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The Great Gatsby Marxist Lens Essay

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Tucker Evans Frantzen 11 Honors Block 3A 25 March 2024 A Marxist lens through the Great Gatsby The wealth of each citizen has an impact on their societal views and experiences. Does earning your money versus having it handed to you truly affect the person you become and the experiences you have? In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the reader notices that the generational money holders are cold, stagnant characters who hold a mysterious and far away persona almost untouchable. While the ones who work for their money are compelling and exciting to follow, showing lots of personality and emotion simultaneously, the citizens who don't earn any money are almost invisible to everyone else, including the audience. A Marxist lens allows the …show more content…

Nick describes the eyes by stating “But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground. The valley of ashes” (Fitzgerald 20)The way the eyes are positioned above the valley of ashes looking down upon its inhabitants is a representation of the watchful eye the residents of the East and West Egg hold over the valley of ashes. While analyzing the status of East Egg, West Egg and the Valley of Ashes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the audience can visualize the differences in each economic standpoint present and observe how they correlate to the personas of the characters. The prideful residents of the East Egg who have had their riches handed down to them are fairly unpleasant characters holding mysterious elements; their power is primarily in their family name. The characters of the West have earned their money and through this have shaped their personas into likable and enjoyable figures, pleasant to follow and full of emotion. while the characters of the Valley of Ashes who have no money whatsoever and remain invisible due to their extreme

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"But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg" (Fitzgerald 23). These eyes are more than what they appear to be. They are mounted on a billboard that watches over the Valley of Ashes, which stands between West Egg and New York City. This location is what makes Dr. T.J Eckleburg's eyes so significant and important to the book because the idea of watching over a grey and decayed society is how it relates to today. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the popular 1920’s novel, The Great Gatsby, only mentions the eyes twice throughout the entire story, which leaves an impression that is key to understanding the novel.

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The negatively displayed aspects of the wealthy elites in The Great Gatsby presents Fitzgerald’s view of how money

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In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, two of the main characters, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, are very affluent. Both Tom and Gatsby have large estates along with upper-class cars, clothes, and servants. However, Gatsby and Tom have diverse uses for their money. This novel is a clear representation of how money can rarely buy happiness. To start, there are two different types of money, “old money” and “new money.”

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Social Economic Lens In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald the effect of different social classes and the influential ways of the viewed higher classes demonstrates how hollow and ignorant having money and being perceived as wealthy can make a person. Compared to how the lower-class characters are viewed and treated by the upper class. The Great Gatsby is a good representation of seeing literature through a social-economic lens, this is shown in many different ways in the story. The reader is shown the ignorance of the upper class, the things that the characters do not know they have compared to the lower classes, and the opportunities they do not have, the little things that the rich take advantage of.

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Jeaniene Frost once said, “People can perfect whatever facade they want, but everyone holds their sins close to their skin”. This quote relates to The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. They both talk about the action of putting out to the world that you are someone else different than who you actually are, but your secrets always stay lurking in the background. The Great Gatsby is trying to show that putting out a facade of someone who you aren’t can have dire consequences. One character who puts up a facade is Jay Gatsby.

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Throughout history, power has always been unequally distributed among people. From kings having a majority of power to slaves having none, the society of 1920s America mirrored the ways of the past. However, instead of kings and slaves, the differing classes would be the upper class and lower class. Viewing the different classes and the power each class holds is the foundation of the Marxist lens. A Marxist lens shows how rich people in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are able to avoid the unwanted effects of their actions unlike their less wealthy counterparts, as contrasted by the actions of Daisy and Tom versus Myrtle.

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A Marxist lens allows the reader to view how Fitzgerald presents settings that symbolize the social status of their residents, such as East Egg, West Egg, and Valley of Ashes. Starting with the East egg. The east egg is home to old money passed down from generation to generation. The residents reside in beautiful old colonial houses. “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” (Fitzgerald pg7)

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Gavin Ward Mrs.Klock English 11R 29 May 2024 Great Gatsby Critical lens Essay. Writer Paulo Coehlo once said “...love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us”. This quote means that love is not trainable, and when attempted, it will destroy you.

