talk to them.  “Those who are ‘careless’ drivers approach life in the same manner with which they approach the open road. Just as they carelessly cause injury to people and property while behind the wheel, they inflict similar emotional wounds on those with whom they come in contact” (Lance 28). The rich people who don't care about how their actions affect people of lower class, so they act however they want to. The innocent people of the lower class are the ones who pay for their actions, as seen with Daisy killing Myrtle due to her own careless actions. After the events of the day, and what happened between her, Tom, and Gatsby, Daisy was very distracted, and should not have been driving in her emotional state. She hits Myrtle, killing her, and doesn’t even stop or look back to see if she’s okay (Fitzgerald 137). Daisy’s self-absorption and failure to show any humility to Myrtle represents the difference between the upper and lower classes, and how most often, the rich do not care or show the slightest bit of remorse for how their actions can destroy the lives of those that they do not view as important. Daisy’s careless actions result in those less fortunate than her suffering whilst she is perfectly fine living her life, which Myrtle will never get a chance to do. Even though Myrtle is dead, Daisy is too caught up in her own life and emotions to even pay attention to what she had just done. Fitzgerald describes Myrtle’s life as “violently extinguished” (Fitzgerald 137), showing that not only are Daisy’s actions irresponsible, they’re dangerous as well. Daisy doesn’t even provide Myrtle a peaceful death, showing how many lower class individuals never get peace or safety in their lives due to the upper class’s careless and risky behavior. Her indifference, along with the graphic nature of Myrtle’s death, encapsulates perfectly the way that the rich think about the poor and how their actions can affect others. This shows how the rich are given the opportunity to act carelessly, and this punishes the ones who are not.

In summary, Scott F. Fitzgerald uses the characters of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson vs. the characters of Tom and Daisy to show the historical societal differences between the upper and lower class. The way that Tom and Daisy treat these people, and how their endings are directly caused by the couple show that oftentimes, the lower class are often the ones that pay for the rich’s actions. This is a concept that is still prevalent today, especially in discussions about capitalism, including healthcare, cost of living, and other topics concerning how people in the lower class are able to thrive in this world, where the richer people are making the decisions regarding the poors’ life. This book paints a picture of how members of high society treat poorer people as insignificant, and how they don’t get punished for their insensitive words and actions, both in the story and in real life.