The Last Dance

America is a land of wealth and inequality. The divisions are evident in society between those who have money and those who do not, with resulting differences in access, privilege, and consequences. 

              Throughout decades of American society, the saying “the rich get richer” continues to hold true. Some of the literature we have read reflects an American belief that those with money are somehow “better” than those without. In The Great Gatsby, which has been described as a cautionary tale that undermines the American Dream, Daisy, who is very wealthy, says: ‘“You see everything’s terrible anyhow,’ she went on in a convinced way. ‘Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.’... ‘Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!”(17). Daisy brags of her experiences to demonstrate that she belongs among the privileged. By saying she has been “everywhere” and seen “everything” she is emphasizing her position and her status. She considers herself “sophisticated” because of all the experiences she has been able to buy. In America, built into our society are preconceived ideas that certain experiences, professions, degrees, or schools confer excellence and enhanced ability. After a while, the division between those that have and those that have not creates problems.      

           Sometimes, those with wealth feel they have a sense of right, power, and invincibility. There remains a perception in America that wealth somehow alleviates those with money from being held accountable for their mistakes. In The Great Gatsby, the narrator Nick Carraway describes Tom and Daisy: “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…”(179). Tom and Daisy “retreat back to their money” and use it as a shield from accountability. They do not need to face consequences of their actions because of their “rank” in American society. Other people, whom they view as lower, are there to “clean up” and bear the burden of their wrongdoings. In America, wealth contributes to power, and people at the top are able to skate by carelessly without concern of consequences. This divide creates greater inequality and can lead to resentments between classes. 

            The divide that this hierarchy creates causes people to look down on others. In the short story Starfood, the main character is a young man struggling to find his future path; from his roof he can look down and literally see the class divide between those families with swimming pools and those that sleep on the curb. When a woman starts stealing from his store, he similarly struggles with how to view her. After a time he achieves clarity: “it seemed to me that I had turned a corner and now looked over a rain-washed street. The woman was a thief. This was the simple fact and it presented itself to me simply”(50). He chose his path forward as a future store owner, a man of business, and the woman became someone of a different class of people to him. In America, many stereotypes persist about those who have money and those that don’t. Many in society think that they need money to be successful and that those who have it get special treatment and perquisites. 

         Society rewards wealth and expects that everyone should value and seek wealth. Those who become wealthy might think that they are entitled to enjoy the benefits of their hard work. In another short story, The Rich Brother, the wealthier brother Pete feels superior to Donald, who has been living on a community farm and has no money or property. Pete has to come to Donald’s aid and give him a place to live. Donald feels that he should be rewarded for working hard and following society's track. In reflecting on Donald’s speculative investment with Pete’s money, he thinks to himself, “What a joke if there really was a blessing to be had, and the blessing didn’t come to the one who deserved it, the one who did all the work, but to the other”(89). Pete views himself as deserving of the money that could be made from the investment, because he is the successful one who has worked hard to get where he is.

              These texts have explored some themes around wealth and the privilege in America. The advances and opportunities that the wealthy get create an ever expanding divide in American society. The inequalities have come under a spotlight lately, in the past couple of months, with COVID-19 impacting millions. It is the people without healthcare, without access to the internet, and without support systems who suffer disproportionately. The distribution of wealth in America creates unfair circumstances that lead to suffering and raises questions of who gets what and why.