Materialistic Perception In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Analysis of “Materialistic Perception” in F. Scot Fitzgerald
Using Marxist Literary Criticism

Compiled by

Akhmad Kusuma Wardhana
Bachelor Degree of English Department
Faculty of Humanity
Airlangga University

Chapter I

1.1 Introduction
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald 's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a
The wealthiest man in the novel, Tom relates to the world only through his money: for him, all things and all people are commodities. His marriage to Daisy was certainly an exchange of Daisy’s youth, beauty and social standing for Tom’s money and power and the image of strength and stability they imparted to him. The symbol of this “purchase” was the $350,000 string of pearls Tom gave his bride-to-be. Similarly, Tom uses his money and social rank to “purchase” Myrtle Wilson and the numerous other working-class women with whom he has affairs. Tom’s regular choice of lower-class women can also be understood in terms of his commodified view of human interaction. Tom’s works of commodification are not limited to his relationships with women. Because capitalist promotes the belief that “you are what you own”- that our value as human beings is only as great as the value of our possessions- much of Tom’s pleasure in his expensive possessions is a product of their sign-exchange value, of the social status their ownership confers on
He has an “extraordinary gift of hope“(Fitzgerald, 6-10) and he sacrifices himself to fulfill his dream. He struggles to get into the upper class. In the end his dream fails completely, and his life finds an abrupt end. Nick Carraway is a pragmatic man, who comes from the Middle-West, and does not share the American dream. But still he is striving for something; he wants to be himself, as he sees himself, tolerant, objective and reliable. The money of the upper class is just a tiny bit of his dream together with his admiration for the rich East Eggers. Mainly, his dream consists of mental values, of a pursuit of honesty. He says of himself, “I’m one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (Fitzgerald,