Desire and The Great Gatsby
Commodities in The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby sells us a story based on love and tragedy. More glaring to the second and third time readers is the idea of commodities. The characters in the novel create a perfect caricature of commodity culture that from a Marxist perspective is them using commodities to better themselves; these characters include Gatsby, Tom, Nick, and Daisy. Not only do they seem to display the attainment of commodities as a necessity, but they also seem to commodify themselves and each other. Tom and Gatsby control their corners of their world—Gatsby by throwing his parties with the hope that Daisy would find him and be impressed; and Tom by the affairs he has attained. Gatsby uses his wealth as a commodity to obtain women such as Daisy. He seeks to make Daisy his and increase his socioeconomic status even more. Tom does the same, though he does not do it for the same reason. His wealth is his commodity, and so are the women whom with whom he has affairs. He commodifies women in that he sees a specific value in them. Nick, on the other hand, is middle-class at best; he must work in order to make a living. Daisy uses Tom as someone who can fulfill her needs to the greatest extent. -TC
Characters and Commodities
We can see that The Great Gatsby shows characters using commodities to better themselves. This is seen in Gatsby’s parties, Tom’s mass wealth and how he tricks women such as Myrtle, how Nick seeks to bring up his economic status with such friends as Gatsby, and how Daisy uses past relationships with Gatsby and her beauty to attract men. Gatsby himself represents America, his dream the American Dream, and his death the inevitable failure of that dream; this can lead directly into a Marxist examination of the text, using the American Dream as a starting point for examining the motivations and outcomes of each character. The problem with this approach is that there is an inescapable seductiveness associated with wealth in this novel. Nick expresses this in his use of words such as ‘gorgeous’, ‘thrilling’ and ‘lovely’. His description of Daisy’s voice is a very good example of this, and it is only revealed towards the end of the novel that her voice is ‘full of money’ and that this is the true source of her attractiveness. Gatsby and Tom are equally degraded in this competition, yet each encourages Daisy to judge them in material terms rather than on any personal aspects. -TC
Tom
Daisy
Gatsby
