Davis 1

Paige Davis
9 April 2014
ENG 314
Bro. Williams
Consciously Owned and Emphatically Unread:
Books & Literacy as the Imitation of Class
A superficial view of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby sets them as the
perfect couple who have the money and position in society to do whatever they please.
Gatsby and Myrtle each try to emulate them for these lifestyles. Gatsby, in his quest to
relive the past and obtain Daisys favor over her husband, subconsciously imitates Toms
wealth, lifestyle, and behavior. Likewise, Myrtle reinvents herself for Tom as a poor replica
of Daisy. Megan Benton explains how 1920s American society regards the possession of
books as a measure of wealth and class, emphasizing how The Great Gatsby "depict[s]
homes in which books were conspicuously owned but emphatically unread" (288). While
most critics analyze only Gatsby in his use of books, I expand on the way Tom, Daisy, and
Myrtle use and abuse books, education, and literacy to push themselves into the class
distinction they believe they deserve. Through their use of books, education, and literacy, I
examine how Gatsby and Myrtle inadequately imitate Tom and Daisy to obtain their idyllic
social positions for themselves.
Tom Buchanan
Tom uses his literacy as a reminder of his formal education and old money status.
Toms choice of scientific literature only emphasizes his personal feelings of elitism and
proper social class boundaries.
Toms efforts in reminding everyone that he is of the elite, old money class are
pathetic and feeble at best (26). In Toms lecture about the eugenic quality of The Rise of

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the Coloured Empires, he anxiously describes how if we dont look out the white race will
bewill be utterly submerged. Its all scientific stuff; its been proved (25). This frantic
explanation only highlights how he does not have a full understanding of what he has
readbut with Nick as company, he finally has someone to share them with. Daisy
expresses disinterest, as Nick infers when Daisy mocks Toms discourse and educated
literacy. Linguistically, Tom uses a low vocabulary range to describe vague ideas: he uses
proved in place of the grammatically correct proven, and does not go into the
appropriate depth to support his desperate claim that it is all scientific stuff. His pathetic
concentration required in sharing these ideas comes in the rare event of potentially having
someone to listen and care and only underscores the content of the ideas themselves.
Not only are the ideas out-of-date, but they are also yet another reflection of Toms
belief that he belongs in the elite old money class. In his article, Oh, Science and Art, and
All That, Ronald Berman discusses how Toms ideas of eugenics are outdated because it is
a conversation others had years before, and he is just hearing the echoed phrases of that
conversation. In fact, Berman emphasizes that by the time it gets to [Tom] the word
civilization has been connected to other words like fragmented and ruins (89). By
picking up small fragments of this out-of-date conversation, Tom fails to collect the other
vital arguments that may give him a stronger understanding of the concept as a whole.
Rather, he gleans the most vital pieces of information that may support his personal
schema of class and race, and ignores the pieces of the argument that are not applicable
in his mind.
Tom reminds everyone around him of his membership in a rather distinguished
secret society (29). Barbara Wills emphasizes in her article, The Great Gatsby and the

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Obscene Word, how whiteness and its attendant privileges [] are something that must
be preserved, safeguarded, barricaded (133). As part of this eugenic discourse, Tom
expounds on the value of being white (25), and the responsibility to keep whiteness a
part of the majority and elite society. After comparing interclass relationships to interracial
marriages, Tom [sees] himself standing alone on the last barrier of civilization (113).
Toms understanding of the fragile stability of civilization depends on the strength of the
social class system that keeps him the most elite of the group. He feels that Daisys affair
with Gatsby defiles the delicate rules that separate them from the other socioeconomic
classesdespite his affair with working class Myrtle. His hypocrisy is a reflection of a belief
that it would be worse if Daisy carried a bastard child of a lower class and racial bloodline
quality than if Myrtle carried his own bastardbut elitechild. Tom is more concerned
with keeping the elite, upper class society pure than keeping the lower socioeconomic class
pure of elite blood. With Daisys infidelity, she breaches the delicate social structure of their
elite club that Tom imagines he is the last, singular barrier against social breakdown
according to his outdated definition and concept of social stability.
Toms distinct elitist characteristics encompass his self-identity as a national hero.
Through Nick, Fitzgerald describes how at Yale, Tom had been [] a national figure in a
way (20). Toms personal image of himself as an athletic national hero never changed
after all, he continued to look for the same energy of a game throughout the years after he
left Yale (21). Toms belief that he is a hero only underscores his belief that he is, once
again, standing alone on the last barrier of civilization (113). Toms personal
understanding of himself as a hero transfers to his understanding of the way the social

