The Great Gatsby - Consumerism
Consumerism, and the accompanying self-centeredness, may be the final legacy of the "roaring" 20s. During the 20's it was proven that the industrial revolution was meant to fatten man's wallet not expand his soul. The selfless fervor and broad perspective that accompanied the progressive era gave way to a different ideology in which everything was a commodity and success was measured in the accumulation of these commodities. This new dogma, however pleasing it was in the short term, eventually produced a generation of disgruntled and disillusioned writers, one of which wrote what remain the most scathing critique of the era in The Great Gatsby. In it he explains the paradox of consumerism: it is essentially trivializing because where everything can be assigned a value nothing can transcend this mundane existence. This is the unfortunate position of the hapless characters in TGG, they all are locked in to seeking one goal that they believe will improve their life not based on fact but on an invented ideal. Idealism that becomes warped into a selfish quest for a single goal will ultimately devour one's life because by idealizing a goal makes it unattainable yet irresistible. Fitzgerald's first casualty in his merciless depicti
" Fitzgerald argues that Gatsby never saw the rest of the world while he was questing for Daisy, he was enthralled in the chase and did not look up to see the rest of the world and paid the price. While TGG is replete with victims of this idealism, none strikes us more than the title character, Jay Gatsby himself. He is the embodiment of the false ideals of his generation; creating an entire persona simply out of lust for a single woman he met once in the backseat of his car. Furthermore, he clearly knew that doing this would, at least, earn him Gatsby's appreciation. Nick seems to have abrogated all of his moral responsibility here, setting up a meeting between a married woman and her old lover and setting in motion a course of events that leads to Gatsby's death. Without the perspective of being awed in the presence of something greater then himself he could not break his idealized view of himself and release himself and Daisy from the oppression of his ideals. Once there, he works to make it a truth by socializing with the "elite" and bending over backwards to accommodate them. In the end, he defeats even himself at his quest for Daisy when he has finally idealized Daisy so much that the real Daisy can no longer match up to the Daisy of his dreams. When confronted over the immutability of the passage of time he retreats further into insane idealism: "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. If Daisy's experiences are any guide, then it is certain that Tom & Myrtle would be just as unhappy together as Tom & Daisy and the cycle perpetuates itself. There is a dual irony here, first of all, it is apparent that Tom will never marry her. He didn't understand, albeit for a brief moment, that he poisoned their relationship by making it super-human, transcending all physical passion and eventually even the participants. She has become nothing more than an automaton, blindly stuck to her faith that if she persists in courting Tom, he will eventually marry her.
Common topics in this essay:
American Dream,
,
Jordan Tom,
Tom Daisy,
Jay Gatsby,
Midwesterner York,
Daisy Myrtle,
material wealth,
Tom Myrtle,
fitzgerald argues,
world paid,
tom despite,
fitzgerald argues ideals,
rest world,
one's life,
paid price,
world paid price,
argues ideals,
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