The Great Gatsby: Siren Voice of Capitalism and the Entrapped

The Great Gatsby as an epitome of the jazz age novel, reflects the socio-political conditions of America at 1930s. Although the novel is a melodrama based on a passionate love-story, it depicts the society of United States at the climax of its technological progress and increasing wealth. Clearly, these two characteristics which are the consequences of the capitalism, as a socio-economic school, had changed the Americans’ lifestyle to a large degree. The change in social values, interaction between the people, family relations; also the yawning gap between the social classes are the consequences of such monetary and technologic progress. In this article, after the study of some characteristics of capitalism as a socio-economic school and the reasons of its formation, the influence of its strategies on the people’s lives in The Great Gatsby will be studied. Then, by the analysis of the characters’ behavior in the novel the way that they are assimilated by the capitalist society will be put under consideration. It will be also shown that even Fitzgerald himself was coopted by the social values of American capitalistic society.

Keyword: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Capitalism, Social Values, Co-option.