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class system depends on him defending his personal rights of white, old money, upper
class.
Jay Gatsby
Gatsby uses books and education as imitators of old money wealthan imitation
that ironically instead ostracizes him from that desirable old money class. Each of these
imitations is foreign and absurdly extreme to some measure. Gatsby's faade is the most
complex of the characters in The Great Gatsby, including his Oxford education and
Merton College Library replica full of uncut books. Many of Gatsbys objects of imitation
also serve as parallels to the way Gatsby himself is an imitation of wealthy life.
Jay Gatsbys claims a personal history dependent on a myth that his family has gone
to Oxford for generations. In This Tremendous Detail, Bonnie Shannon McMullen explains
how Gatsbys distinct selection of the foreign Oxford because there is an extra measure of
elitism: while Tom and Nicks friendship takes root in their similar education at Yale,
Gatsby has a card that trumps any Ivy League credentials, for he is, or claims to be, and
Oxford man (11). This distinct choice would put him above even old money individuals if
it were true; but it is not. Gatsbys stories about going to Oxford because his family has gone
there for generations emulate the way Tom and Nick attend Yale because their families
attended for generations. With this simulated history, Gatsby sets up his trustworthiness;
however, Nick doubts the truth of this statement because of the way Gatsby swallowed or
choked on [the words] as though it had bothered him before (64). With this doubt, trust
fails until Gatsby later produces physical proof that he had been at Oxford at some point,
though his photograph never proves that he took classes or graduated from Oxford with a

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degree. Within Gatsbys photograph, a replication of a moment, Gatsby maintains another
imitation of a life he never led.
Gatsbys presumptuous Merton College Library serves as the first glimpse of his
materialistic efforts to imitate old money living. As Nick attends his first party at Gatsbys,
he and Jordan wander through an important-looking door, and [walk] into a high Gothic
library, paneled with carved English oak, and probably transported complete from
somewhere overseas (49). Nick observes the lengths Gatsby goes to in order to buy his
passage into old money without the ancestral heritage of money. The door stands as a
marker of significance among the plethora of abundance and materialism within Gatsbys
enormous mansion, while the engraved English oak is a representation of his outstanding
wealth. This sense of foreignness again promotes the idea that Gatsby desires the wealth
and class to want the best of the best, but does not classify America as the same measure.
He sees how many of the old money families of America first found their origin in some
degree of aristocratic Europe. Within one sentence, Fitzgerald alludes to Gatsbys desire for
the image of the old money lifestyle, without the true heritage that would provide that
image by itself.
Gatsbys overdone library is famously full of real-but-uncut books, suggesting that
he has never read them. Upon entering the room, Nick and Jordan meet Owl Eyes, the
drunk man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles (49), expounding excessively about the
[a]bsolutely real quality of the booksthat they have pages and everything... [and are
not just] nice durable cardboard (50). The idea that they are real suggests that, at some
rich persons house, this man has seen a library of cardboard book covers to advertise
falsely their rights to wealth and upper class treatment, and thus that Gatsby is actually

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wealthy enough to use real books. Alluding to the general need to cut the pages open in
order to read the contents, Owl Eyes suggests that Gatsby bought this library full of brand
new books and has never read most of them.
The books become a symbol for all Gatsby is and possesses as the exterior shape and
shadow of objects with no fulfillment of meaning or use. Sanford Pinkster examines in his
article Seeing The Great Gatsby Eye to Eye how Gatsbys imitation Normandy manor
contains rooms that have been bought, but not understood, and a library filled with
books nobody intends to read (70). Indeed, these books and rooms are for show, simply
existing until Daisy puts her sign of approval of old money on each object of possession. He
signifies all of his possessions by how an individual of old money, who has lived in
mansions of rich quality her whole life and thus maintains a high standard and expectation
of quality.
Gatsbys books parallel his physical accumulation of wealth and contrary missing
heritage and true history that would uphold and support that wealth and upper class
image. Will notes how these books are representatives of Gatsby himself because Gatsby,
too, is both 'really' there and absent (131). She is referencing a number of occasions where
Nick feels how Gatsby serves as an "elusive rhythm" (99)a shadow of truth and existence.
Gatsbys elusiveness parallels the way old money, upper class wealth is elusive to Gatsby.
Patrick Shaw describes how Gatsby will never capture the tone and style of the rich world
to which he aspires (126). Gatsbys efforts are futile because the lifestyle of the rich will
always elude him; he will always feel like he is that poor boy from North Dakota who
dreamed of a different life, always believing he can make it a reality.

