It is a slim volume. You can probably finish it in a single afternoon if you’re caffeinated enough. Yet, nearly a century after F. Scott Fitzgerald saw his masterpiece flop at the box office, so to speak, The Great Gatsby book remains the definitive autopsy of the American Dream. It’s weird, actually. When it was published in 1925, it didn't even sell 20,000 copies in its first year. Fitzgerald died in 1940 thinking he was a failure, a "forgotten man" whose work had gathered dust on bookstore shelves while the world moved on to Hemingway and Steinbeck.
Then came the soldiers. During World War II, the Council on Books in Wartime distributed millions of "Armed Services Editions" to troops overseas. Among them was Gatsby. Bored, terrified young men sitting in foxholes read about Jay Gatsby’s green light, and suddenly, the book wasn't just a story about a bootlegger in Long Island. It was a mirror for every person who ever wanted to reinvent themselves.
What is The Great Gatsby Book Actually About?
Most people remember the basics from high school English. You’ve got Nick Carraway, the narrator who claims to be "one of the few honest people" he’s ever known—which is a total lie, by the way. He’s incredibly judgmental. Then there’s Jay Gatsby, the mysterious millionaire who throws massive parties but doesn't drink. He’s obsessed with Daisy Buchanan, a woman who represents everything he can't have.
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But if you look closer, the book is really a ghost story. It’s about the ghosts of the past and how they haunt our present.
Gatsby thinks money can fix time. He literally says, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!" It’s one of the most famous lines in literature because it is so profoundly delusional. He believes that if he accumulates enough gold, enough silk shirts, and a big enough mansion in West Egg, he can erase the last five years of Daisy’s life. He wants to delete her marriage to Tom Buchanan and her daughter as if they were bad lines in a first draft.
The Geography of Failure: West Egg vs. East Egg
Fitzgerald was obsessed with social standing. He grew up as the "poor boy in a rich town," and you can feel that resentment on every page. The setting isn't just a backdrop; it’s a character.
- West Egg: This is where the "new money" lives. It’s flashy. It’s gaudy. Gatsby’s house is an "imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy." It’s a fake. It’s trying too hard. People here worked for their money—or, in Gatsby's case, stole it through bootlegging and securities fraud.
- East Egg: This is "old money." White palaces. Polished. Cruel. Tom and Daisy Buchanan live here. They don't have to try. Their wealth is generational, which gives them a sort of "carelessness" that Nick eventually grows to loathe.
The distance between the two eggs is just a small body of water, but in the world of The Great Gatsby book, it’s an unbridgeable canyon. No matter how much Gatsby earns, he will never be an "East Egger." He’ll always be the guy in the pink suit.
Why Does It Rank Among the Greatest?
Critics like Harold Bloom and scholars from the University of South Carolina (where many of Fitzgerald’s papers are kept) often point to the prose. The writing is incredibly tight. There isn’t a wasted word.
Honestly, the Valley of Ashes section is some of the grimmest, most beautiful writing in the English language. It’s a desolate stretch of land between West Egg and New York City where the refuse of capitalism gets dumped. Overlooking it are the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg—a faded billboard for an oculist.
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People argue about what those eyes mean. George Wilson, the man who eventually kills Gatsby, thinks they are the eyes of God. He looks at a billboard and sees judgment. That’s the tragedy of the book: in a world without a moral compass, people start looking for God in advertisements.
The Real People Behind the Fiction
Fitzgerald didn't just pull this stuff out of thin air. He lived it.
His wife, Zelda, was the "first American Flapper," but their marriage was a disaster fueled by gin and mutual sabotage. The famous line Daisy says about her daughter—"I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool"—was actually something Zelda said after giving birth to their daughter, Scottie.
Gatsby himself was likely modeled on Max Gerlach, a mysterious figure Fitzgerald met who actually used the phrase "old sport." Gerlach was a bootlegger and a social climber, just like Jay. Knowing that these characters were rooted in reality makes the ending feel much more like a warning than a romance.
Misconceptions That Drive Me Crazy
If you think this is a "great love story," you might want to re-read the last few chapters.
It’s a tragedy about obsession. Gatsby doesn't love Daisy; he loves the idea of Daisy. She’s the prize at the end of a long, crooked race. When he finally gets her, he’s almost disappointed. Nick observes that Daisy "tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion."
Also, Tom Buchanan isn't just a "jerk." He’s a symbol of a specific kind of American decay—the white supremacist, "Nordic" anxiety that was actually quite common in the 1920s. He reads books about the "rise of the colored empires" and feels threatened. Fitzgerald was capturing a very real, very ugly undercurrent of the time.
How to Actually Read Gatsby Today
If you're picking up The Great Gatsby book for the first time since you were sixteen, look for the rhythm.
Read the party scenes and notice how they feel like a fever dream. The guest lists are long and nonsensical. People come and go without ever meeting the host. It’s a commentary on how lonely you can be in a crowd of five hundred people.
Pay attention to the colors, too.
- Yellow/Gold: This is money. But it’s also the color of the car that kills Myrtle Wilson. Wealth is destructive.
- White: Daisy is always in white. It suggests purity, but it’s a mask for her emptiness.
- Blue: Gatsby’s gardens are blue. His chauffeur wears blue. It’s the color of dreams and the unattainable.
- Green: The light at the end of Daisy’s dock. The "green breast of the new world." Hope.
Actionable Steps for Deepening Your Understanding
To truly get the most out of this classic, don't just read the text. Engage with the history.
- Listen to 1920s Jazz: Put on some Bix Beiderbecke or early Louis Armstrong. The book was written to the rhythm of this music. It’s frantic and syncopated.
- Research the 1919 World Series: Gatsby’s friend, Meyer Wolfsheim, is based on Arnold Rothstein, the man who actually fixed the 1919 World Series. Understanding that Gatsby’s money is tied to the corruption of the "national pastime" changes how you see his "heroism."
- Visit the "Gold Coast": If you're ever in Long Island, drive through Sands Point and Kings Point. You can still see the massive estates that inspired West and East Egg. Standing outside those gates makes the scale of Gatsby's ambition much more visceral.
- Compare the Films: Watch the 1974 version with Robert Redford and the 2013 Baz Luhrmann version with Leonardo DiCaprio. Notice what they emphasize. The 1974 version is slow and melancholy; the 2013 version is a loud, neon-soaked explosion. Both capture a different side of Fitzgerald's psyche.
The reality is that we are all "boats against the current." We all have something in our past we are trying to fix, or some future version of ourselves we are trying to buy. That’s why the book is still assigned in schools and why it still tops the bestseller lists. It isn't just a period piece about the Jazz Age. It’s a warning that you can’t buy your way out of who you are.
Read the last page out loud. The cadence of the final paragraph is widely considered the best ending in American literature. It’s haunting, it’s rhythmic, and it’s perfectly final.
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Next Steps:
If you want to dive deeper into the era, look into F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories, specifically "The Rich Boy" or "Winter Dreams." They function as "proto-Gatsby" sketches where he was testing out the themes of wealth and lost love that he eventually perfected in the novel. Alternatively, pick up a copy of Zelda by Nancy Milford to understand the chaotic woman who inspired the character of Daisy Buchanan. Finding the links between the author's tragic life and his prose is the fastest way to turn a "school book" into a living, breathing obsession.