The Great Gatsby: A Timeless Story of Youth

I went to see "The Great Gatsby" on Broadway when I turned 30 earlier this year (to officially close out my "roaring twenties"), and it struck me how relevant a story written 100 years ago could be to our lives today.

I hated this F. Scott Fitzgerald novel when I had to read it in high school. I felt like I had just read a pointless telenovela. People were lying and scheming and cheating and killing for seemingly no reason, and the ending was so abrupt and disappointing. And in discussing it in class, I could not, for the life of me, wrap my head around the fact that the green light represented the American Dream. There was no way I was going to understand this book at that time in my life.

Just a couple of years later, the 2013 film adaptation came out, and I loved it! The story made a little more sense played out in front of me on the big screen, and I loved the glitz and glamor of it all! The 1920s became one of my favorite decades. But I was still only enjoying it on a surface level because I was really still a kid.

This story has so many timeless layers to it, I could write a whole book on the symbolism, the metaphors, and the different lenses to view the story through.

The layer I want to focus on today is the disillusionment of young adulthood. Nick Carraway's story is one of returning from a war, starting your career all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and getting hit hard by reality.

He learns quickly that the rich live in a different, careless world with different, careless rules. He saw that his family and old friends he'd once admired were now people he had grown apart from. And he watched helplessly as Gatsby struggled and sacrificed and put himself in dangerous situations to achieve an impossible goal, with a delusional sense of hope and nostalgia, only to die a senseless death and have no one care in the end.

Throughout the story, Nick is "within and without" this Alice-in-Wonderland-esque adventure, getting wrapped up in the insanity of it all while also observing everything from the sidelines, fascinated and repulsed at the same time. It's an experience most people in their twenties will have as they venture out into the real world, especially considering today's political climate, the rocky economy, social media, and society's obsession with nostalgia.

Is the American Dream a myth? Is it better to live a quiet and peaceful life than to strive for more and more success?