The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that can be dissected through a lens of Marxist literary theory. Marxist theory is one that says that all of humanity is a cultural superstructure built on top of an economic base; that is, that every other aspect of human life, whether it be art, religion, politics, or anything else, revolves around and is rooted in the economy. In this literary theory, the attention from each conflict, character, and plot point is directed back to what it says about the economics in place. As is commonly known, The Great Gatsby is a novel that speaks to The American Dream and discusses how it is not achievable and perhaps even toxic to all of those surrounded by its ideology. Through minor, flat characters such as Myrtle and Nick, Fitzgerald is able to unambiguously illustrate the struggles that wealth and lack of wealth can create in one’s life. The Great Gatsby, as seen through a Marxist theory lens, can be interpreted into a story of how the need for wealth and prosperity can end in trauma, embodying the tenuous relationships that the American Dream creates for everyone.

One of the main points in Marxist criticism is that the socioeconomic groups people are divided into reflect much more than just their income and therefore are significantly more influential in their effects compared to other categories people are divided into. This means that while race, gender, and religion are all important factors in one’s life and fate, they do not compare to the effects that money has on one’s life. This is reflected through the character Myrtle in the novel. Myrtle is a low-class wife of a working mechanic whose main role in the novel is being Tom’s mistress. The fact that she is a mistress, which is traditionally seen as a dirty character, one who lacks respect for herself and others, and perhaps a promiscuous woman, can be seen as a result of her class. It can be said that she is married to a mechanic because she is poor and therefore continues to be poor, unable to have a genuine and honorable relationship with a wealthy man, such as Tom, publicly. It would be absurd at this time for someone of the upper-class, especially someone as wealthy as Tom, to settle for a woman who is not as high-class as he is.

Due to Myrtle’s inabilty to be in an honest and public relationship with Tom, their forbidden love leads to her murder. Myrtle is tragically hit by a yellow car that Daisy is driving, killing her and ripping off her left breast in the process. Daisy is known to be “old money” rich in addition to being married to Tom, automatically putting her in a position of power above someone like Myrtle. The fact that the car is yellow, symbolizing gold and wealth, and that Daisy is driving both contribute to the structure Marxist criticism relies on. From this untimely and brutal murder by a rich woman in a golden car, it can be said that Myrtle was killed by money and wealth, both literally and symbolically. Daisy is the epitome of a person whose life revolves around wealth; from her choice of spouse to the way she raises her child, it is evident that her entire life would be much different than it is if she did not have the socioeconomic status that she does. It can be argued that if Myrtle was not poor and therefore able to have a relationship with a wealthy man whom she loved, she would not have been killed this way, as she would be equivalent to Daisy and be, quite literally, the one in the driver’s seat of her life.

Another aspect of The Great Gatsby that can be analyzed through a Marxist lens is the character of Nick. As the narrator, he promises the audience to be unbiased and honest in his account of the story he tells. Yet, as one reads the novel, it becomes clear that Nick is not an impartial narrator at all, and this has to do with his socioeconomic class. Readers learn instantly that Nick is from a very wealthy and well-known lineage but that he does his best not to judge people based on their money or lack thereof. However, in the way that he speaks about some of the characters, it is obvious that Nick does favor certain people in the book over others. For instance, Nick clearly has a soft spot for Gatsby, always attempting to frame him in a way that readers will think that he is an innocent man in love while everyone else is ignorant and undeserving of what they have.  In Chapter V, Nick spends the majority of the chapters telling the story of Gatsby’s struggle to come to wealth and describes him as a young man yearning for a better life. He describes that Gatsby used to dream of a future of wealth and glory, and describes these dreams as “an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality,” (Fitzgerald, 99). In this description, readers are automatically persuaded to see Gatsby in the light of an unlucky boy who never thought he could achieve the life they now see him living. By including this narration of Gatsby’s backstory and framing it in a way that makes readers even more proud of the way that he cheated his way to wealth, Nick is blatantly showing that he has let his own view of Gatsby be influenced by the tale of Gatsby’s past. Nick is swayed by the fact that on top of Gatsby being wealthy, he has earned his wealth instead of inheriting it. To Nick, Gatsby is a respectable man not because he is hard working, but because his hard work led him to become wealthy. If Gatsby had been in the military his entire life, unarguably working as hard as possible to stay alive and protect his country, and made no substantial money in the process, it is not fathomable that Nick would feel admiration for him in his love-quest for Daisy. It is plausible that Nick sees redeemable traits in Gatsby such as determination and intelligence, but Nick would never have even gotten to know Gatsby well enough to discover these traits if Gatsby were not so wealthy. This admiration Nick has for Gatsby further supports the Marxist theory that everyone’s lives are built around wealth, as Nick simply would not care about Gatsby or his love for Daisy if Gatsby was not wealthy.

Marxist literary theory is one that shows through texts that every aspect of one’s life is based around their socioeconomic status. Throughout The Great Gatsby, it can be argued that character’s fates and entire livelihoods are a direct reflection of the wealth they may or may not have. Myrtle’s ruthless murder by Daisy is due to her low-class status and therefore the forbidden love she shares with Tom. Additionally, Nick’s opinions on the other characters, namely Gatsby, in the book are based on their socioeconomic statuses, leading him to become an unbiased and unreliable narrator. The Marxist theory is one that supports the concept that money is the controlling force in every aspect of people’s lives, and The Great Gatsby is a text that helps support this ideology.

 

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.