The Conflict of Social Classes as Represented in F.

Scott Fitzgeralds

The Great Gatsby

By Santi Ramdhani (1209503155)

In all around the world, someones social status lately is being important. It is because people live in the society with different backgrounds. And the effect of those differences are differentiation of social status or nowadays more popular with social classes in the society. Those differentiations of social classes also portrayed in Fitzgeralds work The Great Gatsby. I can see from this novel that there are any conflicts of social classes impressed by every character in their roles in the society. And I myself consider that those differentiations are appeared by a discourse of materialism in that novel. Materialism is often known as a concept that glorifies things. We had know before that The Great Gatsby has an inclination to the wealth as portrayed most in some characters such as Jay Gatsby, Nick, Tom, and Daisy. Therefore, I have a conclusion that this conflict of social classes is an effect of materialism concept in this novel. Truly, Marxist criticism also tends to talk about social classes. It is because Marxism is a materialist philosophy as I said above as cause of differentiation social classes. Marxism sees progress as coming about through the struggle for power between different social classes (Peter Barry, 1995: 157). However, it is probably true to say (as ken Newton does, p.244, Theory into Practice) that traditional Marxist criticism tends to deal with history in a fairly generalized way. It is talks about conflicts between social classes, and clashes of large historical forces, but contrary to popular belief, it rarely discusses the detail of a specific historical situation and relates it closely to the interpretation of a particular literary text (Peter Barry, 1995: 159).

From this theory, we can take the point that Marxist criticism explains that in the conflict of social classes, which is affected by clashes of large historical forces. It means that according to Marxist, historical aspects become a main factor to the differentiation of social classes. Historical forces aspect here is an aspect of discrimination of black and white; slavery also has big influence to the differential classes because the authorities control the workers. In The Great Gatsby, we can apply Marxist theory to analyze the conflict of social classes. Generally, in this novel really tend to explore wealth aspect as if want to represent power between upper and lower class. And we can see it from the beginning of the story in which Nick as a narrator tell his status first. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth (Chapter 1: 1). Nick is fully aware of how important class is to personal identity, especially in the society in which lives. He knows that he was born into a life of privilege and a certain amount of wealth. The rich may be "above" him, but there are many people "below" him, and Nick keeps the influence of class in mind with everyone he meets. This novel also emphasize the distinction between the social status of white people are seen to have power over blacks. Tom reflected it from his statement to Nick. "Well, its a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we dont look out the white race will bewill be utterly submerged. Its all scientific stuff; its been proved." (Chapter 1: 16)

"Well these books are all scientific," insisted Tom, glancing at her impatiently. "This fellow has worked out the whole thing. Its up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things." (Chapter 1: 16) Nicks playful suggestion that they talk about something less upper class gets Tom ranting about race and class. Tom thinks he is at the top of society, and wants to stay there. Besides high class and lower class, in this novel also I think there is a discourse about feudal and bourgeois. I can say that the terms old money is representation of feudal people and nouveau riche is representation of bourgeois people as a concept of Marxist theory of class struggle. And this concept is supported by Marxist theory as it said below; Thus, the conflict in King Leur might be read as being really about the conflict of class interest between the rising class (the bourgeois) and the falling class (the feudal overlords) (Peter Barry, 1995: 167). In addition, in this novel, Tom represents feudal people with his wealth and authority; whereas Gatsby represents bourgeois people with his effort to get the wealth and changes his social status. This is a complicated comment. We are thinking that Tom is referring to the old money way of life, a way of life that is inherited. The West Egg lifestyle or the world populated with the nouveau riche. Furthermore, we have Toms comment that most newly rich people are bootleggers this was true in some cases, but the generalization allows Tom to write off all of the nouveau riche as crooks or imposters. Nick stands up for Gatsby possibly because Nick is starting to like the guy. "Who is this Gatsby anyhow?" demanded Tom suddenly. "Some big bootlegger?" "Whered you hear that?" I inquired. "I didnt hear it. I imagined it. A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know."

"Not Gatsby," I said shortly. (Chapter 6: 115)

On the other sides, there is a distinction out of wealth; it is about a distinction of status between man and woman. As in this novel portrayed in which girl is considered as a fool one and did not has a value at all in the society. Itll show you how I have gotten to feel about things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, so I turned my head away and wept. All right, I said, I am glad its a girl. And I hope she will be a fool-thats the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. (Chapter 1: 20) From this quotation, we can know that there is a different status between boy and girl. It is proved by Daisy itself that indirectly she admit that boy is better than girl and she realize it.

References; Barry, Peter. 1995. Beginning Theory. Great Britain: Manchester University Press Fitzgerald, F. Scott. 1925. The Great Gatsby. USA: pdf