The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been interpreted by many different people to mean many different things. The novel, published in 1925, at the time of the economic boom in the United States, paints a portrait of the Roaring Twenties. Even though Fitzgerald didn't know what was going to happen in 1929, the Great Depression, he did an exceptional job of practically predicting people's futures. The purpose of The Great Gatsby is to show and explain how the quest for wealth and status can ruin lives. Fitzgerald wrote that people have a natural tendency to desire wealth and status, that wealth and status cannot and will not make one happy, and that the desire for wealth and status can have undesirable consequences. The 1920s were a time of great wealth in the United States. and people were looking only to get money, whether legally or illegally. Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby is the ideal example of someone who tried to get rich quick during the Jazz Age. He was born poor and acquired his wealth through rumors of smuggling. Fitzgerald wrote, “Americans, though sometimes willing to become serfs, have always been stubborn about becoming peasants” (Fitzgerald 88). However, Gatsby didn't seem to care about money until Daisy came into his life. He then realized that Daisy would never marry him unless he had money and high status which she could have achieved through him. Fitzgerald explained, “There are only the pursued, the pursuers, the busy and the weary” (Fitzgerald 79). Daisy only wanted to pursue wealth and status, which she got by marrying Tom, she wanted nothing more. Gatsby, still obsessed with getting Daisy back, hoped that if he was worth... middle of paper... too long with one dream” (Fitzgerald161). The desire to want something excessively is not healthy and usually leads to undesirable consequences. Although many people classify F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as a love story, it is nothing more than a novel about the desire to create wealth. worry. Fitzgerald wrote about how people have a natural tendency to desire wealth and status, how wealth and status cannot and will not make one happy, and how the desire for wealth and status can lead to undesirable consequences . The Roaring Twenties were a great time for the majority of the American population; However, all good things must come to an end. As the Roaring Twenties came to an end, so did Gatsby's dreams. Works Cited Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004.