Myrtle is in a similar situation. Like Gatsby, she is from a lower caste of society. Her plain speech and her lack of experience with casual extravagance brand her as being a pretentious upstart, a woman who would like to be a member of the upper class but does not have the necessary breeding. She and Gatsby are similar in that they are both members of the middle class who have risen to upper class status financially, but they do not qualify as members of the East Egg set because they have new money rather than inherited wealth.
The members of this society that Myrtle and Gatsby both tried so hard to impress, namely the philandering husband Tom Buchanan and his extravagant wife Daisy, had little personal regard for either of them; so little, in fact, that Daisy ran over Myrtle and blamed her death on Gatsby, who was later shot to death. As members of the financially elite, there...
Fitzgerald wrote the Great Gatsby as well as several other novels because of his personal experiences with the upper crust. In his youth he fell in love with a wealthy young woman named Ginevra, whom he later based the character of Daisy upon. Like Gatsby, he was not a member of this elite social sect. He was emotionally wounded through his dealings with the rich. Despite his social connections, he was an active champion of Marxist doctrine, a conviction which intensified as he progressed through…
