Analysis Of The Great Gatsby From Lukács's Realistic Views

As the masterpiece of Fitzgerald and probably the greatest novel in modern America, The Great Gatsby is amazingly insightful about the America of the 1920s. It shows a world saturated with the decadence of materialism. At the time the rapid development of science and technology was changing American people's life in a way much faster than they were prepared for. The stunning neon light of consumerism made them lose their spiritual pursuit of life and the money-worshipping atmosphere brought out the most evil part of the inner human nature. Everyone could feel the change, yet none expressed it as vividly as Fitzgerald in his best work The Great Gatsby. This thesis is intended to analyze the novel from the point of view of Gy?rgy Lukács, who is the representative of Western Marxist literary criticism. Realism and commodification are two important aspects of Lukács's literary critical criteria, from whose perspective the greatness of this novel can be fully understood. Also, Western Marxist literary critical views hold that people are the products of the environment they live in, and tend to turn to an author's life background for the full understanding of his works. Western Marxist literary critics believe that the specific economic situation produces the specific people and events. Realism is the basic style writers use to reflect the reality. Lukács also thinks that all great works must be realistic ones because only such works can produce accurate representation of reality. Therefore, realistic works are the right tools to analyze any specific social environment. Through the analysis of the author Fitzgerald's personal experience, the realistic theme in Gatsby's dream and its disillusionment, as well as the commodification embodied in Daisy, The Great Gatsby is proved again to be a real top-class work by the standards of Western Marxist literary review. It effectively reflects the disillusioned reality of American dream and strongly criticizes the corrupted capitalist ideology of the Jazz Age America. This thesis is mainly divided into three chapters. The theoretical foundation of the analysis, focusing on Lukács's realism, is in the introduction part. The first chapter is about Fitzgerald's background story which had great impact on this novel. There are great similarities between Fitzgerald and Gatsby. The accurate realistic depiction of America of that time comes directly from the author's own life experience and the observation of it. The second chapter explains the disillusionment of Gatsby's American dream from the angle of the theory of realism. His dream is bound to doom because of the cruel social reality. The disillusionment of Gatsby's American dream is the realistic theme of the novel which reflects the destined disillusionment of American dream for every American in the Jazz Age. The third chapter analyzes Daisy from the angle of commodification. She wobbles on the choice between Gatsby and Tom only by the standard of financial power. Both candidates are commodified by her to become something quantitatable. The dehumanizing nature of the capitalist society is exposed fully. By Lukács's Western Marxist literary review standards, The Great Gatsby is truly the masterpiece of realistic works.