Grade 11

Ethan Chang
Ms.Santiago

The Great Gatsby: sociological analysis

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, through the narration of Nick, expresses his
ambivalent feelings about the concept of the American Dream, which signicantly inuences
the behaviour of the characters in the book. The pattern of actions and ideas of characters can
be seen as products of the American Dream during the Jazz age, and each character
represents different element or phase of the American Dream in different social classes.
In the story, the American Dream has an enormous impact on every characters
personality. And this impact can be clearly seen through the contrast between the two main
characters - Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy were born in completely different social
classes. Not until halfway through the story do we begin to hear the real story of Gatsbys
origin. Gatsby is the son of unsuccessful farm people in North Dakota, and his real name is
James Gatz (98). Even though Gatsby was raised in a poor family, he knew he had a big
future in front of him and that he was destined to achieve great things (172). Envisioning
himself as the son of God, Gatsby created his own image and has been faithful to this
Platonic conception of himself to the end (98). These descriptions all suggest that Gatsby had
been patiently waiting for an opportunity to climb up the social ladder. His insatiable desire of
self-improvement even haunted him in his bed at night when he was young, but it also
renders him the determination to rise about his humble beginning (99). Furthermore, with a
closer inspection, Gatsbys dreams are found to draw many parallels with the American Dream.
His vision to rise from rags to riches and his belief that a richer and better life can be attained
regardless of his social class of birth are the fundamental elements of many poor peoples
American Dream. However, as we shall discuss later, the American Dream is in fact only
attainable in certain social classes, and these poor people are forever impeded by their past.
Past is an essential theme in The Great Gatsby for it not only symbolises the
insurmountable obstacle of the poor people but also marks the difference between people born
in wealth and those new to wealth. In his pursuit of prestige, Gatsby changed his name before
to deny his past and set a new beginning for his self-conception. In addition, he likes to be
called a Oxford man due to the fact that most of the people born in the privileged families,
such as Tom and Nick, had studied in renowned schools (122). Despite all the efforts Gatsby
has put into hiding his real family background, the old rich are still able to nd out about his past
and thus exclude him. For example, Tom mocks at Gatsbys past by suggesting that the only
way for Gatsby to meet Daisy is to [bring] the groceries to the back door (131). At the end,
Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby because Tom is born in wealth while Gatsby may lose his
fortune easily once his bootlegging business is gone. Gatsby is forever haunted by his past,
and his fate implies that no matter how hard people try to deny their past and reach forward,
they will still be borne back ceaselessly into the past, which is contradictory to the belief of the
American Dream (180).
On the other hand, Daisy was born to an afuent family. She is described by Fitzgerald
as a girl gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor (150). At rst
glance, she might appear to be a naive and romantic girl. But with a careful observation, we
can see that Daisy constantly tries to maintain her social status so that she can always have
her luxurious life style. She didnt wait for and marry Gatsby because he was a poor soldier.
When Gatsby was gone for war, Daisy began to search for someone with the pursuit of
money and of unquestionable practicality (151). This is of this pursuit that makes Daisy
decided to marry Tom Buchanan despite that fact that she was still in love with Gatsby. She
weeped and struggled, yet relieved and was attered because of the wholesome bulkiness
about Tom and his position in the society (151). Ultimately, this is the same reason why Daisy
chooses Tom over Gatsby at the end. Daisys pursuit of maintaining her social class (or
reaching an even higher social class) by marrying a rich man is another belief or practice of the
American Dream, which makes Daisy an ideal example of the old rich. Daisys example shows
us that the old rich is able to stay wealthy, and its much easier for them to achieve American
Dream compared to poor people. From the contrast between Gatsby and Daisy, we can see
that the American Dream is everywhere in the society during the 1920s and the people it
inuenced range from poor boys to rich girls.
The rising of Gatsby to high social status not only brings him to money, but also to his
American Dream. Gatsby rst met Daisy when he was a penniless soldier. The observation
made by Nick that there are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired
