Place, Class, and the Destruction of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby From the Perspective of Space
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1310.08Keywords:
The Great Gatsby, Lefebvre, space, classAbstract
This study is a spatial analysis of The Great Gatsby (1925). This novel presents the power game among various white classes in American society in the context of the Roaring Twenties, with obvious spatial characteristics. The geographical distribution between East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes presents the high-and-low-class distinction of different classes in social space. The upper classes practice class oppression and exploitation through space, while the lower classes also use space to resist oppression and climb the class ladder. This paper draws on French philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s spatial ideas, especially the spatial triad, to explore the close connection between space and class in the novel. The Great Gatsby encompasses various class groups in white society, including the hereditary aristocracy like the Buchanans, the new money represented by Gatsby, and the lower class represented by the Wilsons. To modify the spatial order, different classes use space as a medium to preserve their class identity and seek their social presence, which reproduces the illusion of the American Dream of the Jazz Age and reveals Fitzgerald’s humanistic concern for people in spatial relations.
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