Luu
Shelly Luu
Ms. Dahme
HN English III
21 February 2018
Blind Desires over Danger
The sound of classical music pervades the atmosphere with utmost clarity. The flock of people moves like a current, mingling for a second, but never settling until they show off their distinct display of wealth. The host, however, watches the crowd beneath him, and waits patiently, waiting for the person that might eventually return to his arms. When she finally appears, she is dress elegantly with another man taking her by the hand, which is her husband. This act of betrayal angered the host of the party so, and motivates him more to later flaunt his wealth in front of the woman. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the main character Jay Gatsby returns to West Egg with his newly acquired wealth, and appears to society as an upper class citizen, however the love of his life, Daisy, is already married to another man without his knowledge. Gatsby utilizes his new money to show Daisy how his social status has changed from being in the lower class to having endless riches. Inevitably, Gatsby faces danger from his side businesses, his own self, how society treats him, and finally, the downfall of his love for Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys the danger of involving people in the internal affairs of another social class when one tries to change their social class by force.
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses conflict to exemplify Jay Gatsby and his struggle to overcome his lower class status in the beginning, so that he can shift to a higher class in society providing the wealth that he needs to woo Daisy. Gatsby, being somewhat ashamed of his past, creates a compelling image that he thinks is acceptable in society. In order to fully neglect his lower class family Gatsby has lived with during his childhood, he cast away any attachments of his old self. The narrator, Nick Carraway, tells readers of Gatsbyś past that he hid to become the Jay Gatsby he is today, “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself” (Fitzgerald 98). The author utilizes the conflict between Gatsby and his social class rank in society to show the danger of trying to surpass one’s own social rank and the consequences that comes with it. It is hard to overcome one’s class rank for Jay Gatsby because he still struggles to deceive himself and everyone else around him into thinking that he belongs in the high class part of society. The internal conflict is shown when Fitzgerald mentions Gatsby’s past where he did not accept his low class rank, so he made a whole new image of himself to be better than his parents, and revolve his businesses with people in the upper class because he wants to assimilate into their class rank. In an article discussing Gatsby’s motivation behind his actions, Carla Verderame writes, “Gats...
