Business Representation In The Great Gatsby

For decades of years, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s works, especially The Great Gatsby, have drawn attention from both home and abroad. However, the former literature review mainly talked about the novel from the perspective of writing techniques and feminism, almost no one connected it with economy. This thesis exerts the basically economic elements and methods and reinterprets the protagonists’ way of life, basing on the social, economic and political background of America in the 1920 s. The economic theories applied in this thesis include the Consumerism, Money Fetishism and Business Ethics. All these theories are closely related to the protagonists’ destinies in the novel, therefore, the readers can take a new look at “The Jazz Age” from a different perspective. According to a close reading and analysis of the novel, it’s not difficult to draw a conclusion that these three theories manifest themselves both in Jay Gatsby and the other protagonists and have a negative influence on the fate of the characters. Therefore, based on these theories, a thorough analysis is made from the view of Business Representation, combing concrete cases.This thesis is divided into five parts. In the Introduction, the author mainly introduces the novel itself and Fitzgerald as well as relevant historical background and literature review; Chapter Two discusses the reflection of Consumerism in The Great Gatsby and its influence on the fate of each character, including Gatsby, Daisy and Nick; Chapter Three analyzes reasons for the disillusionment of “American Dream” from the view of Money Fetishism, which derived from the development of Consumerism. Chapter Four introduces the reflection of Business Ethics in the novel from the perspective of morality. The last part, which is also the conclusion part, summarizes that with the influence of consumerism and money fetishism, American had formed a distorted value, which emphasizes the pursuit of “high quality” life and regards money and material as the only goal in life, and basic morality is thrown away completely. All these have great similarity with the modern China, which worths thinking about by us.