《了不起的蓋茨比》被認為是弗·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德的代表作，以爵士樂時代和咆哮的二十年代為背景，探討了頹廢、理想主義、社會恥辱、父權制規範以及資本主義社會中不受限制的財富的有害影響等主題。 從本質上講，這是一個警示故事，揭示了美國夢的陰暗面。

「去年秋天，當我從東方回來時，我覺得我希望世界永遠穿著制服並受到某種道德關注； 我不想再進行喧鬧的遊覽，以特權一睹人類的內心。 只有蓋茲比，這個以他的名字命名這本書的人，沒有受到我的反應的影響——蓋茲比代表了我不加掩飾的蔑視的一切。 如果個性是一系列不間斷的成功姿態，那麼他身上就有一些華麗的東西，對生命的承諾有一種高度的敏感性，就好像他與那些記錄一萬英里外地震的複雜機器有關。 這種反應能力與那種被稱為「創造性氣質」的脆弱的易感性無關——它是一種非凡的希望禮物，一種浪漫的準備，這是我從未在任何其他人身上找到的，也是不可能的。我一定會再找到。 不——蓋茲比最終表現得很好。 正是這種東西掠奪了蓋茨比，正是他的夢想之後飄浮的骯髒塵埃，暫時關閉了我對人類未遂的悲傷和短暫的歡欣的興趣……”

The Great Gatsby is considered F. Scott Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, exploring themes of decadence, idealism, social stigmas, patriarchal norms, and the deleterious effects of unencumbered wealth in capitalistic society, set against the backdrop of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. At its heart, it’s a cautionary tale, a revealing look into the darker side to the American Dream.

“When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the “creative temperament”—it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men...”