Marx and Fitzgerald

Marx and Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous Pre-Depression-era novel The Great Gatsby reveals perceptive commentary on the dangers of capitalism through the title character Jay Gatsby. Nick Carraway, who has recently moved to the West Egg district of Long Island, narrates the tale of Gatsby, the marvelously wealthy neighbor he befriends and whose ultimate destruction he observes throughout the novel. The overpowering obsession with money and social status that pervades the characters and their society can be linked to Karl Marx’s theories of capitalism. Marx’s actual economic fact explains the devaluation of men as a result of the “increase in value of the world of things.” Jay Gatsby places high value on achieving material wealth and social status, but he loses his identity, his soul, and eventually his life in his struggle to win the affections of Daisy Buchanan and to prove himself to be something more than “new money,” making him a creature of capitalism much in the same way as the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a creature of the Enlightenment.

Significant similarities can be found in the characters of Gatsby and the monster created by Victor Frankenstein. In Frankenstein, Shelley critiques the Enlightenment belief that reason and science alone can combat the problems of the world to make it a better place. A creature of science, the monster suffers from the neglect of its need for acceptance and love. A creature of the process of earning and spending money, Jay Gatsby becomes consumed in his effort to rise in social status. The monster strives to be fully human as Gatsby strives to become rich and powerful. However, both end up alone in the end, with Victor disowning the monster in Frankenstein, and Nick being the only attendee at Gatsby’s funeral after Gatsby was murdered in The Great Gatsby.

Marx’s explanation of some elements of capitalism and their relation to Gatsby and the society he exists in are also important in understanding how Gatsby is a creature of capitalism. Gatsby is a self-made man, making him an example of Marx’s belief that humans are “homo laborens,” since humans live to work for the goal of making more money. Although Gatsby might seem to be completely responsible for his success, Gatsby never really becomes part of the society he aspires to join, supporting Marx’s notion of alienated labor, which describes the human as being separated from the process of production and the product itself. Gatsby does not find respect from Tom Buchanan, a member of high society who denounces him as new money and criticizes him for not being truly wealthy and refined. Gatsby remains distanced from Daisy Buchanan, who is one of his main reasons for leading an extravagant lifestyle. The green light at the end of her dock symbolizes this distance, and even though Gatsby and Daisy kissed, Daisy still belongs to Tom. In addition to Gatsby’s lack of concern for some of his belongings, just the mere fact that Gatsby’s current identity is not his original but a created one separates his real self from the process of producing his ideal version of Gatsby. Marx claims that an active fantasy life is a result of the capitalist society, and Gatsby is constantly dreaming of getting Daisy and establishing his desired position in society because he is never satisfied, which is a characteristic of people in a fetishized society.

One of the most important aspects of Marx’s understanding of capitalism is the idea of the fetishized commodity. Fetishes