The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been interpreted by many different people to mean many different things. The novel, published in 1925, during the economic boom in the United States, creates a portrait of the Roaring Twenties. Although Fitzgerald did not know what would 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 pursuit of wealth and status can ruin your life. 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 lead to unintended consequences. The 1920s were a time of great wealth in the United States and people were just looking to get money, legally or illegally. Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby is the ideal example of a person who attempted to get rich quick during the Jazz Age. He was born poor and earned his wealth through alleged smuggling. Fitzgerald wrote, “Americans, though they have occasionally wanted to be serfs, have always been obstinate in wanting to be farmers” (Fitzgerald 88). Gatsby, however, didn't seem to care about money until Daisy came into his life. He, then, realized that Daisy would never marry him unless she had money and great status that she could get from 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 achieved when she married Tom, she wanted nothing else. Gatsby, still obsessed with reclaiming Daisy, hoped that if she were worth…half the paper…too much time with a single dream” (Fitzgerald161). The desire to desire something excessively is unhealthy and usually leads to unwanted 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. trouble. Fitzgerald wrote about how people have a natural tendency to desire wealth and status, how wealth and status cannot and will not make you happy, and how the desire for wealth and status can lead to unintended consequences. The Roaring Twenties were an exceptional time for the majority of the United States population; however, all good things must come to an end. With the end of the Roaring Twenties, so did Gatsby's dreams. Works Cited Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004.