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Gatsbys efforts to recreate himself are a performance for Daisy. By fact that Gatsby
has not cut the pages, Kevin Dettmar speculates in Bookcases, Slipcases, Uncut Leaves
that Gatsby knows the limits of our credulity, and doesnt push the illusion so far as to cut
the pages, suggesting that hed actually read, or even looked into, the books (20).
Dettmars theory presents Gatsby as a character aware of his lies and imitations; he knows
he is putting on a performance. As an actor and director, he does not need to read the
books; they are simply for show in his theatrics to entice Daisy into his life of not-quite-oldmoney proportions. However, by acknowledging that it is a purposeful performance of
imitation separates Gatsby from Myrtles mode of imitation. Berman also notes how
Gatsbys self-creation is only one of many. And it is especially representative in its reliance
on ideas and styles sold by subscription or from newsstand (92). Not only is it a
purposeful performance, but Gatsby bases his story from mass-produced literature he
would have read in his poor youth. He hopes to be both a face-in-the-crowd because he fits
in with the elite society and a unique gem worthy of Daisys attention, making his own
heroic or romantic story worthy of publishing.
These books are evidence of Gatsbys efforts to show that he similarly qualifies as
one with money, just as old money families who would have simply inherited a library full
of books from their family. Burton describes how the archive seemed to be relocated intact
[ and] the books were real but literally unreadable, making Gatsbys ownership of them
as inauthentic as if they had been mere cardboard facades (288). Gatsby never hand
selects his possessions: his man in England (85) selects his shirts and fashion styles,
whole rooms of foreign art and history that act as units for sale, as much as his library
that he purchased as a complete replica. Each individual shirt has comes with no personal

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preference, each piece of art and history lacks the appreciation of an owner with formal
education, and none of the books for that library to fit his interests. These are all decisions
entrusted to a foreign entity that possessed the educated credentials to group items and
make decisionscredentials Gatsby will never possess. By avoiding the decision process,
Gatsby gives away his agency of choice, and thus losses his ownership over them
personally.
Gatsbys very choice to replicate the Merton College Library maintains an
associated elitism to the original, but desecrates the original librarys purpose. This library
replica supports the elitist quality of the rest Gatsbys possessions because the library it
replicates is the oldest surviving purpose-build library in England (McMullen 15).
However, by leaving the replica library books uncut and unusable, Gatsby desecrates the
name and purpose of the original library. This is not a library for use; it is a library for show
and impressing Daisy, to make sure that she is not disappointed with his accumulation of
wealth and material things. This desecration parallels the way his version of upper class
living and wealth accumulation desecrates the very nature of the true old money lifestyle
he aspires to attain. The Buchanans enjoy the safety of their lawfully inherited money
after all; the mere fact that they have inherited it is what makes it old money to begin with.
Contrastingly, Gatsby's criminal behavior is the sole basis of his wealth and access to this
upper class lifestyle. By using corrupt means of acquiring wealth and associations, he
defiles the whole lifestyle and wealth he aspires to imitate.
Gatsbys illusion is dependent on others who are as oblivious as he is to the
subtleties of old money living. In Owl Eyes, Stoddards Lectures, and The Great Gatsby,
Patrick Shaw explains how his possessions and illusions are able to fool only those who

