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Materialism And Consumerism In The 1920s

A crucial transformation to the structure of American culture during the 1920s was the rise of consumerism and materialism. As the country experienced an extraordinary economic boom, the outlook of America shifted. People began receiving higher wages, and there was a sudden increase of spending on discretionary goods which advertisements claimed people could not live without. The progress of the automobile industry, radio and motion picture production, and advanced technologies made it possible for this great escalation of the economy. There were many notable critics of the decade that made their opinions known in various ways. One such critic was F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote the novel The Great Gatsby. In this novel, he is critical of the 1920s as the obsession of consumerism and materialism flourish throughout the United States. Fitzgerald feels that it is this mindset that ultimately leads to the tragedies and miseries at the end of the novel, as well as at the foreseen end of the 1920s.

The Great Gatsby portrays an image of abundant leisure and excess, which parallels similar ideas with those of the 1920s. To illustrate this, Nick Carraway, the story’s narrator, compares his “eye-sore” of a house with the man

In addition to Jay Gatsby, materialistic and consumerist elements are also present in other characters in the novel. Daisy Buchannan becomes conscious of the fact that her husband Tom is cheating on her, yet she does nothing about it. It can be argued that she doesn’t confront him, or threaten to leave him because Tom has all the money that she could ever need. That is what truly matters to Daisy and what will always make her happy, not honesty and commitment, but financial benefits. Also all the people in attendance at Gatsby’s parties are guilty. They have no problem showing up at his home to party, drink, and dance all night long, but when it came to his funeral, “the minister glanced several times at his watch so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came” (p. 182). This shows that all those materialistic party-goers weren’t really friends of Gatsby, but just there to use him for his wealth with no common courtesy for him. Another character in the novel, Jordan Baker, seems to be rather superficial in her outlook on life. She appears to lie her way out of bad situations she may get herself in, and her lack of honesty and careless attitude are some of the factors that turn Nick away. Nick says “she wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage” (p. 63). Another character, Meyer Wolfshiem, Gatsby’s business associate, apparently had been the man responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. It is fitting that Fitzgerald included a Wolfshiem type of character in his novel, for the fixing of the World Series mirrored the idea that money could buy any American utterly anything, even love and happiness.

As Americans continued to gain material prosperity, in return, they began to lack spiritual wealth and strong religious faith. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts a world in which value systems have been distorted and religion faded. It illustrates a nation that gets too caught up in the moment to reali

Some topics in this essay:
Nick Carraway, Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchannan, , Reinhold Niebuhr, World Series, Gatsby Fitzgerald, Wilson Tom’s, United Fitzgerald, Christian” Johnson, materialism consumerism, character novel, fitzgerald feels, automobile industry, scott fitzgerald, american dream, world series, nick carraway, myrtle wilson, johnson 1998,