The Great Gatsby is a wonderful book. Every character introduced serves a purpose. If you look at the book from a Marxist view, it takes on a whole different meaning. The society in The Great Gatsby values money and wealth over anything else. Those without wealth find themself with a challenging life to say the least.
One of the main characters is known as Gatsby. At the time of the book, he was a very rich individual. He throws parties a lot and everyone thinks he is a very great guy even though they haven’t met him(Even the main character). Through the story, it is revealed that Gatsby was once a part of the lower class and because of that daisy(his love interest) left him for a man who had more money, “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart, she never loved any one except me!” - Gatsby(pg. 100) After this, it is revealed that Gatsby got his money through illegal actions and in the end of chapter 8 he is ultimately killed.
Speaking of his death, George Wilson(his killer) is another example of this. He was a hard worker of the lower class. His wife was disappointed with his lack of income, She even mentioned a moment in their wedding, ““The only CRAZY I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. ‘oh, is that your suit?’ I said. ‘this is the first I ever heard about it.’ But I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon.””(pg. 29) After Myrtle died, George killed himself and Gatsby in revenge as that was he had. The book says this rather nicely, “He was his wife’s man and not his own.” (pg. 105)
The embodiment of the upper-class in this book is Tom. Tom is a rich, but villainous individual. He lives a comfortable life, being a self-proclaimed pessimist while having a lot of luxuries. Tom even has a mistress in Myrtle, It first being alluded ti in chapter 1, “Tom’s got some woman in New York.”(pg. 14) Even with this, Tom still feels entitled to daisy and even goes so far as to make George shoot Gatsby instead of himself when George shows up to kill him. In the final chapter, Nick asked Tom what he told George the day Gatsby died and Tom said this, ““I told him the truth,” he said. “He came to the door while we were getting ready to leave, and when I sent down word that we weren’t in he tried to force his way upstairs. He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car.”” He knew that this would end in Gatsby’s death and even afterward he doesn’t even attempt to look like e cares. Nonetheless, he still lives life like nothing happened, a luxurious life.
Money and wealth is highly valued by the people in the Great Gatsby. Those without wealth, or those that would share with them their wealth suffer. They long to be part of the upper crust of economic wealth. Even when someone becomes wealthy, they won’t necessarily have a better life. Could this outlook be reminiscent of the real world?
The reason I wrote this essay(besides needing one for my benchmark) was because I thought Marxism was the best way to tackle this reading. Almost everything in the book can be brought back to how Gatsby had recently gotten rich, From throwing parties to flaunt his wealth, to trying to marry daisy because he wasn't poor anymore.
