What Does The Bell Jar Mean In The Great Gatsby

Money, money, money, money, money. People just care about the Benjamins, the moolah, the cash, the dough— but is it really essential to the human existence, or does society just accept the systematic oppression that comes with the dog-eat-dog nature of our economic system since it benefits the people on top? Monetary gains are all well and good; however, when does it commence to overtake our lives and when does it become our end goal? Instead of relying on money for food, shelter and our overall well-being, society views it as a tool that gives them power over other people, thus putting one’s economic status on a pedestal and making life a difficult competition. So yes, it is a dog-eat-dog world, but that’s not exactly a healthy perspective

to have. The effect it has on the psyche differs from person to person, but by judging on the different economic statuses of the characters in the books The Sound and the Fury, The Bell Jar, and The Great Gatsby, (written by William Faulkner, Sylvia Plath, and F.

Scott Fitzgerald respectively) and applying both the Marxist and Psychoanalytic critical theories, it’s clear to see that the race to get to the highest crest of the metaphorical food chain affects the people on the top, on the bottom, and everyone in between, which causes a divide in society and consequently forces people to adopt the mindset of “get rich or die trying,” or else their lives will amount to nothing.

The bourgeoisie have it all, right? They’re not like the lower class, the proletariat if you will; they have the power to get what they need in life due to their privilege and funds. However, are they really fulfilled? Once they reach the top, what guarantees they’ll like what they find? Take Jay Gatsby for example: he’s the poster child for the American Dream. Rich, refined, and to the public, Gatsby is quite the dignified gentleman. Saint, however, he is not as evident by his deceptive nature. James Gatz was born into a poor family, but on his quest to achieve wealth he takes on the persona of the titular character. Eventually, he does acquire wealth, but with his growing affluence comes the

mindset that money will get him Daisy. He becomes obsessed with the thought of making things ‘right’, his infatuation with who Daisy used to be adding to his delusion. The fact that she’s married doesn’t deter him-in fact he doesn’t really take Tom as anything but a reminder that he’s not with Daisy now. He wants her to erase him from her mind, change her past and pretend as if nothing changed -- he wants her to go to Tom and say: "I never loved you." Hoping that “[Daisy would] obliterate four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house—just as if it were five years ago” (Fitzgerald, 125). He doesn’t care about her feelings, or her happiness. Truth be told, the more money he gets, the more his empathy drains. The effect it has on his life really takes it’s toll later on in the story when he dies, the only people who attend his funeral were his father, the minister, the postman, a few servants, a strange man referred to only as Owl Eyes, and of course his loyal friend, Nick Carraway. Despite his extravagant parties, Gatsby’s one track mind was centered on the woman who had everything, while simultaneously having nothing at all -- just like him. He wasted his riches and died in his britches because he wouldn’t accept that time could change him, but he couldn’t change time.

On the other side of the book, there’s Tom Buchanan: Daisy’s husband who has a knack for committing adultery, being racist, and being an overall negative presence in the book without facing any consequences for his actions. Unlike Gatsby, who is multifaceted, mysterious, and blinded by his own naiveté, Tom is practically transparent with his negative traits, and most of them hail from being ‘old money’