Anderson White

Mr. Smith

IB English HL1

3 October 2021

Viewing The Great Gatsby Through a Marxist Perspective

Whom does it benefit if the work or effort is accepted/successful/believed, etc.?

If The Great Gatsby were to be widely accepted as truthful and right in the lessons as

well as themes that it attempts to show the reader, it would be for the benefit of the lower class.

This is due to the fact that Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to paint the ultra-wealthy in a

negative light. He does so by having nearly all rich main characters end up being exposed as

careless and self-obsessed caricatures. Fitzgerald is not subtle in his attempts to convince the

reader that the rich are careless either. The narrator, Nick, who shares many attributes of

Fitzgerald, understands at the end of the novel that “They were careless people… they

smashed up things... then retreated back into... their vast carelessness” (Fitzgerald 137). The fact

that Nick, who is so akin to Fitzgerald himself in so many ways, goes out of his way to directly

and explicitly state that the poster children for the old wealth are careless jerks shows

Fitzgerald’s true intentions in regards to writing this book. The book also has an emphasis on the

suffering of the lower class, and how they are strongly affected by the rich’s lack of care, once

again supporting the lower class in the case that The Great Gatsby was well received. We see this

with the death of Myrtle from Daisys reckless driving but also from the death of Wilson who

ends his own life because of the actions of the upper class. These pointless deaths once again

support the lower class and downtrodden as a whole, increasing awareness as well as anger

towards the upper class, a social group that Fitzgerald both envied and despised.
Anderson White

Mr. Smith

IB English HL1

3 October 2021

What is the social class of the author?

Fitzgerald’s social class was solidly middle class, coming from a semi-wealthy

background but being forced to subsist off of government subsidies at other points in his life.

During the course of Fitzgeralds’ 20s and 30s, he attempted to mingle with the higher social

classes that were present in New York throughout the 1920s. Despite his best efforts to become a

“gold hatted, high bouncing lover”, he never managed to succeed and truly fit in with the upper

echelon of society (Fitzgerald Epigraph). We see parts of Fitzgerald himself as represented by

both Nick and Gatsby within The Great Gatsby due to Nick being from a similar background as

himself and being akin to how Fitzgerald viewed himself but also as a part of Gatsby who so

desperately wanted to join the upper class and become part of the elite. We know Gatsby thought

he was of the wrong social class from birth, going as far as to “change [his name] at the age of

17” in an attempt to seem as if from an upper-class family rather than a lower-class german

farming family. This supports the idea that Fitzgerald was of a middle-class family himself but

felt wronged by that fact and believed he deserved to mingle with the elite, a trait that is Gatsby’s

sole motivator for the entirety of the novel.

How do characters from different classes interact or conflict?

Characters of different classes interact or conflict with each other throughout the entirety

of The Great Gatsby. Most prominently we see the relationship between Tom and Myrtle, Tom

of course being from the wealthiest of the wealth and Myrtle being married to a man who had to

borrow a suit and lived in the aptly named Valley of Ashes. Tom, while married to another

wealthy class woman, begins a relationship with Myrtle for purely sexual reasons, viewing her
Anderson White

Mr. Smith

IB English HL1

3 October 2021

almost as a pet or an object but not a person he truly loves. This shows the upper class’s general

feeling of superiority over the lower class and that most interactions between the two classes

involve the upper class using their power over the lower class. Such as when Tom essentially

holds Wilson hostage for his business, once again showing the power dynamic. Wilson

understands that he needs Tom to sell him the car and as such has a “damp gleam of hope

[spring] into his light blue eyes” as soon as he sees Tom enter his garage (Fitzgerald 21).

Unfortunately for him, Tom has no plans to sell his car despite telling Wilson that he will have it

ready by next week, once again showing Toms’s lack of care for the prosperity of the lower

class. We also see Daisy interact with the lower class by simply not caring for their life. She

completes a hit and run against Myrtle, leaving her dead in the streets. Daisy however does not

even slow down once realizing that Myrtle is dead and instead speeds home, only worried about

her safety and not that of Myrtle or anyone else of the lower class. Lastly, we see Nick as the

embodiment of the middle class watching this all unfold, not necessarily sure which side he

should be on but understanding that what is happening is not right.