“ALEKSANDËR MOISIU” UNIVERSITY, DURRËS, ALBANIA

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

TITLE: AN AMERICAN OR AN ALBANIAN DREAM?

(Teaching The Great Gatsby through the Marxist theory)

WORKED BY: ACCEPTED BY

Dorina Murati (Konomi) Dr. Rregjina Gokaj

Entis Kadiu

Can money buy you everything? Is our life a long and hampered run towards ‘getting rich or

dying trying’? Are we losing ourselves in the pursuit of the American Dream that has also

become an Albanian Dream? The reason that we choose to analyze the Great Gatsby from the

Marxist point of view is to show that although it was written in 1922 and is set in America, this

masterpiece is still contemporaneous in the Albania of 2015. This essay will include a short

analysis of this novel and will also give a case study of The Great Gatsby being taught in class.

The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties

within its narrative. That era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of

jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other economy struggle that was the result of

the materialism and capitalism damaging on social behavior, led to the widespread social

distress. One of the most effective ways of analyzing the capitalist culture in GREAT GATSBY

is by showing the debilitating effect of capitalist ideology even on those who are its most

successful product, and so it does so thorough its representation of commodification.

The Great Gatsby’s most obvious flaw, from a Marxist perspective, is its unsympathetic

rendering of George and Myrtle Wilson, the novel’s representatives of the lower class. George

and Myrtle try to improve their lot the only way they know how. They are victim of capitalism

because the only way to succeed in a capitalist economy is to succeed in a market. Their

characterizations are so negative that it is easy to overlook the socioeconomic realities that

control their lives. George and Myrtle are negative stereotypes of a lower class couple. The novel

is also flawed, from a Marxist perspective, by Nick’s romanticization of Gatsby. Nick may like

to think he disapproves of Jay Gatsby- because he knows he should disapprove of him for the

same reason he disapproves of the Buchanans. The appeal to readers to belong to the magical

world of the wealthy is also a memorial to the power of the commodity. Gatsby may not make

the best use of his mansion, his hydroplane, his swimming pool, and his library, but many of us

feel that we certainly would. Thus another flaw in the novel, form Marxist perspective, is the

way in which the commodity’s appeal is powerfully reinforced for the reader by the lush

language used to describe this world of leisure and luxury.

One of the characters that can reflect the capitalism symbol is Nick Caraway. He grew up

in family of "prominent, well-to-do people" in Chicago, and his family has a fun little tradition of

calling themselves the descendants of the "Dukes of Buccleuch," even though they actually made

their money two generations ago in the "wholesale hardware business" (Fitzgerald, 15). He went

to Yale; he likes literature and considers himself one of those "limited" specialists known as a

"well-rounded man"; he fought in World War I, which he found kind of exciting; and now he's

moved East to work in the bond business (that is, finance) in New York City. He’s connected to

wealthy (as opposed to simply well-to-do) and important people like his cousin Daisy and Tom,

a college acquaintance, but he isn't one of them: his house is a "small eyesore," even though it

offers him the "consoling proximity of millionaires.

Another character that reflects the perspective of Capitalist is Tom Buchanan. Tom's

family is really rich. Not well-to-do like Nick's family, and not nouveau riche like Gatsby, but

staggeringly wealthy, with money going way back. (Or as far back as any money in America

goes, anyway.) And he does extravagant, crazy things with it, like bringing "a string of polo

ponies for Lake Forest". As his physical appearance shows him as the bourgeoisie who owns a

lot of money, Tom has as well a physic that all of his necessity wouldn’t lack.