summarises the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy (79). In short, Daisy, who is the
pursued and tired from an esteemed social class, is chased after by the pursuing and
busy Gatsby from a low social class. To Gatsby, Daisy symbolises the American Dream. Their
relationship ve years ago signied to Gatsby his rst step towards high society. Their marriage
would further promote his social status along with his money and fame that hes gained within
these ve years. It is from their rst kiss that Gatsby rst tasted the American Dream. Gatsby
knew that once he kissed Daisy, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God (110).
He could no longer create limitless fantasy for himself freely like how he used to, and his pure
and innocent motive to move up his social class would become corrupted and realistic once he
bound his unutterable vision to her perishable breath (110). This demonstrates the duality of
the American Dream and Daisy. Far away, Daisy seems to be a awless perfection. Close up,
she falls within the boundaries of mortality and reality. The American Dream doesnt seem to be
so grand as it promises anymore. The quote between idea and the reality falls the shadow by
T.S. Eliot can be used to describe this situation perfectly. The incarnation complete by the kiss
had made Gatsby step into this shadow towards reality, which would change his destiny forever
(111).
From a different perspective and with the reference to How to Read Literature like a
Professor by Thomas C. Foster, one may argue that Gatsby can represent innocence while
Daisy can represent a vampire symbolically. Foster says that symbolic vampirism is about the
corruption and exploitation of others life, energy and virtue, using other people to get what we
want and denying some elses right to live in the face of our overwhelming demands (19).
Although the vampire is preferably an old male and the victim is usually a young female, Daisy
comes from the old rich with old values while Gatsby is fresh and innocent. Gatsbys dream is
so pure and optimistic till the point that he seems naive and childish. Additionally, Gatsbys
yearns eagerly to become one of the old rich like Daisy. As mentioned above in the previous
paragraph, Daisy rst corrupted Gatsbys pure and innocent unutterable vision of his future
with her perishable breath. Then she denies to stay in love with Gatsby because he could not
afford her overwhelming demands. In an attempt to impress her, Gatsby joined in an illegal
business and became a rich bootlegger, which shows his dream has become somewhat
distorted and isnt as pure as before. After all the things Gatsby has done, Daisy only plays
around with him but deep down in her mind, she still doesnt accept him and unconsciously
uses him to get Toms attention because she feels that Tom never takes care of her enough.
Even when Daisy nally decides to return back to Tom, she never cut Gatsby loose entirely and
leaves him a dim light of hope that he still has a chance to win her over. At the end, Daisy
chooses to completely forget about Gatsby as if he never exists and leaves Long Island, letting
Gatsby naively take the blame for running over Myrtle and get shot in the swimming pool.
Matching with some key elements of Fosters criteria of vampirism, Daisy could be interpreted
as a vampire who toys with Gatsbys yearning to become one of them and then wasted him
away to death afterwards.
It is interesting to see the commonality between the fate of Gatsby and Myrtle. Both of
them tried to climb up the social stratication by pursuing either Tom or Daisy, and both of them
died in the process. Tom and Daisy indirectly killed each others lover. This indirect murdering
signies the unconscious mind of the elites to keep themselves together and to deny the lower
class from having a fair chance of gaining wealth and social status. Even if those elites
[smash] up things, theyre still able to [retreat] back into their money and let other people
clean up the mess they had made (179). The tragic endings of Gatsby and Myrtle shows us
the constant exploiting of the lower class by the elites.
In conclusion, although the American Dream is something that is valuable to attain
across all social classes, the profound class distinction and exploitation by the elites hinder the
people from the lower class from achieving the American Dream. As shown in Gatsbys
example, the people from the lower class [possess] some deciency in common in blending
into the upper class, and their haunted past will make their efforts, ultimately, result in vacancy
(176). For them, American dream is very hard, if not completely impossible, to achieve.










Reference:
Fitzgerald, Frances. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.
Foster, Thomas. How to Read Literature like a Professor. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.
"The Hollow Men by T S Eliot." The Hollow Men, a Poem by T S Eliot. Poets Love Poem at
Allpoetry. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.