F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel The Great Gatsby in the 1920s. This decade was characterized by economic and cultural change. With the growth of a new class With new money, Americans began to tire of the different social norms of each social rank and attempted to move up to a higher class. Fitzgerald focused on this class disparity and several class issues, particularly class mobility. The journalists wrote and published a group of essays called Class Matters. These essays discuss modern social and economic class structure and associated class issues. A central theme in each of these novels is class mobility, and Class Matters both explore the differences between classes. classes and lack of class mobility in order to draw attention to class imbalance. Class Matters and Great Gatsby both describe the differences between classes to show how different they are. Fitzgerald does this with color symbolism and his characters. He uses several colors as symbols to help him demonstrate the disparity between economic classes. The houses of East Egg are described as "white palaces". The color white is a strong symbol of superiority and wealth (Bloom). Fitzgerald describes the Valley of Ashes as a dull and gray environment. Fitzgerald uses his characters to show the difference in social class. Tom Buchanans is a member of an incredibly wealthy family. Fitzgerald describes Tom as having “two bright, arrogant eyes…and a voice full of contempt” (7). Meanwhile, Jay Gatsby, the novel's protagonist, comes from an incredibly poor family and is described as having an aura of trust and understanding (48). Fitzgerald uses two contrasting descriptions to show how T...... middle of paper ...... People get stuck in a rut. No changes are made, progress is non-existent, and life becomes dull and boring. The valley is lifeless and dead. Fitzgerald describes the valley this way to show the disadvantages of lack of class mobility. Class Matters addresses the topic of classroom mobility with an essay by Scott and Leonhardt. Scott and Leonhardt explain how the number of people staying in the same class has increased exponentially since the 1970s (330). This data supports their argument that class mobility has declined significantly. Both Fitzgerald and the Class Matters journalists emphasized class differences and the lack of class mobility. This was to show that changes must be made and that class mobility must increase. For this to happen, both classes must adopt certain characteristics from the opposite class..