An Analysis Of The Great Gatsby From The Perspective Of Consumer Culture

Francis Scott key Fitzgerald was one of the most famous American writers in thetwentieth century. He was the “Poet Laureate of American Literature” in the “Jazz Age”and regarded as the outstanding representative of the “Lost Generation”. He lived not solong, but led a legendary life. He published five novels and more than 160 excellent shortstories full of wit during the twenty years of his writing career, leaving us a costlessliterary legacy. In comparison, the novel The Great Gatsby really established Fitzgerald’simportant position in the American literary history, even the literature in the world.The time of the 1920 s was the most boisterous transition period full of greatchanges in American history. Fitzgerald created this work based on the socialenvironment of that age. T. S. Eliot gave a highly valuation to this novel and said it wasthe first step that American fiction had taken since Henry James. Thus, the publication ofthis novel marked that Fitzgerald had became one of the most outstanding novelist in thehistory of American literature. In addition, this novel was his most meticulously designedwork and it kept pace with the age and showed us an insightful and discerning panoramaof the American society at that time according to the tragic love story plot. The novelmade the prosperous America in the 1920 s in which Fitzgerald lived as its backgroundand made a thorough and profound criticism and satire on it. During that unprecedentedprosperous time, almost every one spared no effort to pursue the wealth and extravagantlife. As a result, lonely feeling and spiritual emptiness were the distinguishingcharacteristics shared by the people in Jazz Age. This novel thoroughly exposed theprevalent contradiction between physical prosperity and mental destitution which existedin American society. We can better understand people’s psychological feeling andconsumption environment at that time by disclosing the contradictions.The society during the time between the First World War and the Great Depression inAmerica was a typical consumer society. People in that era discarded their preciousvirtues in the past and thought the material wealth’s possession and extravagantconsumption as the only criterion to judge whether a person was success. Living in aprosperous society which never existed before in the history, people led a spendthrift lifecharacterized with conspicuous consumption. From their choices of various commoditiesand the activities of consumption which were particularly presented in the novel, we canlearn the function of consumption in human beings’ everyday life. What’s more,consumption also reflected the consumer’s social status, taste as well as its profession. Asthe symbol of social status, the functional consumption is the prominent character of themodern consumer culture. The amount, quality and taste of people’s consumption willaffect the evaluation of their social status.Gatsby’s activities after his instant rich gave us a vivid presentation of theconspicuous consumption. As the hero of this novel, Jay Gatsby often held a lot ofextravagant private parties every weekend. On the surface, these activities were to attractmore guests from other places. But his real intention was to attract his lover Daisy’sattention. In his opinion, the luxurious parties, the sumptuous mansion and theautomobile which was like a monster symbolized his identity and social status. He madea lot of conspicuous consumption and tried his best to win his lost love back to him byhis money obtained through illegal business. This was actually an intuitionistic andspecific reflection of the consumer psychology in the contemporary society. Because ofhis humble birth and lower social status, the conspicuous consumption had become theeffective way to achieve his purpose. However, Gatsby’s lover Daisy Buchanan wasnegligent, egoistic and could not meet the requirement of his lofty ideals and grandexpectations. His conspicuous consumption only deviated from his intended goal. Therewas a striking contrast between Gatsby’s extravagant parties in his life time and gloomyscenes at his funeral which artistically highlighted the excessive affluence and inevitabledownfall of that time. So it can be said that Gatsby’s tragedy was caused by thewidespread effect of consumer culture in that era.The whole thesis deals with the consuming behaviors of the characters in the novelaccording to the theory of the consumer culture since the trinity of the society, economyand culture is an inseparable unity and each one of them is relatively independent.Therefore, it is very necessary to put the novel in the specific social environment at thatprosperous age to analyze the consuming behaviors and materialized relations of thecharacters in it.This thesis falls into three parts: an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion.In the introduction part, it gives a brief introduction to Fitzgerald and his works. Atthe same time, it also reviews the methods and point of views concerning the study ofthis work at home and abroad. Meanwhile, the uniqueness and practical significance ofthe study are introduced by comparing the time in which the protagonist lived and thecontemporary society in our country.The second part is the main body which consists of three chapters.Chapter one gives a general introduction to the origin and characteristics of theconsumer culture. The inevitable rising of early consumer society is also explained interms of economy, politics, culture, ideology and other aspects. Meanwhile, the majorcharacteristics of the consumer culture and the influence of the consumer culture on thewriting process of Fitzgerald are also introduced in order to serve the theologicalfoundation for the following chapters.Chapter two mainly explores the consuming behaviors of the three kinds of typicalcharacters in the novel. They are the new rich represented by Gatsby, the old richrepresented by Tom and the females in the novel. In the course of analyzing theirconsuming behaviors, we can get the information that the consumer culture places moreemphasis on material consumption and with its influence more and more people believethat they can gain psychological and spiritual satisfaction just through the possession ofmaterials. In addition, the consumer culture also encourages people to spend more thanthey have and lures people to pursue the material enjoyment and consume thingsostentatiously in order to display their identity, social status and consumptive power.Chapter three elaborates the indifferent, materialized relations of the characters inthe context of consumer culture. With the development of urbanization andcommercialization, money and mutual benefit have already become an important linkholding together all kinds of interpersonal relationships. In the consumer society,family’s affection, friendship and the relation between men and women are allmaintained by money and mutual benefit. That is to say they can be traded with moneyjust like other ordinary commodities. People are self-centered and all their actions aredrove by their own personal interests, completely forgetting the sense of moralresponsibility.The last part is a conclusion. This part mainly explains the uniqueness, deficiencyand practical significance of this thesis; it also points out the similarities between thetime when the work was written and the current society of our country by comparingthem. This thesis not only tells people the negative impact of the consumer culture, butalso makes us think seriously about the ways of resolving the spiritual crisis and culturalcrisis in the context of the current consumer culture by researching the classical workfrom the perspective of consumer culture.