The Great Gatsby as Social Commentary The Great Gatsby is a classic American novel from 1925 and is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. On the one hand, The Great Gatsby is a book about love, desperation and hope. On the other hand, it is about the “roaring twenties” and the consequences of the war. After the First World War, a decade of optimism and economic growth followed. “The Roaring Twenties,” or “the Jazz Age,” represented a time of change. The transition from wartime to peacetime led to general optimism and hopes for the future. This was the beginning of modern America. In just a few years, America became the richest country on earth and the culture of consumerism began. Inventions and industrialization led to economic growth, which then led to greater people's consumption and high expectations. F. Scott Fitzgerald manages to portray and capture all the essence of the time in which it was written through different events and characters throughout the novel. For example, people were out partying, celebrating and drinking, even though there was a strong ban on the sale, production and import of alcoholic beverages in the 1920s. As a result, bootlegging of alcoholic beverages became increasingly common, and the black market in alcoholic beverages increased in size. Furthermore, economic growth increased the demand for alcoholic beverages, so economic growth and alcoholic beverage consumerism developed in parallel. Jay Gatsby is a character with a rather mysterious and dark past, who presumably to obtain his wealth was involved in criminal activities such as bootlegging. However, economic growth has been asymmetrical in the population, some people have become filthy rich at the expense of......middle of paper......en educated there for many years. It's a family tradition,” then we discover that it's all lies. He is dishonest because he doesn't want anyone to know his story, for him it is essential to build the image of him being born into a rich family. His desperate need for approval and acceptance from others reflects his superficiality. While we don't learn much about Gatsby's family, we get the sense that he doesn't have much contact with them. Gatsby went from rags to riches because he originally came from a poor middle class family. Family values ​​are overshadowed by money, which from my point of view seems superficial. Having said all of this, it's important to remember that his only motivation for getting a fortune is Daisy Buchanan. This can justify his behavior because he is actually so obsessed with money because he wants Daisy.