Essay: The suffering caused by the carelessness of the upper class in the Great Gatsby

The suffering caused by the carelessness of the upper class in the Great Gatsby
In the roaring 20’s the upper class lived in West Egg. The Buchanan’s wealth is old money. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are careless people who use thier money to get away from their problems. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the symbolic motif of the color yellow representing not only wealth but also death and destruction conveys the theme that the carelessness of the upper class greatly creates suffering for the lower class.
The symbolic motif of the color yellow/gold establishes the upper class’s relationship with wealth. When Gatsby arrives at Nick’s house for the tea party, he is described wearing “a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie” (Fitzgerald 84). The gold tie Gatsby chose to wear was not just because of the way it looked, but what is showcased. Gatsby wanted to show off his wealth to Daisy and impress her since he had not seen her in 5 years. Another time when the color gold was used to describe someone in the upper class was when Nick and Jordan were on a date. When Nick and Jordan walked under a bridge and he put his arm around Jordan’s shoulders, Nick describes them as “golden shoulder[s]” (79). This description is used to show her wealth and that she is old money. An additional way yellow was used to represent the upper class’s wealth is Gatsby’s yellow Rolls-Royce car. The color of his car is used to display his new money wealth. These examples of the symbolic motif of the color yellow establish the upper class‘s relationship with wealth.
The carelessness of the upper class’s actions. A person in the upper class that is careless is Tom Buchanan’s. Tom was cheating on Daisy and having an affair with Myrtle. He was careless because he is married to Daisy and ignores their commitment. Nick mentions Toms affair by saying, “The fact that he had [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomever he knew” (24). Tom is not only cheating on Daisy but is also seen in public with his mistress by his wife and their friends. This shows his carelessness as he does not even care who sees him cheating.  Another time the upper class’s carelessness is shown is when they get really drunk at the parties to the point where the black or are impaired. At one of Gatsby’s parties, excessive drinking caused Owl Eyes to drive a car and ended up crashing it even though he said himself, “I know very little about driving”. His carelessness not only put himself in danger but as well as the party goers and people on the street. The last reasoning that shows the upper class’s carelessness is when Nick talks about Tom and Daisy. Nick said, “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”. Nick had seen what Tom and Daisy Buchanan had done, and he called them out for being careless. These examples prove that the upper classes actions are selfish and careless.
The carelessness of the upper-class creates suffering for the lower class. Gatsby’s yellow car is a representation of the upper class. When Daisy is driving home with Gatsby, Myrtle runs in front of the car, and Gatsby, “reached [for]the wheel [and] felt the shock––it must have killed her instantly” (144). Daisy does not stop the car nor later tells anyone about what she did. Her carelessness is shown as she never takes responsibility for her actions and allows Gatsby to take the fall. Another time when upper classes carelessness leads to the suffering of the lower class was when Tom went to talk to Wilson. When they meet up, he lets Wilson believe that Myrtle was Gatsby’s mistress and the driver of the car that killed her. Tom tried to justify himself to Nick by saying, “He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car” (178), but in the result of this inaccurate information, Wilson blamed Gatsby for his wife’s death and shot him, and then commit suicide. The carelessness of Tom Buchannan leads to the deaths of Gatsby and Wilson. A different moment where the upper class’s carelessness affected someone in the lower class was when Tom got really mad at Myrtle. She was chanting Daisy’s name and then he makes “a short deft movement…[breaking] her nose with his open hand” (37). This act shows Tom Buchanan is careless as he does not care if her husband saw her broken nose, he didn’t think to question if it would affect her. The upper creates the lower class suffering as their carelessness causes destruction and death.
The symbolic motif of the color yellow represents the upper classes wealth and also their carelessness that ended up causing death and destruction specifically to the lower class. This helps prove the belief that having money makes people selfish as Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan both use their money to help them get rid of their problems and they did not care about anyone but themselves.