Social Status The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Social Status: Is it Really Important? What is social class in the twenty-first century? There are distinctions in classes but do people actually notice the difference? Most people would say no. People in the early 1900s would say social class was very important to all people. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald proved that social status was viewed very differently than it is now because modern Americans seem to care less about judging others based on social class. One of the first people introduced to us is Gatsby, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a person of new money. New money is someone who was not raised in wealth, and instead came to earn abundant amounts of money. Gatsby was not raised in a lot of money; he was raised in poverty in the Midwest. Casie E. Hermanson states, â€Å"As a seventeen year old he transformed himself from plain James Gatz, to Jay Gatsby for whom anything is possible† (Hermanson 78). Gatsby was able to transform himself completely into a new person. He figured out how to make a ton of money, throw a lot of parties, and buy a mansion. Gatsby lives a lavish lifestyle, he gets shirts imported to his house from Italy, has nice cars, and he throws huge parties. Honestly, Gatsby didn’t want to be new money, he wanted to be old money and he tried hard to be old money. Gatsby was judged for being New Money. He didn’t gain the respect from the old money status; he only gained friends of new money. Why did Gatsby want to be old money? Gatsby wanted to be oldShow MoreRelatedThe Great Gatsby : An American Nightmare1226 Words   |  5 PagesAlex Joo Mr. Shaffer ENG4U1 January 8th, 2015 The Great Gatsby: an American Nightmare At the end of the day everyone ends up in the same place—six feet under. By then, many end up having lived fulfilling lives and die with no regrets. Far too many do not. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, presents the issue in pursuing the impossible: the American Dream. 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