Social Expectation

I think Fitzgerald iterates a lot on social expectation. Social expectation can be examined through Amory’s pursuit of popularity. Popularity is basically Amory’s social expectation. He, the society, and even the readers expect him to be popular in school because of his background. Amory’s wealth puts him in the higher social class of a society, and because of this, everyone thus expects Amory to be popular. I think Amory’s shallowness and obsession with social acceptance in school feed into the social expectation. Obviously, Amory does not know what he wants. He joins the football team and newspaper club for the sake of recognition; the recognition everyone expects him to have. Amory is confused on his own identity is also due to the fact that he is rather shaped by his mother. Amory often mentions that his mother would be proud of his performing of certain conduct. Many of his thoughts start out with something in the lines of “mother would be impressed…”and this shows that he is catering to his mother’s expectation. Amory’s relationship with Isabella serves as another example of social expectation. In the novel, on the night they meet, both Isabella and Amory agree that people expect the two to be together. They acknowledge that “everything” has been set-up by Isabella’s cousin who believes the two are a perfect match. Isabella’s cousin and the society have an expectation of the two being together because they possess similar family background and wealth. On the contrary, I did not expect Clara and Amory to be together because Clara and Amory are on different social class. Clara is poor while Amory is wealthy. Clara does not fall in love with Amory regardless of his feeling towards her. I think Fitzgerald uses this incident to convey the importance of social expectation.