Tom was sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious

manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face, and gave him the

appearance of always leaning aggressively forward … you could see a great pack of muscle

shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous

leverage—a cruel body. 1

Nowhere The Great Gatsby is commodification so clearly embodied as in the character of

Tom Buchanan. The wealthiest man in the novel, Tom relates to the world only through his

money: for him, all things and all people are commodities. His marriage to Daisy was certainly

an exchange of Daisy’s youth, beauty and social standing for Tom’s money and power and the

image of strength and stability they imparted to him. The symbol of this “purchase” was the

$350,000 string of pearls Tom gave his bride-to-be. Similarly, Tom uses his money and social

rank to “purchase” Myrtle Wilson and the numerous other working-class women with whom he

has affairs. Tom’s regular choice of lower-class women can also be understood in terms of his

commodified view of human interaction. Tom’s works of commodification are not limited to his

relationships with women. Because capitalist promotes the belief that “you are what you own”-

1 The Great Gatsby Chapter 1, p.7

that our value as human beings is only as great as the value of our possessions- much of Tom’s

pleasure in his expensive possessions is a product of their sign-exchange value, of the social

status their ownership confers on him. 

A result of Tom’s commodification of people is his ability to manipulate them very cold-

bloodedly to get what he wants, for commodification is the treatment of objects and people as

commodities. In order to get Myrtle Wilson’s sexual favors, he lets her think that he may marry

her somebody that his hesitation is due to Daisy’s alleged Catholicism rather that to his own lack

of desire. While a character such as Tom Buchanan is likely to make us sympathize with anyone

who is dependent upon him, Daisy is not merely an innocent victim of her husband’s

comodification. In the first place, Daisy’s acceptance of the pearls is an act of commodification.

Daisy’s extramarital affair with Gatsby, like her earlier romance with him, is based on a

commodified view of life. The Buchanan’s’ commodification of their world and the enormous

wealth that makes it possible for them to “smash up things and creatures and then retreat back

into their money” are rendered especially objectionable by the socioeconomic contrast provided

by the “valley of ashes” near which George and Myrtle Wilson live. The “valley of ashes” is a

powerfully chilling image of the life led by those who do not have the socioeconomic resources

of the Buchanan’s. 

CASE STUDY

This novel was taught in a class of English learners aging between 15-16. The novel has been

previously assigned and the class was divided in groups and to each of them was asked to

analyse different components of the novel. The main purpose of this case is to study The great

Gatsby through the Marxist theory but also to relate it to the Albanian society of today.

1ST Group: Characters

A. Who are the main characters of this novel?

B. Find one quotation that best describes them?

C. Who do you like best? Why?

D. Who don’t you like? Why?

E. Have you encounter this typology of people in your everyday life? Explain.

2nd Group Themes

A. How is the theme of class and society depicted in this novel?

B. What’s the American Dream?

C. Can money buy happiness?

D. Did any of the characters achieve this dream? Why or why not?

E. Is there an Albanian dream? How is similar to the American dream of 1925?

3rd Group: Symbols

A. How do you understand the owl-eyed man saying “all the books on the shelves

are real”? Has he really read any? Has he really studied in Oxford?

B. How can you relate it to Albanian education system?

C. How do the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg make you feel? Can they see everywhere?

Even at the darkest part of the soul?

D. What is the green light that Gatsby sees? What does it symbolizes?

E. What about those fancy parties what do people really do in them (have fun or

show off) ? Can you relate it to the Albanian lifestyle?

Conclusion

After the students took their time to answer their questions in the form of a journal, their

answers were carefully analysed. Of course that their answers varied depending on their

background but what struck us the most was the association that they could do with the

society that we live in. Although the term of commodification was new to them it was not

difficult for them to see it applied in their everyday life. So as a conclusion The Great

Gatsby has kept its originality and authenticity even almost a hundred years later. The

American or Albanian dream is still a green distant light that many of us crave to follow.

References

- A Marxist Reading of Great Gatsby.

  http://banote.blogspot.com/2010/12/marxist-reading-of-great-gatsby.html  

- Shmoop Editorial Team.

http://www.shmoop.com/great-gatsby  

-The Great Gatsby Penguin Classics Published 26 Jan. 2006