Great Gatsby Middle Class Analysis

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The Great Gatsby takes place in the upper echelon of New York society to acknowledge and critique how the wealthy interact differently because they live in their own bubble of old money and high social standing. The characters live in mansions, drive expensive cars, and attend parties that define “excessive” no matter what Egg they live in. Even Nick living in his college and working for a living still studied at Yale and partied with Gatsby, Jordan Baker, and the Buchanans, so the only true representation of the middle class in the novel lies in George and Myrtle Wilson, a lowly gas station attendant and his wife. They function as an emphasis of how the arrogant and narcissistic old money—Tom Buchanan—hold themselves above the middle class …show more content…
While Tom did realize Myrtle wasn’t just his mistress with his “parallel discovery”(Fitzgerald, 124), the full extent of the realization—“no difference between men, in intelligence or race…sick and the well”(Fitzgerald, 124). The “intelligence and race” part refers back earlier when Tom brought up eugenics and his Yale education at the dinner table, as if those gave him superiority, so by bringing up references to his earlier conversations with Tom, it shows Tom’s belief in his superiority is unjustified, but Tom doesn’t realize this.
The book never explicitly addresses the lower class, rather showcases issues of the upper class. The book features two deaths driving the plot—Gatsby’s and Myrtle’s—but only Myrtle’s caused mourning. George was “physically ill”, Tom became sympathetic, police officers cared about her.
Gatsby had a three person funeral.
Even if lower class lives never gain fame and prestige, there’s something comforting and safe in a small life with loved ones, even if success is a gas station.
The Great Gatsby demonstrates the prideful nature of the man assuming a their knowledge defines a person, demonstrated by Tom’s shock to learn Myrtle lived a life outside of their affair. People forget every person has a life just as complex as theirs, and judge other’s lives based on their own definition of success and
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