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are as intrinsically gauche and nave as Gatsby himself (126). Just as he is oblivious to the
social niceties that should bar him from joining Mr. Sloan and his companions to supper
because of his new money status that excludes him of old money social cues, his party
guestsbesides actual old money Daisy and Tomare oblivious to the grandiose, garish
parties Gatsby puts on. Further than that, not only do the crowds who attend the parties
break old money social protocol by coming uninvited to a party where they do not know
the host, but also abuse his politeness and desperation that Daisy will flood in one night.
Daisy Buchanan
Daisy scorns her own educated sophistication that accompanies her wealth and
marriage to Tom. Daisys discussion with Nick reveals this scorn for her experientially
educated sophistication when she tells him, You see I think everythings terrible anyhow
Everybody thinks sothe most advanced people. And I know. Ive been everywhere and
seen everything and done everything. SophisticatedGod, Im sophisticated (29).
Daisys youthful education would have centered on gaining characteristics and the
essentials to husband hunting, and so her youthful marriage to Tom meant she never
gained many magnificent or educational life experiences. Based on the way Tom values his
Yale education and staying up with what he believes are contemporary subjects of
argument and discussion, it is possible to assume that he would not allow her to continue
living in such a youthfully ignorant manner. Tom would use their wealth to make sure she
obtained every opportunity to experience the world. This may have been part of the reason
they travelled on a regular basis, drifting here and there unrestfully wherever people
played polo and were rich together (21). Their transiency was contained to the best and
most refined of experiences. Tom was making sure she was sophisticated and cultured in

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the most appropriate of subjectsenough that she should be able to share conversation
with him when he felt profound. However, his insurance that she will have something to
talk about does not mean she is inclined to discuss them. Daisys scorn for her experiences
and sophistication demonstrates her contentment for blissful ignorancea hope she
maintains for her daughter that she become a beautiful fool (20), who will be perfect for
husband hunting and childbearing to satisfy the need for an heir to their fantastic fortune.
Daisys contempt for the oblivious impropriety of the new money society that
includes Gatsby provides a foreshadowing scene of her later decision between Gatsby and
Tom. Brian Sutton describes in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby the way Daisy defends
Gatsby when Tom mocks his party, she too is offended and appalled by [] Gatsbys
world (232). In this moment at the party, Daisy proves fickle in her support and
foreshadows her later decision to pick Tom over Gatsby. By choosing Tom over Gatsby,
Daisy demonstrates that she would rather have her scorned faux educated sophistication
over Gatsby's gaudy obliviousness that follows his new money. This selection also
highlights that she senses the obligation that comes with being a member of the old money
society.
Daisy even avoids the opportunity for others to imitate her. In White Skin, White
Mask, Meredith Goldsmith accentuates how in the Stars admiration for Daisys hairstyle,
the publicity of setting a trend would defile the very nature of Daisys elitism. Because the
[working-class] Star is sustained by publicity, Daisy must protect and guard herself from
that same publicity for the sake of preserving the class boundaries that separate them
(105). Daisy stands in a position of envy for working women of all other classes. While
Daisy is aware of the Stars admiration, she is unaware of the extent other women go to

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imitate Daisy and her kind of lifestyle. She insulates herself of the scandal magazines that
focus on imitating the fashion and behavior of old money, elite females of the town because
she is that woman.
Myrtle Wilson
Myrtle possesses a number of different scandal magazines and cheap paperback
books, but they do not help her progress as an individual. So long as she is in Nicks
company, the reader sees her buy them (with Tom's money) but never read them. Myrtles
use of literature parallels Gatsby and his hope for all fictional stories to come true. She only
uses the scandal magazines as a way of following the fashion and behavioral trends of the
elite upper class. Ironically, this class she poorly mirrors includes her lover's wife, Daisy.
Prior to going to the New York apartment suite, Myrtle picks up a variety of gossip
and scandal magazines that promote her delusion that Tom would change his life for her.
Nick notes a number of additional magazines of similar sorts in the apartment, as well as a
cheap chapter book, Simon Called Peter" (37). From her choices in literature, Myrtle does
not show any interest in improving herself or her circumstancesbut fully plans on relying
on Tom to make the move toward progress in their relationship. She sincerely hopes that
Tom will leave his wife because of the formula story within her favorite literature of the
Poor Girl in love with a Rich Man who is thwarted by his conniving and excessively Catholic
Wife (Berman 93). Myrtles scripted belief in Toms love for her parallels Gatsbys
unwavering, romantic hope that by redefining who he is through material items and money
so he could return things to an upgraded condition of the way they used to be, fulfilling
those stories [provided by magazines] of adventure and heroism and romantic love

