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achieved (Applebum); however, those who climb the social ladder facilitated by education are
not free from criticism. These meritocrats are condemned as elitist, due to the inadequacy
their success incites within the members of the lower classes (Applebaum 8; Brooks). The
American Dream cannot be achieved without class, and class cannot exist without hostility; the
attempts to deny class in America only intensify resentment that emerges whenever class is
inevitably acknowledged.
Due to the aforementioned lack of class recognition in America, citizens themselves must
distinguish what class they are in. When citizens recognize that others are trying to display their
class, they are often taken aback, and resent the class-proclaimers. Since our nation lack[s] a
convenient system of inherited titles, ranks, and honors, citizens must themselves illustrate their
social status (Fussell 5). In Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby endeavors to distinguish
himself as a wealthy, upper-class man by throwing extravagant parties. His displays of wealth,
from the several hundred feet of canvas to the whole pitful of an orchestra, are all in excess,
revealing the fact that Gatsby is overcompensating for his modest background (Fitzgerald 40).
Tom Buchanan, a character who was born into wealth, resents Gatsbys overt attempts at fitting
in with the upper class by displaying his wealth, calling Gatsbys home a pigsty ravaged by his
weekly parties (Fitzgerald 130). Toms condemnation of Gatsby is a fictional representation of
the real-world tendency of people to frown upon undisguised presentations of wealth, especially
when that wealth is used to attempt to assimilate into the higher class. This phenomenon is again
exposed in social critic Barbara Ehrenreichs book Nickel and Dimed. Ehrenreich spent several
months in low-class occupations, one of which was being a maid. While Ehrenreich and her
coworkers spent their days exhaustedly in sweat-drenched uniforms, their manager Tammy, who
was once a maid herself, wore inch-long fake nails and tarty little outfitsto show shes
advancedand cant be sent out to clean anymore (Ehrenreich, 16). Ehrenreichs resentful tone
when describing Tammy echoes that of Americans scrutinizing those who have risen above their
class. It is Tammys blatant, visual claim of higher class that ignites antipathy between her and
the maids. Whether examining someone of lower or higher class than them, Americans distinctly
disfavor those who observably try to assert their own social class.
Bibliography
Applebaum, Anne. "The rise of the 'ordinary' elite." The Washington Post, 12 Oct. 2010. The
Washington Post.
Brooks, David. Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. Simon &
Schuster, 2000.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Metropolitan Books,
2001.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.
Fussell, Paul. Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. Touchstone, 1992.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future.
NewYork, W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.