Social Class

After taking the Christian Science Monitor quiz, I was given the social class of Bourgeois Vous. I thought that this was a fairly accurate social class to be put in since it described me pretty well. There were a few minor things such as taste in songs that weren't correct, but other than that I agreed with the class I was put in. When looking at the quiz as a whole, I think it does an above average, but not perfect job of defining social class. The questions seemed to strike at someone's personality and mindset rather than just focusing on simple questions like "how much money do you make?". On the other hand, every person can't be easily placed into a class based on whether or not they stop for a pedestrian or like country music. Those questions struck me more as individualized and not necessarily belonging to any one class.

With this new information in mind, I decided to connect the other texts we have studied to the characters from The Great Gatsby. When I read "Money Always Talks" by Daphine Merkin, the main message seemed to be that money changes people, regardless of the person. She specifically stated, "They're worse, and they’re better, reviled and adulated. They stir up envy, and they invite respect". I focused especially closely on the last part regarding envy and respect and found a lot of truth in it within The Great Gatsby. In particular, I thought about how Jay Gatsby seems to fit that description perfectly. Throughout the book, he is revered by society and everyone around him due to his vast wealth and mystery. It is hard to think that this would be the same if he were poor, as he draws much of his courage and self-confidence from the fact that he is so wealthy. An example of this is when he takes extra care to show off his house to Daisy, so that he can impress her.

The other text I examined, "Shadowy Lines that Still Divide", argues three main points: class is becoming harder to see, it is becoming harder to move between classes, and class differences are becoming larger. Out of these three points, I examined the last one and how it compared to the corresponding message in The Great Gatsby. In my opinion, the two texts take very different stands on the issue. While "Shadowy Lines" states that class differences are becoming larger in terms of health and education, Gatsby would seem to argue the opposite indirectly. I say this because in Gatsby there is an enormous gap between the rich and the poor. While the book doesn't necessarily display the poor often, it does display the rich. It shows them as having near infinite money at their disposal as seen in their partying and careless spending. When considering that this book was written during the 1920's, a time where medicine was still coming onto the scene and only the rich could afford healthcare, it seems to me that there was a large gap in health care. Compare that to today where now everyone is required to have health care. The difference is clear. With respect to education, the same holds true. In the 1920's and today, wealth played a part in where you went to school and whether or not you could go to college. Unlike today, however, there were no government regulations that made colleges accept a certain number of people from minority groups, and this led to rich, white people completely dominating the top colleges. In all, The Great Gatsby clearly contradicts the statement made in "Shadowy Lines that Still Divide", which said that class differences are becoming greater.