A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English, 2016.

Λεπτομέρειες βιβλιογραφικής εγγραφής
Κύριος συγγραφέας: Mostafa, Tasmia
Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Ahmed, Nawshaba
Μορφή: Thesis
Γλώσσα:English
Έκδοση: BRAC University 2017
Θέματα:
Διαθέσιμο Online:http://hdl.handle.net/10361/7650
id 10361-7650
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spelling 10361-76502019-09-30T03:05:20Z A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned Mostafa, Tasmia Ahmed, Nawshaba Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University English and humanities This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English, 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (page 43-45). Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s great novels The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned are at the heart of my thesis. Tales of Romantic love and unfulfilled passion on the surface, these two novels are based on a capitalist world, American in the ‘Roaring Twenties’ where each character’s single purpose in life is money and material pleasure. These two novels are basically Fitzgerald’s critique on materialism and corruption of the American society evident in 1920’s and ironically still to this day. Money, wealth and class are recurring themes of these novels and the characters constantly fight the feeling that they are limited by the amount of money they make. Most importantly, their values and morality, if any, are blinded with the pursuit of money and material accomplishments. Central to this is the concept of ‘American dream, myth to some and an unattainable reality to others. Through the narratives of Nick Carraway and Adam Patch these novels track the evolution and deterioration of the concept of the American dream and how the concept of ‘self reliance’ and hard work was completely replaced by the reliance on short cuts, as such bootlegging, gambling and smuggling. Ironically, extreme pursuit of money fails to provide them with a fulfilled life and in turn often causes fatal consequences as seen in these two novels. But what interest me most is that other than critiquing the materialistic attitude of his contemporary society, Fitzgerald seems to provide an account of self criticism through works as he was known as the star of the ‘Jazz age’. I have organized my paper into four chapters and the novels are examined from a Marxist lens with important autobiographical facts of the author. The novel The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned are the primary sources and I have used different books, articles to balance the discussion and provide a valid analytical perspective. Together it explores how Fitzgerald has used the theme of American dream as a means of social criticism to show the fall of human values in the modern era. Tasmia Mostafa B.A. in English 2017-01-24T06:32:05Z 2017-01-24T06:32:05Z 2016 2016-04 Thesis ID 12103038 http://hdl.handle.net/10361/7650 en BRAC University thesis reports are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. 45 pages application/pdf BRAC University
institution Brac University
collection Institutional Repository
language English
topic English and humanities
spellingShingle English and humanities
Mostafa, Tasmia
A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned
description This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English, 2016.
author2 Ahmed, Nawshaba
author_facet Ahmed, Nawshaba
Mostafa, Tasmia
format Thesis
author Mostafa, Tasmia
author_sort Mostafa, Tasmia
title A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned
title_short A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned
title_full A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned
title_fullStr A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned
title_full_unstemmed A marxist reading of Fitzgerald’s Novel: The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned
title_sort marxist reading of fitzgerald’s novel: the great gatsby and the beautiful and damned
publisher BRAC University
publishDate 2017
url http://hdl.handle.net/10361/7650
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