The Great Gatsby s8

The Great Gatsby Critical Perspectives: Marxist Theory

Automobiles

1. Consider instances where the automobiles figure into a scene’s action – e.g. deciding who will ride with whom on their jaunt to New York, Tom’s toying with Wilson about selling his car, etc. Create a list of these scenarios.

2. Within each scenario you have listed, determine if there is a power struggle indicated. If so, who is involved? What social classes are represented? What is the outcome of the power struggle? How do social class and/or gender and/or ethnicity affect the outcome?

3. What role does the automobile play in the distribution of power and the exertion of power in the novel?

Middle Class Narrator

1. What factors establish Nick as closer to middle class than the upper or lower classes?

2. Consider the social classes (include the criminal element) represented throughout the novel. Which characters are representative of each class? How is each character portrayed? How does the Fitzgerald’s use of diction and detail contribute to this portrayal of each character? To whom does Nick appear to be sympathetic? 3. How does Nick treat characters differently? Is this treatment directly related to the character’s social status?

4. How would the novel change if it had been narrated by someone from the Valley of Ashes or by someone form East Egg?

Power, Social Class, and the American Dream

1. Which characters exert power over other characters? What is the source of their power?

2. In what sense is it significant that the only person in the novel that Nick grows close with is Gatsby?

3. Is wealth at the root of the social conflict in the novel or is something else? Explain.

4. What do the three main settings for the novel – East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes – suggest about the distribution of power and wealth in the novel? 5. To what extent does the novel criticize rampant materialism and the abuse of power? To what extent does it condone or even celebrate it?

6. How would the issues of wealth and power play out if the novel were set in the current decade as opposed to the 1920s?

7. To what extent does the novel provide an illustration of the failure of the American Dream? According to the novel, what is to blame for this failure?

Writing

Discuss how George and Myrtle Wilson provide the necessary support for critically viewing The Great Gatsby through the Marxist Theory lens. How does the couple serve as the primary illustration of the exploitation of the poor by those who are wealthy and/or powerful?