The Great Gatsby is a captivating novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is set in the 1920s, or otherwise called, “The Roaring Twenties”. During this time, America was flourishing both socially and economically. Due to this economic boom, materialistic values became more prominent. This led to an idea called “dialectical materialism”, which is a part of the Marxist Theory by Karl Marx. This idea states that “whoever controlled the means of production in a society controlled the society”. The Marxist Theory had four main areas of study, economic power, materialism versus spirituality, class conflict, and art, literature, and ideologies. Materialism versus spirituality is a study that stated that society is based on things rather than ideals, that the material world is non-subjective unlike the spiritual world which is subjective, and that the reason people are destroyed is material failure, not spiritual failure. The Great Gatsby represents the idea of materialism versus spirituality from the Marxist Theory by showing the importance of wealth in society, the loss of morals, and the glorification of the illegal means used to gain wealth. Gatsby represents the importance of wealth in society. From his lavish parties to his luxurious car, Gatsby’s wealth is shown many times in the novel. Gatsby’s car acts as a symbol for his wealth. “He saw me looking with admiration at his car… I 'd seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and