The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a compact yet powerful critique of the American Dream, set in the glitzy Jazz Age. At its heart is Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire obsessed with winning back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. His relentless pursuit of wealth and an idealized past exposes the emptiness of the era’s excess—and the fragility of a dream that promises success but delivers disillusionment. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby as a symbol of blind hope: his lavish parties mask a lonely longing, and his devotion to Daisy reveals how the upper class’s shallowness crushes genuine emotion. Narrator Nick Carraway’s outsider perspective lays bare the moral decay beneath the 1920s’ glitter, from greed to class division. The novel’s iconic line—“so we beat on, boats against the current”—captures the universal struggle to move forward while clinging to what’s lost. Though short, The Great Gatsby remains timeless because it asks a question still relevant today: what does it cost to chase a dream that was never truly attainable? It’s a haunting reminder that wealth and status can never fill the void of unfulfilled desire.