Middle-class "middle-westerner" Nick Carraway narrates this novel; he is a keen observer of the American fairy tale come to life. As he uncovers more and more about Gatsby and his obsession with Daisy Buchanan, Carraway realizes the high price of materialism, envy, and desire. The American dream, like Gatsby's house in the end of the novel, is empty, or may never have existed. The editors of Readings on describe Fitzgerald in terms of his famous characters:
In some ways, F. Scott Fitzgerald was Jay Gatsby: poor dreamer become financially successful, vitally attached to a romantic dream. He was also Nick Carraway, the participating yet detached observer of life, who admired the dreamer's intensity but regretted his fatal flaws.
Ironically, The Great Gatsby actually predated the term "American dream" according to critic Jeffrey Louis Decker, who notes that the concept "was not put into print until 1931." In that sense, The Great Gatsby's underlying narrative marks the birth of a myth, one that shaped the definition of success for future American society. Scholar Tara Carter writes,
Fitzgerald writes about the traditional white American dream which is born out of capitalistic ideals, and, thus, reliant on material acquisitions and attaining high social status.
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