The Great Gatsby is a bold and damning social commentary of America
             which critiques its degeneration from a nation of infinite hope and
             opportunity to a place of moral destitution. The novel is set during the
             Roaring Twenties, an era of outrageous excesses, wild lavish parties and
             sadly, an era of regret and lost potential. As the audience, they take us
             on a journey guided and influenced by the moral voice of Nick Carraway, a
             character who is "simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the
             inexhaustible variety of life." Nevertheless, when Carraway rejects the
             East, returning to the comparatively secure morality of his ancestral West,
             we realize that gaiety was merely a thin facade, and that behind it lurked
             a hideous ugliness that penetrated to the essence of the human spirit.
             It was during the Jazz generation that the common man, a man no
             different to James Gatz, pursued the glowing icons of his age. As religion
             gradually faded away, it was money that had become an object of veneration.
             The desire to become wealthy was parceled in the form of the American Dream,
             a savage ideal that was fundamentally flawed from the outset. The fallacy
             of the American Dream cursed all who aspired to its promises while the
             upper class enjoyed the luxuries that accompanied their status, exploiting
             those below them as a means to reaffirm their superiority.
             Consequently, James Gatz, under the influence of characters like
             Dan Cody and Meyer Wolfshiem, underwent a self-transformation to become
             Gatsby, a new man who was founded on his "Plutonic conception of himself."
             As the embodiment of idealism and innocence, Gatsby strives to create order
             and purpose yet he is faced with hostile surroundings and thus his attempts
             to are futile. All Gatsby wants is to seize the green light in his fingers
             but light is intangible, and like Gatsby's dream, it will always remain
             beyond his grasp. Gatsby is trapped in...