The Causes of Tragedy in The Great Gatsby: The Failed Conversion of Economic Capital into Cultural Capital

Abstract

This paper examines Gatsby’s tragedy in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby through Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of cultural capital, habitus, and distinction. While previous studies have often interpreted Gatsby’s failure as the result of moral corruption, personal idealism, or the collapse of the American Dream, this paper argues that Gatsby’s exclusion from the East Egg elite stems from the structural limits of social mobility itself. Although Gatsby acquires enormous economic wealth and successfully imitates many visible symbols of upper-class status, he remains unable to obtain the embodied cultural competence required for genuine elite recognition. Through close analysis of Gatsby’s performances, speech, social interactions, and ultimate isolation, this study demonstrates that economic capital cannot be fully converted into embodied cultural capital. The East Egg elite further reinforce this exclusion through distinction, transforming inherited privilege into standards of legitimacy while dismissing Gatsby’s performances as artificial and excessive. From this perspective, Fitzgerald’s novel exposes the illusion that wealth alone can overcome entrenched class boundaries in American society.