Ever since the creation of the United States, it has served as a beacon of opportunity, where anything is possible. Immigrants traveled thousands of miles just to get to Ellis Island, with the possibility of a better life and to achieve the acclaimed American dream. The American dream guarantees equality of opportunity to be successful through hard work. Yet one thing that hasn’t been present throughout American history is equality, whether it has been in the form of slavery, America has always just been one big division of the rich and the poor. It is undeniable that one has the opportunity to go from rags to riches, but if you are at the top looking down, it has occurred so often that people underneath you appear as nobodies. A perfect example of this is through the great American novel, The Great Gatsby, by Scott F. Fitzgerald. America is the land of opportunity where anyone can become someone, yet the American Dream covers up the country’s own classist nature.
In The Great Gatsby, the protagonist Gatsby is able to go from a poor boy with big dreams to a successful rich figure with little help from others, proving the power of the American dream. In that era the distinction between the upper and lower class was growing by the year, but Gatsby wouldn’t let anything get in the way of him making it to the top. He was able to do this because “Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98). His vision of wealth and success was unwavered and only in America could someone create a figure from “his platonic conception” a turn that figure and dream into reality. It’s almost as if an alter ego was created in the form of Gatsby, and he seized the opportunity around him to become the figure and man so successful that it would be the vision that any “seventeen year old boy would likely invent”. In most nations across the globe, one follows in the footsteps of their ancestry and a young boy is often the successor of their father’s job, yet in America Gatsby is able to form his own path and leave behind the poverty of his kin. People in this glorious country can do more than turn from rags to riches, they have endless opportunities to do what makes them happy and find joy out of the smallest things, just like Arkansas native and basketball superstar Scottie Pippen did. Reflecting on his roots and his love affair with the game of basketball, Pippen recollected how he, “grew up with two people in a wheelchair. Basketball was my escape.” It is a rarity that America offers the opportunity for someone to make a career in something as unorthodox (or at least compared to other countries it is unusual) as a basketball player and profit off his athletic ability. Instead of being forced to provide for his family like in other places Pippen was able to sneak away from his sad family life and create his own path and career, proving the endless possibilities that this country offers.
One of the things that makes America so is the opportunity it offers, yet that opportunity comes with an extremely classist society in which it is normal to look down on those below you. In The Great Gatsby, after Gatsby has turned himself into a prominent millionaire, he hits the town with his best friend Nick (who happens to be the narrator of the book). As they were strolling in Gatsby’s luxurious car, Nick happened to notice the people across the road from him and said, “The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of southeastern Europe, and I was glad that the sight of Gatsby’s splendid car was included in their somber holiday” (69). Nick is one of the upper class, and it is the incredibly classist and snobby comment that he makes which proves that Americans are riddled with classism. Excluding the fact that he is judging these poorer people on their nationality, he is happy that Gatsby’s expensive car was “included in their somber holiday”. He is assuming that they are having a worse time than he is just because they aren’t as rich, and thinks the sight of such an expensive car would cheer them up on their gloomy and dreadful holiday. This isn’t the only example of classism in America in Fitzgerald’s tragedy, he offers another example of how irrelevant poor people are to the rich elites. Later on, Gatsby develops a relationship with a married woman who happens to be married to a man from an extremely wealthy family where nothing is more important than status. Once he, Tom, finds out his wife is having an affair he has an outburst of rage like any man would, just his source of anger is quite different. He screamed, “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (130). This displays the classism of citizens because what angers Tom is not just the fact that his wife has been sleeping around with another man, but he is furious that she would do this with a man who comes from no money. He could have focused his rage on his wife and how she broke her marital vows, but he is so caught up in the fact that his rich wife could love a man who grew up with absolutely nothing. This was a time in America where your house, income, and how rich your ancestors are determined your value and status in society, reflecting the classist nature of America.
The reason why Fitzgerald’s story is considered the American novel is because it represents and includes most aspects of what our country stands for. It follows the life of a man who came from nothing yet had the opportunity to stand with the wealthy elite after he climbed social classes as if they were rungs on a ladder. Yet the story ends up on being a tragedy, once Gatsby is murdered, and that murder was influenced by a man who couldn’t live with the fact that his wife loved a man who came from nothing. In this era, and still today, the gap between wealth classes is as large as ever, and the opportunity that America offers comes with a steep price. If someone wants to enter the country, start over and strive for great wealth and success, that opportunity is still available, but that will come with classist citizens at every corner. America has claimed they’ve been fighting for on the grounds that they offer the chance and possibility of success, but the values of the country are up for questioning since the amount of money you make per year is valued more than one’s character or the kindness their heart.
Brooks, some very good ideas here. I especially like the discussion of possibility that America offers. Pippen is an apt example (though perhaps it helps to be 6'7" and run like a gazelle!). Part of what perpetuates the American Dream is the example of the few (like Pippen, like Gatsby) that makes us think it's available to all of us. The grotesque prejudice and classism are also important to mention here showing the reality of America's Platonic conception of itself.
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