Theme of Society and Class in The Great Gatsby Essay Example

The Great Gatsby explores the theme of society and class throughout the text. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he utilises stylistic features to portray this both effectively and engagingly. To establish this claim, this essay will discuss the author’s purposeful lexical choice, personification of setting, and use of metaphor and simile. These arguments will be supported by examples, evidence, and quotes from the text. This essay will conclude that Fitzgerald has implemented stylistic features to affirm class as a theme within The Great Gatsby. 

Fitzgerald’s disparity in lexical choice illustrates the social position of the characters. Whilst the tone of the text is highly poetic, the figurative language used to describe Daisy and Jordan encourages fairy-like imagery, implying their high society. The audience are first introduced to them with the words, ‘...[they] were buoyed up as though they were an anchored balloon...in white...their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house (p. 13).’ This ethereal symbolism is contrasted by the vernacular portrayal of Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s lover from the Valley of Ashes. Characterised as ‘thickish...and faintly stout (p. 28),’ her inferiority is palpable. Myrtle's sister is similarly depicted, despite her New York residence, with a ‘sticky bob of red hair, and a complexion of powdered milky white (p. 32).’ These sharp and abrupt adjectives indicate the characters’ insignificant wealth, in comparison to the celestial, dream-like state the participles ‘ballooning’ and ‘fluttering’ signify. Furthermore, these verbal adjectives imply a sense of life and being in the women. Their social subordinates, however, are illustrated as one may describe a stationary object – existing, as opposed to living. Thereby, Fitzgerald prompts the audience to subconsciously view the working-class characters as nonhuman, reiterating the overarching theme of society and class. In addition, Nick uses such descriptive language due to his own place in society. Although less prosperous than Daisy and Jordan, he boasts a gilded lifestyle from his ‘prominent’ family (p. 8). Consequently, he experiences high society whilst looking down upon the lesser fortunate. Fitzgerald implies that Nick views the working-class as a species of people separate and disconnected from his own elite community through his aforementioned lexical choices. The quote, ‘Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans (p. 110),’ further establishes this statement. Also in Nick’s words, Fitzgerald continues to employ verbal descriptions of the pair, inciting a sense of movement within the reader’s mind. This imagery strengthens the vitality of Daisy and Jordan – and the upper class as a collective – within the text. Therefore, the author actively develops the theme of social class through lexical choice. 

Fitzgerald employs setting to epitomise the theme of society and class within The Great Gatsby. The events of the text occur in three central locations – East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes (p. 10; p. 26) – each of which denoting a social class. East and West Egg, respectively, are those of wealth and glamour. West Egg, described by Nick, was ‘...the less fashionable of the two (p. 10),’ alluding to the prosperity and manner of its inhabitants. Whilst Gatsby’s mansion was a ‘...colossal affair by any standard... (p.11),’ the narrator rejoices his own ‘...small eyesore (p.11),’ for its minimal price. Thus, Fitzgerald implores the audience to envisage a mosaic of affluence within West Egg. Its neighbouring Egg, however, is quintessential old money, evident in the ‘...[glittering] white palaces of fashionable East Egg (p. 11). ’Due to their generational inheritance and subsequent high class, the East Egg population are overprivileged and condescending to those lower in society. Such is demonstrated when Jordan speaks of Nick’s West Egg residence with ‘[contempt] (p. 16).’ Additionally. Fitzgerald accentuates Daisy’s distaste for the lower class in the lines, ‘But the rest offended her... She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented ‘place’ that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village – appalled by its raw vigour that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand (p. 103).’ Her disgust tells of her own elitism, and the author’s social commentary is apparent. Furthermore, Fitzgerald distinguishes ‘their dissimilarity in every particular except shape or size (p.10),’ with the authorial intention to highlight the Eggs’ – and societies – disparities.  

Whilst both villages boast of wealth, the third setting symbolises working class society. A ‘desolate farmland...where ashes grow...into hills and... houses...[and] ash-grey men (p. 26),’ this stretch of land alludes to the plight of the poor and selfish ignorance of the upper class. The author further explores this class difference when implicating that the residents of the Valley live amongst the stifling industrial pollution created by their social ‘superiors,’ working hard in undesirable conditions to support themselves. Nick’s description of the Valley of Ashes occurs whilst he passes on a train to Manhattan, his perspective reflecting that of any train passenger travelling from the well-to-do West Egg to the equally as abundant city of New York. This physical distance and ensuing insensitivity illustrate the prominence of social class in The Great Gatsby. Similarly, Fitzgerald parodies the alleged ‘unlawful’ fraternisation between working and upper class by tangibly dividing the setting of his text by wealth, inviting the audience to view each class as separate peoples. Thus, setting has been used compellingly to explore society and class within the text. 

Metaphor and simile are implemented throughout The Great Gatsby to communicate the text’s underlying theme of class within society. This is illustrated in the quote, ‘Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart (p. 25).’ Commenting on Tom’s obsession with a white-supremacist book, Nick ridicules his views by equating the book’s ideology to stale bread – of which Tom is using to sustain his sense of entitlement. Preceding this, Tom exclaims ‘“Civilisation's going to pieces...it’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things (p. 18).”’ His prejudiced views allude to his upper-class position and resulting self-perceived pre-eminence. His wife shares the same attitude, whispering ‘“We’ve got to beat them down (p. 18),’ after Tom’s violent outburst. Although telling of the novel’s context, this racism reflects the segregation between the elite and the common – denoting the overarching subject of society within the text. 

Moreover, Fitzgerald criticises high society’s self-absorption by comparing them to moths bewitched by light. A reoccurring concept, the analogy is first introduced by the line, ‘...men and girls came and went like moths among the whispering and champagne and stars (p. 41).’ Referring to the high-profile guests of Gatsby’s dinner parties, the author incites a narcissistic quality to the wealthy – drawing upon their attraction to the spotlight – much like that of a moth. Similarly, Nick portrays Gatsby as a man who ‘...dispense[s] starlight to casual moths (p. 76),’ later in the text. In these quotes Fitzgerald mocks the selfish nature of the upper class, flitting from limelight to limelight with a disregard for those in the shadows. Such is demonstrated after Gatsby’s death, when only one of hundreds of guests attended his funeral – Nick (p. 165). Hence, Fitzgerald has potently emphasised society and class through metaphor and simile. 

To all appearances, the author has used lexical choice, setting, metaphor, and simile to explore the theme of the text. Supported by evidence and quotes from the novel, Fitzgerald actively developed this in a subtle yet clever way. Thus, this essay concludes that the concept of society and class was explored throughout The Great Gatsby.