Money vs. Morals

Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby the color white is often used to symbolize status, wealth, and purity. Almost every page references the color white to the high status estates of East Egg: “white palaces glittering along the water” (5). In contrast, the color black is used to symbolize pain and impurity: “‘I hurt it.’ We all looked—the knuckle was all black and blue” (12). These simple symbols demonstrate the societal division between races in the United States. Since the United States values wealth and money, discrimination continues to occur.

In the America that is portrayed in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby we see two high status societies—East Egg and West Egg—, and we are provided insight into the everyday dramas and conflicts that plague the upper class. We see situations where the wealthy are exempted from the law—alcohol usage and speeding. We also see how the wealthy view the lives of African-Americans. On the first page of the book, Nick Carraway explains that he is “inclined to reserve all judgements.” However, in chapter 4, instead of reserving his judgments he acts on them: “A limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled towards us in haughty rivalry” (69). He laughs at the African-Americans that are in the limousine because he finds it amusing that black people are trying to associate with the upper class by riding in a limo. He also demonstrates ignorance as he believes that judgement towards African-Americans is an exemption from his inclination to reserve judgements. 

Unfortunately, the racist themes that are expressed in the 1920s era are not so different from our own. Today, money is still so heavily valued that African-American students often have a lower chance of being accepted at a university than a white student. In an interview documented by The Atlantic, a 21 year-old named Brastell Travis explains the hardships that he has faced growing up on the south side of Chicago, an area that is predominantly black and often described as a dangerous area. He explains that “because of where he went to high school, he can’t apply for jobs in certain neighborhoods, because he could become a target of violence if he goes to the wrong areas of town” (The Atlantic). The effects of redlining—a system created to outline good vs. bad neighborhoods—are demonstrated in the segregation of Chicago. It becomes harder for people to get jobs because they have been racially segregated into bad neighborhoods by redlining acts. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me he describes that African-Americans are discriminated against because of society. He says, “we live in a ‘goal-oriented’ era” (12). Coates, like the segregation of Chicago, demonstrates the effects of societal divisions as people do not look at the hardships that people face but rather at the achievements that they have to show. It’s because of this segregation that African-Americans don’t get accepted into colleges as easily, why they don’t get hired at the same high paying jobs, and why their neighborhoods are classified as “dangerous” and “bad”. 

Like the status-obsessed long islanders, the United States practices racial discrimination everyday because of money. Money is a material that does not prove one’s self worth, but is used as a tool for people to achieve societal demands. Money is used for people to feel accepted when everyone should be accepted because of who they are. Only those with money can be heard, only those with money get noticed, and only those with money go by unseen.