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Michael Fecht Mrs. Myers Academic English II 5/21/18 Immorality in the Great Gatsby Money dictates how people act and how they go about their day. It is very crucial; everything costs money. In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, everyone has money. The wealth that these characters have is a must for them. they show their wealth by flaunting the expensive attire they have or throw these parties in their expensive homes.

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His use of money is exaggerated and in poor taste” (Tate 9). Unlike Tom, whose generational wealth gave him an air of respectability, Gatsby’s association with the nouveau riche and his excessive flaunting of his wealth deprecated the value of any money he earned. However, the incorruptibility of Gatsby’s dream prevents him from accepting that it is impossible to achieve the same social status as old-money members of society like Tom Buchanan. No matter how hard Gatsby tries to overcome his lower class background to gain both riches and Daisy, the rigidity of class differences prevent him from achieving either aspect of his American Dream. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald exposes the impossibility of an American Dream when, like Gatsby’s, it is developed in one’s imagination and ignores reality.

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I will be talking about how money is portrayed in the book the Great Gatsby by “F”. Scott Fitzgerald, an American short story writer and novelist, was most famous for his depiction of the jazz age, said by Britannica.com”. In his novel he makes money seem like the top dog of everything in the world with how almost all his main characters are rich and when they are rich they get whatever they want and can do whatever they like whenever they want but he makes most of them act like spoiled children but its not the case for all of them like some of them surprisingly are well mannered human beings but not many sadly a lot of them are just spoiled adults who act like little kids with a boatload of money who just spend it on their own. whenever they

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In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald characterizes the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values. One of the major themes explored in this novel is the Hollowness of the Upper Class. The entire book revolves around money including power and little love. Coincidentally the three main characters of the novel belong to the upper class and throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows how this characters have become corrupted and have lost their morality due to excess money and success and this has led them to change their perspective towards other people and they have been portrayed as short-sighted to what is important in life. First of all, we have the main character of this novel, Gatsby who won’t stop at nothing to become rich overnight in illegal dealings with mobsters such as Wolfsheim in order to conquer Daisy’s heart.”

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While money may be an essential aspect of life, becoming wealthy often leads to more trouble than it is worth. Many people during the 1920’s earned money rather easily, whether that be through honest, hard work, or more underground illegal methods. Those who pursue wealth, however, seem to find themselves consumed by the promise of money. As they become more and more desperate to climb the ladder of success their morals seem to be left further and further behind. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the character Jay Gatsby to illustrate how newfound wealth can lead to corruption and ultimately a disastrous end.

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Moreover, the cruel and greedy Jon Fredersen, Freder's father, peers over the underprivileged workers below him out of his tall skyscraper, built by the very same people who he oppresses. Instead of raising up those who are under him and helping those in need, Fredersen greedily hoards all his money and power to himself, ignoring those working laborious hours in the depths, keeping the immense city running. Throughout the world, there are a copious number of people who turn a blind eye to the problems hurting our world. There are people like Fredersen who recognize the injustices but reject them and selfishly hoard their riches for themselves. Whether these people are ignorant on purpose like Fredersen or born into wealth and are sheltered from the inequality of the world like Freder, they grow up in money but do not use it to address critical social issues.

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Marxism refers to the of theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A theory of the idea of the control and power an industry or person has over society. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Marxist approach to The Great Gatsby is shown with how New York is separated into three areas of class. East egg, West egg (the wealthy), and the Valley of Ashes (the poor). It was also interpreted in the time setting of the story during the 1920s and the social setting of the story with how the group of wealthy, educated people have carefree, fun, relaxing lives often spent at parties or gatherings who have little care for those who aren't as wealthy and actually work hard.

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