F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, first published in 1925, is far more than a classic romantic tragedy set in the roaring Jazz Age. Often regarded as the greatest American novel ever written, it serves as a profound, poignant, and incisive critique of the American Dream, exposing the moral emptiness, class rigidity, and materialistic obsession that defined 1920s American society. Through the tragic rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, a self-made dreamer blinded by nostalgia and desire, Fitzgerald unravels the illusion of endless opportunity and upward mobility that lies at the core of American national identity. Nearly a century after its publication, the novel remains strikingly relevant, for its exploration of obsession, wealth inequality, and the fragility of human dreams continues to resonate with every generation chasing an unattainable ideal.