Introduction and Reflection
In this essay, The Mass Deception of The American Dream, I discuss how Max
Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s essay, The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass
Deception, fits in with the critique on capitalism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great
Gatsby by stating that all characters have become delusional products of the capitalist,
materialist, and decadent society that they are a part of.
In reflection, I find that this essay was both very helpful to my education and my
enjoyment. I not only did a good amount of learning from the texts I researched, but I
also enjoyed writing this essay highly seeing as how I am a fairly opinionated person and
enjoy expressing my thoughts on matters. Originally, I had only intended to do three
character analyses: Gatsby, Daisy and Nick. After I thought about it though, I ended up
choosing Mr. Wilson in the place of Nick because I had thought something that I
definitely felt needed to be expressed about Mr. Wilson. Luckily, my friend Chris Bos
wrote a similar essay where he describes Nick. I referenced parts of his essay and gave
my thoughts also on Nick in the revision.
Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………1
Gatsby………………………………………2
Daisy………………………………………..3
Mr. Wilson………………………………….4
Nick…………………………………………5
Conclusion………………………………….5
References………………………………….7
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Joey Brandin
Critical Theory 2700
Marxist Critique
October 2010
The Mass Deception of The American Dream
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno argue in The Culture Industry:
Enlightenment as Mass Deception that modern day capitalism corrupts society, deceiving
the mass populous into a false consciousness where they cannot distinguish the difference
between reality and fantasy. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby presents a story
taking place in New York during 1920’s (a time period well associated with things
modern and capitalistic) where the characters are all consumers to the culture industry of
their time. Every character in this story is a consumer to an ideology; particularly the
ideology of the American Dream or The Pursuit of Happiness in the 1920’s. Because
these characters are consumers to this culture industry, they are deceived just as
Horkheimer and Adorno say: they cannot accept reality and are hopelessly consuming,
ultimately making the rich more rich and the poor, poorer. A part in The Culture
Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception that really describes the world of the novel
goes as follows: “Everybody must behave (as if spontaneously) in accordance with his
previously determined and indexed level, and choose the category of mass product turned
out for his type. Consumers appear as statistics on research organization charts and are
divided by income groups into red, green, and blue areas; the technique that is used for
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any type of propaganda”(Horkheimer 1). In The Great Gatsby, this is very much the case:
People are statistics acting in accordance with their indexed level, divided into class
systems by location; either West Egg (new money) East Egg (old money) or the valley of
ashes (poor). The best examples of disillusioned consumers come from all three of these
places/classifications: Gatsby, Daisy, and Mr. Wilson. Aside from this, there is Nick.
Nick is in a different classification but is also one of the many consumers in this story.
Gatsby, who lives in West Egg, is probably the most easily noticed example of a
consumer to the American Dream ideology. Gatsby sincerely believes he can start from
nothing and end up with everything he wants. “The Great Gatsby” was once a mere Jay
Gatz; a farm boy who became wealthy by dishonest and “shady” means such as
bootlegging. As Simon says in his essay The Great Gatsby’s Family, “Gatsby’s family
has no comparison with the people at the top of the social scale who are always or
sometimes…superior to those behind them”(Simon 3). Gatsby bought into the idea of
being happy by being wealthy –and worse, by appearing wealthy. Gatsby, therefore is in
a false consciousness; a fantasy. The reader can see how he not only has himself stuck in
a fantasy, but others as well when they read the first scene in the novel where Gatsby
throws a party: The narrator describes the party in a dream like manner where everyone
questions how it can be real (almost as if they need a pinch) while Gatsby isn’t even
participating in the festivities. Then there is the issue of Daisy: Gatsby has been
convinced that, for him to be fully happy, he must have Daisy. The reason he must have
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her is simple: Daisy is the epitome of the image Gatsby has purchased. In other words,
she is a trophy wife. Gatsby cannot accept that what has passed with Daisy
is passed, and is so stuck in the delusion that he can have her that it eventually becomes
the death of him. Gatsby’s death scene takes place in his pool. The scene is an overall
synopsis of his delusion: when suggested that he should close the pool up, Gatsby refuses
to, saying he’d like to take a swim. Had he not taken the swim, he would not have been
shot. His refusal of reality leads to his death, just showing that he is another deceived
statistic to the culture industry.
