Consumerism In The Great Gatsby

The novel, The Great Gatsby is one of Western literature’s most well known fictional masterpieces. Taking place in the roaring twenties, The Great Gatsby highlights the sustained economic prosperity and artistic dynamism that was characteristic of the era. The economic boom of the 1920s also allowed for people, like the character Jay Gatsby, to rise up the socioeconomic ladder and easily integrate themselves into a more opulent society. Fitzgerald puts a spotlight on the consumerism that swept the United States by stressing detail when describing Gatsby's parties. Although many of those who lived in East Egg and West Egg flaunted their wealth, Fitzgerald shows us the imperfections to this way of life. He purposefully emphasizes the dark and

Gatsby himself. We are immediately transported to one of the decadent parties that Gatsby holds every weekend. Fitzgerald describes in great detail the opulence of the party including Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce, which was the finest vehicle of the automotive industry at the time. The readers are shown the excessive spending of Gatsby when Fitzgerald mentions that “every friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrive from a fruiter in New York - every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves”(39). Fitzgerald, keeping with the 1920s, shows the readers the wild and expensive musical taste of Jay Gatsby. He tells the readers “the orchestra has arrived, no thin five piece affair but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols, and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums”(40). Although the party is off to a great success, the readers may begin to wonder what exactly is Gatsby’s reason for throwing these reckless parties. Thankfully, Fitzgerald leaves his readers a trail of clues that will inevitably lead to the source of Gatsby’s reasoning. After a bit of deduction, one can argue that Fitzgerald ultimately wants his readers to realize that Gatsby holds these lavish parties hoping that his accumulation of riches will attract the spoiled but lovely Daisy Buchanan. However, not everything is as it seems and Gatsby’s quest to find Daisy will come a hefty