The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a classic novel that has captured the hearts and minds of readers for decades. Set in the 1920s, the novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and mysterious man who throws extravagant parties in an effort to win back his former love, Daisy Buchanan. The novel is a poignant commentary on the decadence and excess of the Jazz Age, as well as a meditation on the nature of the American Dream. Gatsby, the quintessential self-made man, is emblematic of the ideal that anyone can achieve success and happiness in America if they work hard enough. However, the novel also exposes the hollowness of this dream, as Gatsby's obsession with wealth and status ultimately leads to his downfall. One of the central themes of the novel is the idea of illusion versus reality. Gatsby, who has reinvented himself as a wealthy socialite, is ultimately revealed to be a fraud. He has built his fortune through illegal means, and his elaborate parties and grandiose gestures are all a facade designed to win back Daisy's affections. Similarly, the characters in the novel are all engaged in various forms of self-delusion, from Daisy's insistence that she loves both Gatsby and her husband Tom, to Tom's belief in his own superiority and entitlement. …show more content…
Gatsby, despite his wealth, is ultimately unable to penetrate the inner circle of the old money aristocracy to which Daisy belongs. Similarly, characters like Myrtle Wilson, who are born into lower social classes, are doomed to remain on the fringes of society, no matter how much they aspire to upward