Confusion And Nostalgia:Consumerism And Literary Imagination In Babbitt, The Great Gatsby And The Age Of Innocence

Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis and Edith Wharton are three well-known American writers in the 1920s, whose novels give a vivid portrayal of the reality in consumer society at that time. Fitzgerald has been regarded as "the spokesman of the Jazz Age". Lewis, whose novels reflect the condition of the middle class, has become the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize. And Edith Wharton has been famous for her impressive depiction of the Old New York society in her novels of manners. They all reveal the social change and people’s reaction to it due to the prevailing consumer culture at that time in their separate typical works, The Great Gatsby, Babbitt, and The Age of Innocence.So far, critics at home and abroad have analyzed the novels from many perspectives, including analysis of the characters, the themes and the writing technique. Although the analysis from the perspective of consumerism has been many, however, the analysis focuses on a specific perspective and failed to give a systematic analysis. This thesis will not only analyze the reflection of consumerism but also explore its influence on people from different social strata and people’s defense mechanism against the negative impact of consumerism, in order to get a deeper understanding of consumer culture through literary works.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter will give a brief introduction of the writers and novels as well as the summary of the studies at home and abroad, and at the same time point out the originality of this thesis. Chapter two will analyze the specific reflection of consumerism, including the leisure life style and conspicuous consumption of clothes, residence and automobiles, under the guide of Veblen’s theory of leisure and Baudrillard’s theory of sign consumption. Chapter three will explore confusion and spiritual emptiness brought by the blind pursuit of consumption. Over-obsessed with all kinds of goods and objects, people in consumer society become confused. Whether the upper-class or the lower-class all have been inevitably eroded by the consumer culture. Chapter four will probe into the characters’ reaction to the negative impact of consumerism. This chapter will analyze the strategy of nostalgia adopted by all the characters in three novels. With different social background, these characters all tended to eliminate their confusion and construct a complete identity through looking back to the past or fancying another space or time which only exists in imagination. Chapter five is conclusion. This thesis insists that consumerism provides sources for American writers’ literary creation and the analysis of nostalgia will provide new sights into the novels’themes and cultural significance.