Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By: Scott
Im m o ra li S u p e rio rit G re e d
ty y
Morality
• P: When people have lower morals,
their wealth can often times
increase.
• E: “Civilization’s going to pieces”,
broke out Tom violently. “I’ve
gotten to be a terrible pessimist
about things. Have you read ‘The
Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this
man God-dard?” (Fitzgerald 12)
Morality (cont.)
• P: (Wealthier people) believed that the
problem with charity was not that it was
never enough but, on the contrary, that
there was too much of it and that the poor
were becoming “pauperized” by
dependence on abundant charity.
(Valverde 19)
• I: Both examples from Fitzgerald’s text and
the Scholar’s text indicate that wealthier
people often times think differently than
poorer people. The wealthy seem to have
lower beliefs than those of the less
wealthy. Often times wealthy people in
the 1920’s were openly racist and only
looked out for themselves, while this was
seen less frequently among the poor.
Superiority
• P: As a person’s wealth increases,
their belief that they have a type of
superiority among other people
emerges.
• E: “And I know. I’ve been everywhere
and seen everything and done
everything.” Her eyes flashed
around her in a defiant way, rather
like Tom's and she laughed with
thrilling scorn. “Sophisticated-
God, I’m sophisticated!” (Fitzgerald
17)
Superiority (cont.)
P: I suggest that segregation, this is, clustering that
is involuntary, or better yet, hierarchial (i.e.,
derived from a ranking system that reflects
superiority based on wealth, status or power), is
generally objectionable and should be countered
by public policy measures. (Varady 15)
I: Fitzgerald’s quote shows that Daisy is assuming