Social Structure In The Great Gatsby

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English 10 1/12/11 Gatsby Essay The Jazz age, or 1920’s, is remembered in history books as a time of rapid social change, usually for the better. Women were getting more independent of men, automobiles were becoming more affordable, and prohibition had created a thriving, exciting underworld of bootleggers and parties designed to satisfy the massive demand for this now-illegal liquid. But below all of this was a whole different world, one that wasn’t as glamorous as it seemed. The poor were taken advantage of by the rich, those same irresponsible rich people made messes that the poor had to clean up, and these rich people were all fake and had no substance. The social structure represented in the book during the 1920’s is unfair, unstable,…show more content…
An example of this is how Tom doesn’t even really like Myrtle, but he still cheats on Daisy with her. In this example, Tom is only using Myrtle as an escape from his life with Daisy, which isn’t as perfect as he wanted it to be. Therefore, he feels the need to cheat on Daisy, simply because he can get away with it. Another example of how the rich use the less rich, is when Gatsby uses Nick to get to Daisy. Gatsby wouldn’t have showed so much interest in Nick if he hadn’t known that Daisy was Nick’s cousin. Gatsby befriended Nick, for the sole purpose of getting to Daisy through him. Perhaps in time their relationship grew to a true friendship, but at first Gatsby was blind and numb to everything but Daisy. Lastly, Tom only pretends to like Wilson when it’s helpful to him. For example, when Tom is at Wilson’s auto repair shop waiting for Myrtle, he starts talking to Wilson about selling him a car. Tom never truly intended to sell the car to Wilson, he was only saying that because he thought it would draw away Wilson’s suspicion that Myrtle was cheating on him with Tom. The rich, especially the rich with “old money” use everyone below them and don’t even think about the personal…show more content…
One example of this is how Tom uses Myrtle to cheat on Daisy and escape from his busy life, and in the end Myrtle gets killed. This is very severe, and although Tom was only using Myrtle as a fling, and nothing truly serious, the consequences were, indeed, very serious. Even though Tom didn’t mean for it to happen, if he hadn’t been so obsessed with himself and only looking after his own pleasure, he wouldn’t have cheated on Daisy with Myrtle in the first place. And if he hadn’t done that, Myrtle would still be alive and living happily with Tom. Another example is how after Myrtle died, Tom told Wilson that it was Gatsby (even though we know it was Daisy) and Wilson killed Gatsby. So not only does selfish Tom have Myrtle’s death on his conscience, he now also has Gatsby’s. So what does he do? He takes Daisy and runs off to Europe, leaving Nick to clean up the mess. This is my third example. After Tom’s cheating on Daisy with Myrtle kills Myrtle, and Daisy’s cowardice to tell anyone that she was actually driving the car kills Gatsby, the two just disappear and Nick is left to plan funerals and take care of everything. Tom and Daisy represent the rich in the social structure, who only care about their own pleasures and safety, and it is them who are careless, irresponsible bullies who are so used to money’s ability to
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