At first glance, The Great Gatsby glitters with glamour, love, and wealth. But the closer you read; you notice that F. Scott Fitzgerald is not eulogizing the 1920s he is mourning them in private. Jay Gatsby is usually assumed to be a rags-to-riches story, a poor boy who reinvents himself a sophisticated millionaire. But Gatsby’s riches are ill-gotten. They are based on crime and rumor. His legendary parties, in which dozens of guests are invited, conceal the deep loneliness that defines his existence. Gatsby’s riches are not for himself it’s something he employs to reclaim Daisy Buchanan, whom he loved ten years ago. Gatsby’s not living the American Dream. He’s trapped in it. Fitzgerald’s novel teaches us that dreams may be so dangerous when they’re founded on illusions. Gatsby doesn’t love Daisy for who she is; he loves an idealized Daisy a golden memory unpolluted by time or by reality. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is attempting to “repeat the past,” in denial of the reality that change, and time is inevitable. His blind passion for an unattainable fantasy is what characterizes him as a tragedy. Aside from the personal tragedy of Gatsby, Fitzgerald satirizes society in general. East Egg Daisy and Tom Buchanan’s existence is decadent, irresponsible, and unbridgeable. People like Tom, who are the products of old money, believe that they can squander things and someone else will pick up the cleaning job. People like George and Myrtle Wilson, who are trapped in the Valley of Ashes, are smothered by poverty and unrealizable dreams. Success is not to be found in common in The Great Gatsby. It’s built up by the upper class, typically on the backs of the common folk. Fitzgerald’s novels are full of symbols the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the mountains of ash beneath the watchful eye of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, the endless parties no one remembers in the morning. All of them lead to a society searching for pleasure and wealth but without meaning and heart.