The Great Gatsby is a very popular American novel of the Jazz Age. On the surface it reads as a tragic love story. But between the plot points, the book speaks to many important themes in American life including idealism, aspiration, and disillusionment with the American dream. On another level, Fitzgerald addresses a more philosophical and disconcerting realization that our dreams are often illusions, founded on romantic ideals easily crushed by harsh reality.
The American Dream was the philosophy that brought people to America and to start a new life in a strange, foreign land. Due to t…