Through Nick’s observations and conclusions about the romantic exploits of his friends in East and West Egg, Fitzgerald offers a broader examination of the state of the American dream in the 1920s. Although the so-called Roaring Twenties are often recalled in modern popular culture as an era of prosperity, merrymaking, and challenged gender roles, Fitzgerald views “The Jazz Age”—a term he coined—as a corruption of American ideals. Individualism is subjugated to unattainable dreams of wealth. The pursuit of happiness is replaced by the pursuit of pleasure. All of this leads to a sense of moral decay that Nick ultimately rejects by moving back to Minnesota.

To Nick, the greatest victim of this corrupted American dream is Gatsby. Embarrassed by his humble beginnings, a young Gatsby projects all his ambitions toward wealth and upward social mobility onto Daisy. This serves neither of them well; Daisy is expected to live up to an impossible ideal of perfection, while Gatsby is compelled to subjugate his entire identity to a dream of prosperity. While Gatsby eventually achieves the wealth he craves, it is a hollow victory. The old aristocratic dynamics that predate the founding of America—and against which America was presumably a reaction—continue to exclude him from the highest echelons of society.