Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Gatsby, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Great Gatsby portrays three different social classes: "old money" (Tom and Daisy Buchanan); "new money" (Gatsby); and a class that might be called "no money" (George and Myrtle Wilson). "Old money" families have fortunes dating from the 19th century or before, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The "new money" class made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth.
The Great Gatsby shows the newly developing class rivalry between "old" and "new" money in the struggle between Gatsby and Tom over Daisy. As usual, the "no money" class gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving middle and lower class people like George Wilson forgotten or ignored.
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Class (Old Money, New Money, No Money) ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Class (Old Money, New Money, No Money) appears in each chapter of The Great Gatsby. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Class (Old Money, New Money, No Money) Quotes in The Great Gatsby
Below you will find the important quotes in The Great Gatsby related to the theme of Class (Old Money, New Money, No Money).
Chapter 1
Quotes
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
Related Characters:
Nick Carraway (speaker)
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"And I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
Related Characters:
Daisy Buchanan (speaker), Pammy Buchanan
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Chapter 2
Quotes
This is a Valley of Ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.
Related Characters:
Nick Carraway (speaker)
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The Valley of Ashes
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Chapter 5
Quotes
"It makes me sad because I've never seen such — such beautiful shirts before."
Related Characters:
Daisy Buchanan (speaker), Jay Gatsby
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Gatsby's Mansion
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Chapter 6
Quotes
The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So 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.
Related Characters:
Nick Carraway (speaker), Jay Gatsby
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Chapter 7
Quotes
"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly.
That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it.
That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it.
Related Characters:
Jay Gatsby (speaker), Nick Carraway (speaker), Daisy Buchanan
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Chapter 8
Quotes
"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together."
I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time.
I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time.
Related Characters:
Nick Carraway (speaker), Jay Gatsby
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Chapter 9
Quotes
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Related Characters:
Nick Carraway (speaker), Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan
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