Examples Of Karl Marx In The Great Gatsby

In order to analyze. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s let us first look into what the American dream is and how it affects the class system in America. It has become increasingly difficult to divide the American society into the two systems given to us by Karl Marx; the bourgeoisie and the proletariats. Therefore, to make things easier we must divide them into not two but five groups of class; the underclass, lower class, middle class, upper class, and aristocracy. The underclass consists of the homeless people; the lower class are the people who have few material possessions but limited educational opportunities thus they work hard to prevent from becoming homeless; the middle class who have good jobs, nice homes and are financially
stable; the upper class who have one or two homes, cars and luxury items; and finally the aristocrats who are wealthy beyond imagination with huge homes and for whom money is never an issue at all. If we look at these five groups from a Marxist perspective, we can see that clearly members of the lower and underclass fall into the category of proletariats: the economically oppressed and laborers who are suffering from economic recessions. The Upper class and the aristocrats can be considered the bourgeoisie with their luxurious lifestyles and financial security without much hard work. But where do the middle class members fit in? According to Karl Marx original theory this faction of society should not even exist but they do in the contemporary world so where do they fit. Are they economically challenged or privileged? According to Tyson, they are probably both; they have financial stability and are hit by economic recessions harder than the other groups. The work that they put in actually finances all the other groups in society in some way as the tax burden is highest on them. All of these class factions are trying to fulfill the American Dream which is the equality of opportunity but equality does not exist this none of them are able to achieve their goals or aspirations. It is safe to assume that Marxist theory gains its critical capacity by presenting itself as in the process of being realized through class conflict. By locating its critical and empirical reality in an ideal, unrepressive, unoppressive, relatively crime free future, it renders itself irresponsible for its own history and immune from empirical criticism.