Daisy lives in East Egg. She is old money. The “mass product turned out for [her]
type”(1) is the role of the modern woman. Daisy is convinced that she must have a
certain pre-packaged lifestyle, complete with a nice house in the right location, a husband
who makes an honest living, and a child. She is basically the 1920’s Barbie. All of the
things she has give her status through sign exchange value. The capitalistic culture of the
1920’s has sold her this product, keeping her in a delusion. This false consciousness is
what keeps her from marrying Gatsby and marrying Tom instead. As Chris says, “She
never had interest in marrying Gatsby, the interest was there but it was nothing more than
that. She was merely testing the waters and realized she didn’t want to get in the waters
unless they were full of money.”(Chris 2) For a brief second, Daisy is able to possibly act
as more of an individual than a statistic when she is with Gatsby for a while, but Gatsby’s
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confrontation with Tom reinforces the idea that she can only be happy with Tom as her
husband, putting her back into the delusion. “Tom made it impossible by reestablishing
his status with her and making her realize that she needs him to keep her image alive and
thriving.”(2). Daisy also says to Nick when talking about her daughter that she wants to
teach her to be
a fool. This further shows that Daisy is possibly able to see that she lives a fantasy, but
cannot see the reality because of the world she lives in.
Mr. Wilson lives in “the valley of ashes” that Nick describes. He makes an honest
living as a car mechanic and fixes Tom’s car. He has a wife and a place to live. Basically,
he is well off, right? Wrong. Mr. Wilson is a working class man meaning he is poor. His
income status divides him drastically from the other characters of the book. Though there
does seem to be a distinction between new and old wealth, they are both nonetheless
wealthy and are the people who keep Mr. Wilson “in his place”. As a member of the
proletariat, Mr. Wilson is oppressed. Everyone takes advantage of him. Tom not only
takes advantage of his services as a mechanic, but is also sleeping with his wife. His wife
is taking advantage of him through his income and, obviously, is cheating on him. Mr.
Wilson just tries to live an honest life thinking that he too can achieve the American
Dream. He is not aware of the goings on and eventually becomes Gatsby’s murderer by
mistaking him as the man who was having an affair with Myrtle. Because he is so
unaware and does not see what is going on around him, he is possibly, therefore, the most
delusional character in the novel.
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A point made in Chris Bos’s essay, The 1920’s Culture industry: The Mass
Deception of the Great Gatsby, struck me: a point made about the narrator. If anyone is
stuck in a delusion produced by the culture industry more than Mr. Wilson, it’s Nick.
Nick is the narrator of the novel. You could say he is the main character of the novel also.
Nick very passively acts as someone outside of the entire situation, looking in. He is
probably the only really middle class character in the Novel. His house is next to
Gatsby’s but is nowhere near as elegant. He is neither wealthy nor poor. He seems
completely removed from the story. This social status seems to work well for his role as a
narrator, but one cannot help but question why someone who is involved in the lives of
people and is aware of such tragic flaws in their life does not point the flaws out and try
to help them. Nick knows almost every single thing going on in the lives of all the other
characters and says nothing. In a way, Nick could have even prevented so many things,
such as Gatsby’s death, by breaking everyone out of the false consciousness they were
stuck in. The point Chris made in his essay is that he is also a great victim of the culture
industry; he is stuck in a false consciousness and cannot decipher reality and fantasy.
He’s so far gone that he does not say anything to help others because he doesn’t know
how. He is the more extreme case of what I earlier stated about Daisy.
In the end, all the characters in The Great Gatsby are the mass deceived by the
culture industry and its ideologies. The capitalistic society of the 1920’s produced a prepackaged lifestyle for the characters in accordance to their “previously determined and
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indexed level”(1) which is an illusion that results in a false consciousness where they
cannot distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy. For Gatsby, it was
appearing wealthy and successful. For Daisy, it was the female counterpart of Gatsby’s:
being a wealthy modern woman. For Mr. Wilson, it was the idea that he could become
like Gatsby, even though he was pretty much stuck in his position as the proletariat
oppressed by the bourgeoisie.
1. Horkheimer, Max. Theodor Adorno. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as
Mass Deception. 1972.
2. Bos, Chris. The 1920’s Culture industry: The Mass Deception of the Great Gatsby.
Critical Theory 2700. 2010.
3. Gowad, Simon. The Great Gatsby’s Family. Critical Theory 2700. 2010.