A central theme in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the developing consumer culture in America and its expression of social class divisions in society. The book is set in the 1920s, an era rules by the generation which in the 1920s had enjoyed all of the benefits of good economic times without developing the character necessary to adapt to the coming changes. Fitzgerald recognized the emptiness of the upper class of the time even as he, like his central character, was drawn to them and their world. In this novel, differences in social class in American society are made central as the outsider Gatsby yearns to become an insider with the wealthy and socially acceptable families of the East coast. Fitzgerald was especially interested in the effect of class distinctions in American life, and he is also concerned about the loss of value in American life. Certain aspects of consumerism reflected such a loss in values, including the commodification of human beings and human life that was entailed in the process. Gatsby yearns for what the upper class has without understanding what that class has lost in the way of values. In one sense, Gatsby represents the consumer seduced by advertising, a type that would become more common in ensuing decades, and for Gatsby, Daisy is the commodity that would put him in the upper reaches of society.
             Gatsby is described by two people who have known him the longest. Wolfsheim talks about Gatsby as a gangster and a bootlegger, while Henry C. Gatz talks about the young Gatsby, a young man who seemed to be a perfect example of the all-American ideal. In his current milieu, the West Eggers believe they stand for American values, values they also see as more elevated than those of gangsters like Gatsby, but their lives show a perversion of that idealism. They are also materialistic, unfaithful, and destructive. Nick is the only character with sufficient sensitivity to see the failure of both...