Consumerism In The Great Gatsby

Baudrillard (1998) used a sign/signifier model to explain consumerism: that “signs” and “symbols” are highly associated with and “achieved” by purchasing particular products. “The circulation, purchase, sale, appropriation of differentiated goods and objects today constitute our language, our code, the code by which the entire society communicates”. Luxuries are therefore seen as necessities in the consumer society, purchasing and possessing “valuable” products become a lifestyle. Through this way, individuals craft for themselves an identity and build up a biography; the self and how others perceive the self is judged on the basis of consuming pattern. Thus, poverty is no longer defined by unemployment but by being an ‘incomplete ‘consumer’,