Unreliable Narrator: Marxist Criticism in terms of the Great Gatsby

Marxist criticism is a form of analysis where the reliance is on class structure, and how this theory is primarily the driving force of every book. This form of criticism certainly applies well to The Great Gatsby where major characters delude themselves in terms of what their moral values are, along with what class they belong to. The novel is a detailed account of how individuals in a Capitalistic society cannot transgress class boundaries. The time period of the 1920’s, before the Great Depression, was arguably the most prime example in American history of laissez-faire Capitalism. In this form of Capitalism, the government has very little involvement with how the market is being run. Consequently, the 1920’s was a time of transgression in terms of legal and moral beliefs. The reason for this kind of illicit activity was because many were trying to protect their social position and wealth no matter what the cost. This aspect of the times is greatly apparent in Fitzgerald’s book, and the characteristics of the type of individual mentioned above are most apparent in the conflicted narrator Nick.

Nick’s description of West Egg opposed to East Egg is very revealing in terms of his character because it’s an example of how the narrator deceives the reader throughout the book. This visual illusion that Nick describes is an example of how he will forever be part of the middle class society, and how conflicted he is despite appearing to appreciate his position. “The one (mansion) on my right was a colossal affair by any standard…It was Gatsby’s mansion…My own house was an eye-sore, but it was a small eye-sore and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month” Nick appears to take the role of the detached outsider, the one character who is moral, but in reality he is the one that desperately wants to be part of the upper class. He places all of his own inner yearnings and characteristics onto Gatsby, so that he can appear to be more moral in the reader’s estimation. In reality, Nick is the most deceitful character in the book, and this is most apparent in his contradictory motto to the reader stating that, “…I am one of the most honest people that I have ever known.”

Nick is guilty just as everyone else in the story due to his desperate need to transgress class boundaries. He is an example of a person who places himself in a position of hegemony. Ultimately, Nick is someone who constricts himself unwittingly by aiding the upper class in whatever way he can for the purposes of trying to move up in the world, even if this results in a loss of his morality. An example of this is when Nick momentarily refuses Gatsby’s request to arrange a meeting with Daisy. At first, he denies Gatsby’s request because, “…the offer was obviously and tactlessly for a service to be rendered, I had no choice but to cut him off there.” Nick only does this after he has learned the true nature of Gatsby and how he was not born into a wealthy family, but only became wealthy in order to win over Daisy. Nick, at this point in the story, believes that by denying this meeting he will serve his own social aspirations by serving Tom Buchanan’s needs.

Nick does not deal with anyone in his same class or below because they can never financially help him. This subtly enough aids upper class characters like Tom. The ideological construct of Capitalism ultimately benefits the upper class and no one else. Nick ironically calls himself an honest man throughout the book, most likely because he wants to delude himself concerning his role in Gatsby’s downfall. He doesn’t realize this and therefore is the most class conscious character in the whole novel. Nick’s descriptive sentences and style of talking are ironically the most careful and class-conscious in the story. The way he talks is even more strained and unnatural than the way Tom or Daisy or Jordan speak. Nick picks each word he uses with careful precision, and this is an indication that he desperately wants to be a part of the upper class society.

However, Nick eventually decides to accept Gatsby’s request concerning Daisy because he is in awe of the man. In Nick’s estimation, Gatsby is an individual who at least tries to achieve his dreams. More importantly, Gatsby is his own boss who doesn’t have to do the bidding of anyone. Nick, on the other hand is envious, because he has to work to “work” for the wealthy and feels compelled to do their bidding. Throughout the novel Nick wants to escape the traps of the aristocracy. He is tired of the way people like Tom and Daisy get away literally with murder. Even early in the story, Nick detects what kind of characters he is dealing with. At the Buchannan’s house, Nick feels that something is amiss. “To a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing—my own instinct was to telephone for the police.” Nick knows all about the ways of the upper class, and how they, “casually put away” everything they are in control of. Yet Nick is a character who ultimately sides with these despicable people.

Nick’s class confusions are there in the story in order to allow the reader to view both sides of the tragic elements of a Capitalist structure. This includes not only the intentional pain brought onto others but forms of self-denial as well. A sentence of Nick’s like, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then treated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made,” does not sound like a positive characterization of someone. Yet, Nick never tells the police that it was Daisy, and not Gatsby, who killed Myrtle. He goes along with Tom and Daisy’s alibi without believing a word of it. Nick is a person who has a very hard time opposing authority, which in the case of a Capitalistic society is anyone with more money than the person that they are ordering around. In a sense, Nick has to fulfill his position’s requirement of protecting the upper class by not informing the police of the truth. Ironically enough, he doesn’t realize that he has hurt many people in the process, and that he is even continually damaging his own financial and personal beliefs.