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(Berman 92). Both Gatsby and Myrtle will never see their nave dreams from fictional
stories ever fulfilled; after all, they are just stories.
Myrtle primarily represents the low to middle-class, and thus her choices in reading
literature symbolize the literary interests of those within the similar economic and social
bracket. In his article, He Fell Just Short of Being News, Christopher Wilson comments on
the way Myrtles projects herself into the story she has read, mimicking sophistication and
snobbery (137). Myrtles way of reading differs from the way old money Tom uses them
for reminding everyone of his membership in the secret club and Gatsbys new money way
of not reading them at all. There was a point when Gatsby would have read and placed
himself within his youthful stories of romantic heroes and adventures as Myrtle does
because he was within the same working class bracket. However, the acquisition of money
meant he no longer needs those heroic stories to insert himself intohe has plenty within
the world he has created for himself. Myrtle has yet to reach that point, and thus continues
to read literature as a tantalizing setting in which to place herself and her acquaintances.
Through her scandal magazines, Myrtle hopes to mirror the behavior and fashion
trends of the elite. Berman emphasizes how Myrtle reads with an imaginary identification
with elites that barely conceals her deep class resentment (137). Despite her bitterness at
the broad gap that separates herself from the upper class, she tries to imitate their lifestyle.
First, she begins to adopt some of Toms characteristics of upper-class behavior when she
complains about those who work at the hotel. She ignores the fact that she is actually part
of the same social and economic class as the hotel staff working to provide the both daily
necessities and luxuries of life. There are more clues within the apartment that signal her
efforts to upgrade her standard of living. She decorates with the finesse of the classical

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French Versailles style dcor, associating it with classy decoration of the rich and elite. This
association to foreignness as classiness strongly resembles Gatsbys foreign library with
Gothic dcor and English panels. Those who are not born into Tom and Daisys old money
club associate the riches of the elite with their European ancestors.
However, just as Gatsbys interpretation of old money stretches to ostentatious and
gaudy, Myrtles imitation of class stretches beyond the natural style of the general upper
class. Gatsby creates a new self with the image of wealth, just as Myrtle is on stage in her
apartment creating a self (at one point actually modeling it) which she devoutly hopes is
the Real Thing (Berman 86). However, while Gatsbys recreation and performance was
purposeful, Myrtle inadvertently collects her recreation from the books and fictional
stories in which she inserts herself.
Myrtles imitation of the upper class females in her magazines makes her a copy, no
different from the cheap, mass-produced novels and magazines she bases her imitation on.
Goldsmith illuminates how in the face of Daisys singularity, Myrtle produces copies
(109). Myrtle is simply another face in the crowd of the Valley of Asha mass-produced
product with every edition of the scandal magazine that transforms similar working-class
women into celebrity reproductions or copies, submerging themselves into the formula
stories they read. Myrtle does not realize she is trying to reinvent herself as a reproduction
of mass-produced characters; in fact, she believes that by assuming the characteristics of
the elite females she reads about, she is making herself unique within her circumstances,
and worthy of Toms love and action to change the nature of their relationship. However,
because the characters she reads about are fictitious, she does not realize that they are

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already elaborate and extreme replicas of the intended original figures. She out-does the
fictional recreations to make her personal replica almost outrageous and absurd.
While Tom and Daisy serve as the idyllic upper class, old money couplewhom
everyone wants to betheir literacy and education hold empty value. Tom maintains a
sense of literacy, although his poorly described outdated eugenic theories support his
position as the most elite because of his whiteness, and Daisy accepts her life of educated
sophistication over Gatsbys ignorant and presumptuous lifestyle. Despite the flaws in their
own use of education and literature, the perfect image of what their life has to offer is
enough for others to look for opportunities to imitate them. Gatsby, in his efforts to
reinvent himself as the old money, wealthy suitor for Daisy, consciously puts on the
performance of acting the part, while unconsciously emulating Tom, as the old money man
married to Daisy. Myrtle unconsciously recreates herself as Daisy, the woman who can
have whatever she desires because she is married to the wealthy Tom. Both Gatsby and
Myrtle struggle to mimic Tom and Daisy exactly because fictional stories serve as the basis
for their understanding of the way the old money Buchanans way of life works. Gatsbys
understanding of Toms wealth is a measure of wealth itself, while Tom is able to separate
himself from Gatsby because he sees the distinction between old money and new money in
a way that Gatsby is oblivious. Myrtles understanding of the elite female lifestyle is a
reflection of the somewhat absurd fictional characters she reads about, which she proceeds
unconsciously makes a personal caricature of both the fictional character and the real
figureDaisyshe represents. Gatsby and Myrtle act as distortions of Tom and Daisy
because their understood representations are fictitious.

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