Fitzgerald's View of the Rich - Post Twelve

"That's my Middle West...the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark....I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house....I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all - Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life." (Chapter 9)


At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carroway talks about the difference between the east and west life and the inability to transition from one place to another.  This quote best represents Fitzgerald's view of the rich because it is exemplifies the notion that it is unable to climb from one social status to the next.  As we talked about in class,  the characters within The Great Gatsby, are ranked from highest to lowest social standing.  Although many of the characters try, there is no character that completely moves into a higher social standing without serious repercussion and failure.  In this quote, Fitzgerald uses Nick to parallel the idea of migration to a different place with the movement of social status.  The Westerners, Nick, Gatsby, and the Buchanans, are unable to adapt to the Eastern life.  Moreover, the inhabitants of East Egg in Long Island represent old money while  West Egg holds people of new money (ie. Gatsby).  As seen in the novel, Gatsby is unable to ever assimilate with the East Egg residents.  Although Fitzgerald's view of the rich is not explicitly stated, it seems as though his idea regarding "the rich" is embodied in his  notion that social status is fixed.  All of the Characters within Gatsby end up where they began, or worse.