Consumerism in The Great Gatsby
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The work of F. Scott Fitzgerald is much more than a vivid portrait of one particular time in American History, the "Roaring Twenties." The critic John Haegert suggests that Fitzgerald was obsessed by one American myth: "that of the genteel American idealist who strives to create illusions of invulnerable beauty and munificence, only to fall prey to the triple temptation of money, sex, and glamour" (Haegert 97). He points out that Fitzgerald's obsession with this myth is seen in The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. In this book, he states that Gatsby's "material obsessions" lead to a downfall which is "an almost legendary destiny in American literature" (Haegert 97). While the troubles of Gatsby and his crowd are typically American, they have interesting links to Classical and Middle Eastern images and philosophies of life and money. Many critics have analyzed the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (Sutton 1997; Gross & Gross 1995; Bruccoli 1997). However, there has been little attention given to the philosophy of consumerism, which is essentially worshiping the God of Money. Jonas Spatz talks about this in his essay "Rewriting the Capitalist Fable" when he says that Fitzgerald was frustrated by American capitalism, and saw Daisy's denial of Gatsby as "America's refusal to honor its past. . . The new tycoons will reap the spoils of a stolen world" (Spatz 56). Lewis sees the connection between "love of money" and "love
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Generation. The war tore away our spiritual foundations and challenged our faith. We are struggling to regain our equilibrium. The times have made us older and more experienced than you were at our age" (2).
That attitude of weary awareness echoes throughout most of Nick's narration of the entire book. He is older than his years, has seen more, believes less, and is also seeking to regain his equilibrium. In a thoughtful essay on nations and their favorite novels, Corse and colleagues argue: "American national literature, for example, is simply an expected consequence of 250 million people sharing the experience of being American. Sharing a national identity means sharing a set of common experiences, problems, and myths that together produce a collective national consciousness focused on issues unique to a particular society" (Corse 1280).
If that assertion is true, and if, as that article states, The Great Gatsby is one of the leading books of the American sensibility, then, by extension, most Americans of the 1920s must have embraced the philosophy expressed in that book. Since, according to Aristotle, every protagonist must have a goal, Nick's dream in this book is to understand why Gatsby (Mammon's high priest) is
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Some common words found in the essay are:
God Money, Middle East, Mammonism Daisy, Venice Rome, Lake Forestit, Aristotle Instead, Welles Page, John Haegert, Gatsby America's, American Sharing, god money, jay gatsby, nick gatsby, capitalist fable, attitudes money, money money, dr eckelburg's, scott fitzgerald, middle east, san diego greenhaven, fitzgerald's 'the, diego greenhaven press, bruno san diego, profound human change, leone bruno san,
Approximate Word count = 3155
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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