Essay about “How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?” In the Great Gatsby

Words: 1142
Pages: 5

Written Task 2!
IB English!
Robby Burns!

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Outline!
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I have chosen to answer the prescribed question, “How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?”. The text that will be analyzed is The Great Gatsby and the part of the course that will be dealt with is literature and critical study. The task will focus on a few main themes of the book, mainly, the hollowness of the upper class. The social group that will be analyzed is the upper class but more specifically, the newly rich. The newly rich have a weird social stature at this time where many lower class people were making money but did not hold the same power as families with long histories of riches. In order to analyze this class, the other two classes,
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Tom and Daisy show off this trait by moving away after Gatsby is killed, to remove themselves from the situation and act like he never existed. Gatsby’s lack of knowledge of this trait can be seen when he is superficially invited to a dinner party by a women that accompanied Tom and Sloane on an afternoon of horseback riding. The group declined
Gatsby’s offer for dinner, but as a courtesy, the woman asked Gatsby to her dinner party, and he

accepted. The offer was one that was not sincere and only done as courtesy, yet Gatsby accepted it not realizing this fact. Tom later calls him a “crazy fish” (Fitzgerald 83) over this. !
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The hole that is clearly made by the lack of social knowledge in the newly rich class, is

attempted to be filled with flamboyant material items. Gatsby is the prime example of this, his material goods are second to none and the talk of the town, he drives a Rolls-Royce and has an extravagant mansion but it does not make up for the lack of knowledge in the eyes of Fitzgerald and the old rich class. The flamboyancy of the newly rich is also displayed through color imagery. Gatsby owns clothing of all different colors which represents him trying too hard to show off his money whereas the old rich like to have a more subtle style. The subtle style is shown mainly by the color white and on this occasion, ”They (Jordan and Daisy) were both in white..." (8). The two women wear white to show their subtle style