The Great Gatsby 441theme of identity in that she is a professional golfer
who has gained a reputation for cheating—and is
presented as somewhat careless and self-absorbed. A
brief love interest of Nick’s, he comes to see Jordan
for who she really is, which reinforces not only the
carelessness of the upper classes in the story but
also the importance they assign to a specific iden-
tity. That is, Jordan admits to her carelessness and
self-centeredness but enjoys both the status and the
material possessions that wealth makes available.
Finally, as Nick concludes, the midwesterners in
the novel who travel East find that they can neither
abandon who they are, nor remake themselves into
something new. Jay Gatsby, in particular, attempts
to reinvent himself in order to return to a past that
offered promise, only to pay the highest price, his
life, for his discomfort with his humble begin-
nings and for attempting to manipulate his original
identity.
Carla Verderame
Social claSS in The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece, The Great
Gatsby, provides a useful commentary on social class
in America during the 1920s. The title character,
Jay Gatsby, moves to a higher class from that into
which he was born by amassing great wealth. He
represents “new money” and is, therefore, looked
upon with skepticism by Tom Buchanan, one of the
most prominent and well-to-do characters in the
novel. Tom’s wife, Daisy (Fay) Buchanan, and her
distant relative, Nick Carraway, have enjoyed a high
social standing throughout their lives. While they
acknowledge the inequities of class in America—
Nick’s opening narrative recalls his father’s advice
not to judge others who did not benefit from the
same advantages as he—they begin a summer of
splendor on the outskirts of New York City.
But the summer ends tragically: Both Jay Gatsby
and Myrtle Wilson die in the prime of their lives,
suggesting not only the fragility of life but also the
complexity of social class and the problems that
occur when desperate people hold fast to a social
role that does not fit them. That is, straddling the
divide among the classes comes at a great cost for
both Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson. Gatsby is
killed by Myrtle’s husband, George Wilson, who
mistakenly thinks Gatsby was driving the car that
ran over his wife. In fact, Daisy drove the car that
killed Myrtle after a complicated series of events in
New York City.
While America promises economic opportuni-
ties for everyone, the characters in the novel dem-
onstrate the difficulty in moving among classes by
doing so recklessly and without regard for people
who may be hurt along the way. For example, Myrtle
Wilson focuses on material possessions available to
her from her lover, Tom Buchanan, but shows little
regard for the lives disrupted by her extramarital
affair with Tom. Myrtle’s husband, George, is so
devastated by the loss of his wife that he is driven to
shoot Jay Gatsby in cold blood.
Conversely, Jay Gatsby strives to recapture his
days as a young soldier who dated Daisy Faye with
the hope of marriage and a life together. Gatsby’s
determination to achieve great wealth and to shift
from lower to upper class is all done in an attempt to
reclaim Daisy. He believes that wealth will impress
her and she will divorce Tom and marry him. Gatsby
wants to relive the time when he and Daisy dated,
which he feels was the best time of their lives. Class
status figures prominently in the episodes with Tom
and Myrtle and Gatsby and Daisy because Myrtle
and Gatsby believe that they are “moving up.” That
is, they take the idea of class status and what it can
offer seriously. However, Tom and Daisy, comfort-
able with wealth and accustomed to getting what
they want, act in a frivolous manner. While Tom
may care for Myrtle on some level, and Daisy may
feel some tenderness toward Gatsby, Tom and Daisy
enter their affairs mostly for fun and as a distraction
from their daily lives.
Nick Carraway, a faithful friend of Gatsby to the
end, is disgusted at Tom and Daisy’s behavior. He
says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—
they smashed up things and creatures and then
retreated back into their money or their vast care-
lessness or whatever it was that kept them together,
and let other people clean up the mess they had
made. . . .” Nick learns that Tom, Daisy, and others
in their circle are not the least bit interested in the
consequences of their actions.
Fitzgerald’s text takes a hard look at the subject
of social class in America not only through the