This essay discusses the role of social mobility in The Great Gatsby. He argues that not all people can reach the highest social class, this is a class to which one must belong from the beginning of life or marry into. However, the characters live the American dream which makes social mobility available to other social classes. The essay addresses the American dream, the social class difference between the main characters and how a certain social mobility is unattainable. There are two value frameworks for social mobility in The Great Gatsby. One concerns the old values ​​according to which origin is the most important characteristic for social mobility, this will be discussed with the theories of Pierre Bourdieu. The other is the new values ​​of the American Dream where anyone can work their way up the social ladder, this will be discussed with the help of Gwendolyn Foster. The origin of wealth is a key factor in deciding which social class each character in The Great Gatsby belongs to. belong to. Jay Gatsby is the character who brought the greatest social mobility. The other characters use him for his parties and hospitality but do not consider him their equal. This is something that is particularly evident on page 66 of the novel, when Gatsby tells his story to Nick Carraway, the novel's narrator, and Nick describes Gatsby's sentences as so worn out that they lose credibility. No matter how much money Gatsby makes, he will never be good enough for either Daisy or the other characters. Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan these are the three main male characters. These men often date each other in the novel, even though they are not of the same social class. Tom Buchanan comes from an old, socially solid family and is very rich. Nick Carraway'... middle of paper... in the world, something that comes so naturally to you that you don't even think about it. In conclusion, in The Great Gatsby social mobility can to some extent be achieved by everyone. The highest social class cannot be reached by outsiders. This is a class you must belong to or marry, you cannot rise to it. Works Cited Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984) Fitzgerald, F.Scott. The Great Gatsby (London: Alma Classics, 2012) The Great Gatsby first published 1925Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Class Transition: Social Mobility in Film and Popular Culture (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005). Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/american-dream/students/thedream.html accessed December 12, 2013. (na)