The Great Illusion and Social Divides: An Inflected Reading of The Great Gatsby

The American dream, rags to riches, and socio-economic status barriers are all well-known themes that have continued to circulate within pop culture. While pop culture tends to naturally follow the shifts and changes of society, it is further shaped by the classics that have come before them. One such classic is the well-loved novel and film, The Great Gatsby. While the plot points and themes within The Great Gatsby demonstrate an intertextuality across texts today, many of these themes mirror Neo-Marxist perspectives regarding prevalent economic and material ideologies.  

One of the most prevalent themes within The Great Gatsby that mirrors Neo-Marxist perspectives is the division between classes. The Great Gatsby places a large emphasis on old money, new money, and those without money. This representation of social classes reinforces dominate beliefs regarding those who hold social power. The portrayal of old money utilizes cultural norms, as its representation within the novel is through glamorous settings, character entitlement, and exclusivity. On the contrary, those of a lower socio-economic status are commodities to the upper-class. This representation is demonstrated through the setting of the Valley of Ashes, a railroad yard perfectly situated between affluent neighborhoods and New York City, known for its capitalism. The working class within the Valley of Ashes are disposable to those of a higher socioeconomic status. As a byproduct of capitalism, they are indistinguishable from the work environment of the railroad yard, for they and everything around them are covered in ash. Outside of this is the mention of new money, which is represented as extravagant and at odds with old money values. This representation is made through the character Jay Gatsby, and although Gatsby has established himself among the wealthy, he is never fully accepted and is continued to be treated as other regardless of how he reshapes his own identity. 

Through such stark contrasts in wealth, the empowerment and disempowerment of people become core to the novel’s plot; however, it is through this social structure that counter-hegemony takes place to leave its message on the reader. By the end of the novel, those who are considered to hold power become anti-models and are shown to be of low morals and described as nothing more than careless, as they find themselves responsible for a hit and run yet allow the responsibility to shift to a

character who holds less power. Not to mention, the woman they had hit was from the Valley of Ashes. In choosing to leave her for dead, the value of a life from a lower socioeconomic status to the wealthy elite becomes quite evident.  Thus, the shift in narrative within Fitzgerald’s novel appears to become an inflected reading in which social structure is utilized to shift dominant perspectives; however, hasn’t the narrative increasingly become that the elite wealthy and powerful within the American society are in fact morally bankrupt? And if so, has that become the dominant ideology? As ideologies continue to be countered within society, ideological shifts are bound to happen overtime as a message becomes more prevalent, accepted, and eventually dominant. So then, at what point does this shift in messaging begin to affect the structures within our society that we continue to accept? At what point, can pop culture tip the scale?