Examples Of Dehumanization In The Great Gatsby

Dehumanization Through Class and Gender in Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby

John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, share a theme of dehumanization. Dehumanization is portrayed through two opposite social classes, the wealthy and the working class, and the ways in which women are treated by men. Of Mice and Men is a novel about George and Lennie, two migrant farmers, who have been hired to work at a farm after being chased out of their last job. The Great Gatsby is concerned with its protagonist, Jay Gatsby, and his devotion to rising into the upper class to impress Daisy Buchanan who left him because he was poor. In the end, characters from both novels are either dehumanized due to their class
When Nick, the narrator, and Tom Buchanan, Daisy's husband, visit the valley of ashes to see Tom's mistress, Myrtle, they also encounter Myrtle's husband, George Wilson, a poor car mechanic. George inquires when Tom will be selling him a car with a tone of desperation in his voice. Tom, sensing this desperation, threatens to “sell it somewhere else after all” (Fitzgerald 25). George quickly tries to take it back but his voice fades off with submission. Fitzgerald effectively chooses the words “faded off” to characterize George's reply because like Crooks in Of Mice and Men, it supports the notion that some of the lower class workers recognize that arguing back with the upper class is useless. It is apparent that Tom enjoys dangling this sale over him because George is depending on it. Later in the novel when Nick and Daisy are visiting Gatsby's house, Gatsby calls his servant, Klipspringer, over to play them some music. When the servant walks in, Nick immediately notices that Gatsby had him change his attire to make him look more presentable for Daisy. Klipspringer explains that he was sleeping but Gatsby interrupts to ask him if he plays the piano and then interrupts him again when Mr. Klipspringer tries to admit that he is out of practice. Gatsby commands that he not “talk so much” and just play (95). Gatsby's request that he not “talk so much” connects back to the voiceless characteristic that Crooks in Of Mice and Men understands to pertain to himself. In this short conversation, Gatsby is attempting to help Klipspringer understand that this characteristic pertains to him as well by not allowing him to finish a single