Examples Of Marxism In The Great Gatsby

The lower class citizens throughout the entirety of the world are hardworking and do what they can to survive; the same cannot be said for the wealthier classes. While reading The Great Gatsby, this type of social class inequality is found everywhere throughout the text, and is seen in most of the main characters, especially when looking through the perspective of a Marxist. From a Marxist lens, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals the insignificance of the proletariat through his unnamed servant-class characters in The Great Gatsby.

First, The Great Gatsby dehumanizes the servants by not even properly giving them an acknowledging glance and name. For example, the text begins by stating, “It was no use. Nobody came” (9.8), but then later says, “...and a little four or five servants and the postman from West Egg in Gatsby’s station wagon, all wet too the skin” (9.8). Nick Carraway and Henry Gatz came to the funeral, and Nick came to the conclusion that no else had attended. However, the lower class servants (the Proletariat), who knew and worked with Gatsby longer than Nick had gone, were failed to be recognized as actual people. Another example of lower class being presented as inferior was at the beginning of the book, it states, “...I had forgotten to tell my Finn to come back, so I drove into West Egg Village to search for her

among soggy, whitewashed alleys” (5.3). “Finn” is the Finnish servant who helped serves guests at Nick’s house for tea, yet he never says her true name and only calls her Finn based off of her ethnicity. She is but another working class citizen that remains unnamed and unrecognized in The Great Gatsby.
Secondly, there is specific examples of dialectical materialism throughout the book. Dialectical materialism is the struggle for classes to have different resources, and this is shown in the text, for example it states, “‘Hot!” said the conductor to familiar faces. “Some weather! hot! hot! hot! Is it hot enough for you? Is it hot? Is it...?’” (7.2). The unnamed train conductor applies a jovial spirit so he can earn money and survive, even though it is ridiculously hot outside and there multiple people in the train stuffed together. However, later in the chapter it says, “The room, shadowed well with awnings, was dark and cool. Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch [...] “We can’t move,” they said together” (7.2). Daisy and Jordan have more access to resources (being in the bourgeoisie class) and have the luxury of not being able to work for a living, and yet they have a weaker spirit than the lower class train conductor who does.
Finally, F.

Scott Fitzgerald portrays the nosy superiority of the bourgeoisie class. For example, the text states, “...she whispered enthusiastically. “It’s about the butler’s nose. Do you want to hear about the butler’s nose?” (1.8). Daisy is upper class and begins to disrespectfully chat about the butler’s life as if it was her own. She then continues, “...he wasn’t always a butler; he used to be the silver polisher [...] He had to polish it from morning till night, until finally it began to affect his nose” (1.8). The butler remains unnamed throughout the story, however, his life is seemingly unimportant and is the Buchanan’s ‘family

secret’.
Clearly, all of these unnamed servants portray how truly inferior they are in The Great Gatsby, after using a Marxist perspective. From remaining unnamed or being purely seen as a silly story, the servants are used as mere items rather than being treated as people. It is certain that (although making up for most of the world) the working class is still miniscule compared to the wealthy.