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Find two pieces of evidence or quotes from the article “ Capitalism and the Fall of the AmericanDream: A Marxist Reading of Fitzgerald’sThe Great Gatsby and Winter Dreams”. by Abu-Snoubar, Tamador Khalaf;Attiyat, Nazzem;Aldawkat, Issam. About the deterioration of the American Dream, and it should release to the great Gatsby.


Distinctions and the Blurred Line Between New Money and Old
Money
The distinction between old money and new money is important to make, and denotes differences in class that are inimical to Marxist understandings. Manoharan (2013) notes American novels, and not just The Great Gatsby, placed important distinctions between old and new money. New money is money that someone or a family acquired, while old money becomes inherited by blood relations and kinships. In her thesis, Johansson (2011) talks about the ways in which Daisy and Tom represent *old or acquired money, while Gatsby represents new money, or money acquired through determination and either hard work or trickery, fraud or illegal/semi-legal dealings.
As a narrator, Nick is hard to place because he is neither new money nor old money.
The following quote exemplifies this ambiguity: "The actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today" (Fitzgerald 2004, 3). Toward the beginning of the novel, the reader already gets a sense that, while Nick may not be as wealthy as old moneyed Gatsby and Daisy, his family nevertheless made a decent living as hardware retailers. In this sense, it is difficult to construe Nick as being uniquely loyal to either the bourgeoisie or the proletariat.
While there is a distinction between old money and new money predicated upon new money being the acquisition of money through one's own means, rather than through natural inheritance and birth-right, Fitzgerald also ultimately fuses the two, in some ways leaving them indistinguishable. They are still both forms of money, after all, with different modes of acquisition. In other words, Daisy Buchanan and Tom have about as much as Gatsby does, even if they did not have to 'work' for it (if we construe Gatsby's dishonest and fraudulent participation in what is ostensibly the underground alcohol market as work).
Both Daisy and Tom, as well as Gatsby, present a blurred line between West Egg and East Egg, even though Fitzgerald does say that new money is different from old money.
There are other characters, which we will explore, who may represent the topography and characteristics of the proletariat more so than new moneyed and old moneyed Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan.
George and Myrtle Wilson, The Valley of Ashes, as Proletariat The Valley of Ashes is a key symbol in Gatsby, representing poverty and exploitation, juxtaposed against the sheen of Manhattan and other parts of New York that are significantly ritzier and elite. The Valley is also a cite of outsourcing, whereby Fitzgerald implies that some of the elites' wastage makes its way to the region, only so that the Valley's 'janitors' or citizens can clean it up.

Answer 1

The article examines the deterioration of the American Dream in Fitzgerald's works, highlighting the contrast and eventual blurring between old money and new money, and how they contribute to social stratification and undermine the ideals of equal opportunity.

Step-by-step explanation:

The article "Capitalism and the Fall of the American Dream: A Marxist Reading of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Winter Dreams" explores themes related to the American Dream and the distinction between old money and new money. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby showcases characters like Daisy and Tom Buchanan as representatives of old money, signifying inherited wealth and long-standing social elitism, while Gatsby himself is depicted as a self-made man of new money, acquiring wealth through sheer determination and potentially dubious means. This distinction highlights the deteriorating American Dream where pursuit of wealth and social stratification undermine the equal opportunities ideal.

Despite this distinction, the characters and their wealth ultimately blur, negating the significance of how the money was obtained. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the proletariat, sharply contrasting with the elite, and emphasizes the exploitation and wastage by the upper class. From this Marxist lens, Fitzgerald interrogates the integrity of the American Dream by examining the lives of these distinct characters during the Jazz Age.

Answer 2

Evidence/quotes from the article about the deterioration of the American Dream, and its relation to The Great Gatsby:

1. "The distinction between old money and new money is important to make, and denotes differences in class that are inimical to Marxist understandings." This quote suggests that the class differences between old and new money are antithetical to Marxist ideology, and therefore contribute to the deterioration of the American Dream.

2. "The Valley of Ashes is a key symbol in Gatsby, representing poverty and exploitation, juxtaposed against the sheen of Manhattan and other parts of New York that are significantly ritzier and elite." This quote implies that the stark contrast between the poverty of the Valley of Ashes and the opulence of Manhattan represents the failure of the American Dream to provide equal opportunities and upward mobility for all.