The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is more than just a story about parties, love, and ambition. It serves as a reflection of society’s pursuit of the American Dream. This short story, which was published almost a century ago, continues to captivate readers with its incisive examination of illusion, gender, and class. The Great Gatsby is actually a romantic tragedy concerning Jay Gatsby, who amasses a fortune in an attempt to regain his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Underneath the surface of the Jazz Age, lies a much more bittersweet story of what it means to dream, and how pursuing one’s dreams can lead to disillusionment. Gatsby is every person who ever wished for more love, more money, more significance, but his demise serves to remind us that the dream itself may be founded on a falsehood. Gatsby hosts extravagant parties in an effort to impress Daisy, thinking that riches will buy love and admiration. In the same way, social media is where people nowadays tend to present a life that is not exactly true. As with Gatsby’s partygoers, followers are there for the spectacle but never really know the individual behind it. Class distinction is another subject that makes this novel timeless. Gatsby’s status as “new money” never gains him acceptance in the society of “old money” aristocrats such as Tom Buchanan. Even in 2025, upward mobility is unattainable for most. The American Dream promises all people that anyone can rise to success if they work hard enough, yet as Fitzgerald shows, that dream typically has invisible barriers built by race, gender, and class. Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle the novel’s main women are also symbolic of the way women were trapped in their roles during the 1920s. Though some enjoyed more freedom during the flapper era, many others were still dependent on men for status and survival. Now readers are asking new questions about their roles: Was Daisy really shallow, or just trapped? Was Jordan Baker a symbol of female independence, or just another character without real agency? Modern reimagining like Jillian Cantor’s Beautiful Little Fools reimagine the lives and motivations of these women, giving voice to the voices that Fitzgerald’s original story of Nick Carraway’s telling often overlooks. Such retellings suggest that The Great Gatsby still sparks debate because it doesn’t say so much. It makes space for other voices, other critiques, and other ways of reading the past. The Great Gatsby endures not just because of its lyrical prose or its doomed characters, but because it makes us question the dreams we chase and the values we hold. It’s a novel about hope and disillusionment, appearances and truth.And for as long as we keep striving for our own green lights, Gatsby’s story will never lose its power to speak to us no matter the century.