Author(s)

Yang Tiantong ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

Corresponding Author

Yang Tiantong

ABSTRACT

This essay analyzes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Babylon Revisited through a Marxist literary lens to explore the theme of capitalist alienation in 1930s post-crash Paris. It argues that the story reveals how capitalist values corrode genuine human connection by distorting individual self-perception and interpersonal relationships. The essay identifies three key manifestations of this alienation: the commodification of selfhood, where personal worth is reduced to market value; the reification of human relationships, transforming individuals into objects; and the instrumentalization of others, where people are treated as means to an end. Through the character of Charlie Wales, the essay demonstrates how these intertwined phenomena—commodification, reification, and instrumentalization—undermine the possibility of true redemption and expose the dehumanizing impact of capitalist social relations, ultimately cautioning against the erosion of human connection and ethical values by market logic.

KEYWORDS

Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Capitalist Alienation, Marxist Literary Theory

CITE THIS PAPER

Yang Tiantong, The Price Not Given for Nothing: Capitalist Alienation in Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2025) Vol. 8: 62-65. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2025.080109.

REFERENCES

[1] Fitzgerald, F. Scott. (2011) Babylon Revisited. Penguin Books.
[2] Hess, Heather L.N. (2018) 'The Crash!': Writing the Great Depression in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Babylon Revisited,' 'Emotional Bankruptcy,' and 'Crazy Sunday'. Journal of Modern Literature, 42, 1, 77–94.
[3] Gay, Marie-Agnès. (2017) Making Something out of Nothing: Dissipating Legacy and the Legacy of Dissipating in 'Babylon Revisited'. The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, 15, 1, 96–116. 
[4] Mangum, Bryant. (1991) A Fortune Yet: Money in the Art of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Short Stories. Garland. 
[5] Hermann, Christoph. (2021) The Critique of Commodification: Contours of a Post-Capitalist Society. Oxford University Press.
[6] Curnutt, Kirk. (2004) Fitzgerald's Consumer World. A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Kirk Curnutt, Oxford University Press, 85–128.
[7] Tebbetts, Terrell L. (2005) Commodifying Character: Why the Past Entraps in 'Babylon Revisited'. The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, 4, 1, 147–161. 
[8] Feenberg, Andrew. (2020) Lukács's Theory of Reification: An Introduction. Confronting Reification Revitalizing Georg Lukács's Thought in Late Capitalism, edited by Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker, Brill, 13–24.
[9] Lukács, Georg. (1967) Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat. History & Class Consciousness, translated by Rodney Livingstone, Merlin Press.
[10] Eagleton, Terry. (2002) Marxism and Literary Criticism. 2nd ed, Routledge.

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