story
The Great Gatsby
The American Dream as a glittering, hollow pursuit that ends badly.
Origin
F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel. Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire of mysterious origin, throws extravagant parties at his Long Island mansion to win back Daisy Buchanan, his lost love from before the war. He doesn't get her, and he ends up dead in his pool. The book is now the canonical literary statement of Jazz Age excess and the dark side of upward mobility.
Modern usage
Used as a stand-in for the Roaring Twenties aesthetic, for unrequited love framed as ambition, and for any boom that hides decay. The green light at the end of Daisy's dock is one of the most quoted symbols in American literature.
Tags
american-dream
excess
jazz-age