Recently, I have been enthralled by the third season of HBO’s The White Lotus. Each Sunday, I lie comfortably in bed and watch the latest installment of the series. The first and second seasons were among my favorites, and while rewatching and analyzing the plot and themes, I found many connections between the show and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.

At its core, The White Lotus is a social commentary on the wealthy, but each season differs in its characters, locations, and subthemes. The show is an anthology, each season set in a different international branch of the luxury hotel chain, The White Lotus. The first season was set in Hawaii, the second in Sicily, and the third in Thailand. In this blog post, however, I will focus on the comparison between the first season and The Great Gatsby, as I believe it contains the most poignant parallels between the two.

The first season explores themes such as wealth, power, class divisions, and the lingering effects of imperialism. Much like the ending of The Great Gatsby, both Gatsby and the hotel’s powerful manager, Armond, are murdered—each death revealing a complex web of motives and power struggles. The season offers a sharp critique of overconsumption and social hierarchies. I drew a comparison between the way the working-class staff who served Gatsby’s extravagant parties were described as “floating” and the treatment of resort employees in The White Lotus. The entitlement and disregard exhibited by the wealthy guests toward the native Hawaiian staff highlight the deep discomfort of these class dynamics.

Setting also plays a crucial role in both works. Decadence reigns supreme—whether through Gatsby’s lavish parties or the resort’s lush, pampered environment—yet beneath the facade of beauty and success lies rot and corruption. All that glitters is not gold. Both The White Lotus and The Great Gatsby seek to expose the moral decay lurking beneath the idealized lives of the rich, revealing their corruption, immorality, and their role in perpetuating a toxic status quo.

Finally, both works emphasize the consequences of endless personal ambition. Whether in the pursuit of wealth, the American Dream, status, or desire, characters in both stories ultimately find themselves facing disappointment, destruction, or a lingering sense of emptiness.

Perhaps The White Lotus took inspiration from The Great Gatsby or maybe it’s because the issues shared between the two are prevalent as ever. If anything, it’s a testament to the quality and enduring legacy of The Great Gatsby. We still have so much to learn from it as our issues clearly have not been resolved yet. Engaging in media such as satire and social commentary is critical to examining the social injustices and future that our society will produce. The continuation of Fitzgerald’s legacy of ideas sees a bright and entertaining future in The White Lotus, a work of fiction, that to my hopes, will go down as a classic just like The Great Gatsby.