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A Marxist Deconstruction of Capitalism Through The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s renowned masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, creates an artificial world where money is the essence of everyone’s desire. The characters, the setting, and the plot are deeply submerged in a Capitalism that vows to shatter all hope for the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s criticism of Capitalism can be seen as a move to subtly promote Socialism, an ideology (belief system) in which value is placed on the inherent value of an object rather than its market value (Tyson 54). Marxism is a specific branch of Socialist theory and Fitzgerald makes Gatsby a novel that is not innately Marxist or even Socialist, but one that is filled with Marxist theory. ... Fitzgerald implies that the Capitalist system is flawed because at the conclusion of the novel, all of the characters that represent typical American Capitalism fall from grace to a world of utter despair. ... All of the characters in Gatsby nullify this idea, because they all exploit each other. For instance, Gatsby uses Nick to set up a meeting between he and Daisy. ... This is a Capitalist ideal; because the characters have this value and they are corrupt, Fitzgerald is criticizing Capitalism as a system through its values. ... Because Capitalism is “founded on commodity exchange and production, it forces the worker himself a thing to be bought and used” (Posnock 210). Often in Gatsby, human beings are treated as objects to be obtained.
Money and wealth are subjects that saturate the entirety of The Great Gatsby.
Approximate Word count = 1224
Approximate Pages = 4.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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