From luxury mansions to lavish parties, the Great Gatsby fails to disappoint one’s imagination of the perks packaged with the life of the upper class. Though the novel paints an image of ecstasy when vividly describing rich scenery; with great intent, Fitzgerald shines a light on the struggle to feel powerful and content in their own several characters . Though Fitzgerald highlights a plethora of realities through a variety of fictional characters, a parallel can drawn between the themes presented in the novel to those highlighted in Thorstein Veblen’s “Conspicuous Consumption”. American Economist Thorstein Veblen centers his pieces around the impact of the upper class or “Leisure class” in shaping society’s socio- economic behavior on all …show more content…
Through the depiction of Daisy Buchanan the parallel between the two pieces becomes visible. Though depicted as a angel like figure whose voice was “full of money”(Fitzgerald). Fitzgerald delves into exposing the suppression that her voice fails to show. Despite her wealth, Daisy is bound to her husband unfaithful husband Tom regardless of the dissatisfaction that weighs her down from sun up to sundown. Later on in the novel we learn that prior to marrying Tom, Daisy had fallen in love with Gatsby before he had acquired his wealth however, she felt as that she could not marry him and she married Tom due to his wealth. Although this is a fictional love …show more content…
Myrtle is constantly portrayed as a social climber seeking to escape what she perceives as the shackles of middle class life. With great drive, Myrtle seeks to rise in the social hierarchy by cheating on her husband with Daisy’s wealthy husband Tom. Though Myrtle is given a mire glimpse of the life that she aspire to live, she is simultaneously facing constant degradation. Based on Veblen’s assessment of middle class he concludes that “the result is that the members of each stratum accept as their ideal of decency the scheme of life in vogue in the next higher stratum, and bend their energies to live up to that ideal. On pain of forfeiting their good name and their self-respect in case of failure, they must conform to the accepted code, at least in appearance.” In the case of Myrtle she jeopardizes the decency of her vows that she took to her husband just to get a glimpse of the life of the wealthy simply to socially climb and feel comfortable with her socio-economic status. She is so consumed in rising to the upper class that IN the process of social climbing Myrtle is abused by Tom despite the love that they supposedly share However, their romance does not stop him from breaking her nose out to assert his dominance over her. Yet she perceives this to be a small price that she must pay for the respect that she will earn solely by being associated with the upper