Nick is confused throughout the book because he has deceived himself into believing that he can join the upper class. If he didn’t have that belief system, then he would side with Gatsby. The only reason why Nick is a participant in hegemony is because he believes that following orders is the way to respectability. This is the depressing aspect of the book that every reader often alludes to. The American Dream is a false one because no one can be part of the upper class unless they were born into old money. Towards the end of the novel, when all the mayhem has ensued and the situation regarding Myrtle has been taken care of and “casually put away” by Daisy and Tom, Nick says of Gatsby that, “…his protest continued in my brain.” This is at the point in the story when Nick has come to the realization that he has been used by Daisy and Tom. What transpires in this story is a subtle case of class warfare.

Even though Nick’s intentions initially of helping Gatsby attain his dream are for appearance’s sake commendable traits, there’s really more to Nick than meets the eye. He wants to have the vibrancy that the lower class people have, which is something that Tom and Daisy and Jordan lack. Nick vainly uses other people’s passions and ideals in order to keep himself awake. In the early section at the Buchannan’s, Nick describes both Daisy and Jordan as, “…two young women (who) ballooned slowly to the floor.” Here’s a typical discussion between Jordan and Daisy:

“We ought to plan something,” yawned Miss Baker, sitting down at the table as if she were getting into bed.

‘All right,’ said Daisy. ‘What’ll we plan?’ She turned to me helplessly. ‘What do people plan.’

Nick’s descriptions of Jordan and Daisy are anything but exciting. He sees these two characters as lacking passion and a purpose. It’s that passion that Nick misses which leads him to live vicariously through other, by either “supporting” their causes or making them believe that he is on their side. This passion that the upper class lacks is what Nick notices in Myrtle. “Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering.” If Nick gets more vitality out of watching and interacting with the lower class, it’s ironic that he views Mr. Wilson with such contempt. “…the proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands on a piece of waste. He was a blonde, spiritless man…When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.” Nick has a need for the lower class individual with mysterious romantic characteristics because he enjoys the company of someone like himself who strives to be a part of the “In” crowd. Nick has no need for the proletariat worker who is intelligent enough to realize that no one can shift their social position, probably because he doesn’t want to be aware of that fact.

Nick is the true romantic in the story, not Gatsby. When Nick describes Gatsby’s thought processes towards Daisy, it’s his own description that he is describing. Here’s how Nick describes Daisy’s house when Gatsby was a young soldier: “There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor cars. Nick is the bourgeois that dreams about Daisy’s boudoir, not because he is in love with her, but because he aspires to obtaining the wealth that she has.

Is Nick any different really from his cousin? He at one point in the story flat out states why he is so interested in Gatsby. “…the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out the substantiality of a man.” Daisy at one point in the story states why she is attracted to Gatsby. She says of Gatsby that he, “…resemble(s) the advertisement of the man.” They both view Gatsby as an object that’s a terrific creation; one that will try to transgress class boundaries but will ultimately tragically fail at his goal. They themselves know that this dream is impossible, and they get pleasure out of watching Gatsby fail at attaining his dream.

Nick’s description of Daisy is an example of his enviousness: “I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.” What Nick doesn’t realize is that he is a hypocrite because he so desperately wants to be part of that same society. He shakes Tom’s hand in the story out of good taste. However, shaking the hand of your best friend’s killer is not the most honorable action that a person can do. Gatsby at least doesn’t pretend to believe that working for the upper class will put himself in their league. Gatsby is a man that works for himself; he’s someone that has his own fantasies to follow, but at least they are his fantasies and not someone else’s.

Sadly, Gatsby is the one who is killed opposed to the real perpetrators of the crime. The story is one that primarily deals with the tragic inevitability of hegemony and how a person can never truly transgress class boundaries. It’s tragic not only because Gatsby doesn’t attain his dream and ultimately dies, but because Fitzgerald had realized the pitfalls of Capitalism probably while writing the story.

Fitzgerald was already 29 at the time the book was published, and his discovery of the human condition under Capitalism probably came to him too late in order for him to change his ways or to do anything substantial about the situation. Fitzgerald probably originally in his life wanted desperately to believe in the American Dream. If the American Dream is deluding oneself of whom they really are, then it’s a pretty self destructive dream.