“Discuss the ways in which a text offers a representation of a type of person or a group of people. Refer to at least one text.
Texts, through the use of characters, have the ability to represent to us a certain group of people. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s prominent novel, The Great Gatsby, we are introduced to the complex and eminent group of the 1920’s, the Aristocrats. The characters Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Jay Gatsby himself, exemplify the stereotypical characteristics that the American upper class of the 1920’s possessed. The novel also illustrates the division within the upper-class, which separated, namely the noble and prestigious aristocrats from old money from the less powerful and ‘corrupt’ bourgeoisie, whose wealth had been recently obtained.
Daisy Buchanan, a product of the Upper-American class of the 1920’s, embodies so distinctively many of the character traits of her corresponding class. Like many of the self-centred upper-class, Daisy is careless and forgets that her actions affect other people. Daisy leads Gatsby on, promising that she will leave Tom, when really she is unsure if she actually will. During an argument in the city, “she realised at last what she was doing, and as though she has never, all along, intended on doing anything”. Daisy Claims to love Gatsby, but despite this she would never leave Tom and he is Old money. Daisy is so preoccupied with the idea of wealth, as Nick claims, “Her voice spoke money”. Status was something that Daisy valued so greatly, this however was not something in which Gatsby could offer her, as he was new money and therefore he was associated with “bootlegging”.
The products of the Upper-class were morally decayed to the extent that they could not differentiate right from wrong. Daisy is shown to have very poor morals, as she does not care enough for a human life to stop her car, after recklessly hitting Myrtle
Wilson. Gatsby tells her to stop the car, but she does not...