The representations of the culture of narcissism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The great Gatsby’

Abstract

In 1925, the renowned American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, a work that became a classic of American literature. Drawing from his own context, Fitzgerald portrays the daily life and values of New York City residents in the 1920s, criticizing rampant materialism and exposing society's obsession with appearances. As each era in human history reflects psychological and sociological forms of social illness, the novel The Great Gatsby captures narcissism as a social phenomenon. Thus, from the perspective of social analysis, the objective was to examine the representations of the culture of narcissism in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Finally, it was observed that the main characters—Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Myrtle, Jordan, and Nick—represent, at different levels, the culture of narcissism in that society, while also revealing the mutual relationship between capitalism and narcissism, which fuels consumer and spectacle-driven societies portrayed in the novel.