Examples Of Reification In The Great Gatsby

In the text The Great Gatsby, it is revealed how people become objects to each other in a pursuit for the American Dream. Firstly, the American Dream will be explored with an enquiry into how it is represented throughout the novel. Secondly, the role the protagonist Jay Gatsby plays in representing the American Dream will be explored. Thirdly, the role of Daisy Buchanan will be explored, with specific reference to her objectification by both Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Fourthly, further examples of reification throughout the novel will be explored to further understand how the characters become objects for each other. Finally, the role Nick Carraway plays in exposing these characters and how he is also an emblem of the American Dream will be explored.

As the novel takes place in the 1920s, the influence of modernity and industrialisation was revolutionising America, resulting in mass movement into the city to engage in the bulk production of goods to earn a living. As a response to this avant-garde way of life, the American Dream was fashioned, which promised a world of opportunity for individuals to create or recreate themselves (Forter, 2007, p245). Consequent of the nature of the capitalistic production system, many workers found themselves instead locked into salaried, bureaucratic systems, which was deemed emasculating for many men (Forter, 2007, p245). This emerging cement jungle is revealed through the valley of ashes in The Great Gatsby, which is described as "a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." (Fitzgerald, 2008, Chapter 2). As a result, the American Dream was idealised by workers as an escapism and end goal, envisaging that their life could too become the ‘rags-to-riches’ story which was being promoted in society (Weinstein 1993 p4). The American dream is best summarised by Foster who contends the dream was “originally to do with freedom, opportunity, space to build a life”, but has instead been substituted with the image of “gnashing, win-at-all-costs materialism” (Foster, 2011, p146). Consequent, the American Dream is revealed as a striving towards a materialistic lifestyle, thus revealing the human condition of during the