Scott Fitzgerald published the book in 1925 using the actual time in history, the Roaring Twenties to help create Gatsby's character. Gatsby's participation in the bootlegging business, the extravagant parties he throws, and the wealthy, careless lifestyle the Buchanans represent, are all vivid pictures of that time frame. Fitzgerald's portrayal of the time period creates lifelike characters in the novel. By creating these personable characters, Fitzgerald is allowing the reader to associate himself with Gatsby, and letting him use his imagination, so that in the end, the reader can decide if the Great Gatsby is truly 'great'. Fitzgerald allows the reader to incorporate the story into their own past and past relationships, ultimately putting the reader in Gatsby's shoes and seeing what the reader would do in the same situation.

             It raises a great debate; should people live their lives yearning for something in the past? Is it acceptable to live one's whole life on a past experience or memory hoping to reach back in time and pull the past to the present? Is it healthy? .

             Gatsby's tragedy is not his death. It is the death of his dream of utopia. He discovers that Daisy's gold is money, not her soul. Nick describes the New World that the storyteller faces the night he lays his dreams to rest "material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about . . ." (169). Gatsby must have looked out upon a world he thought loved him, that he thought valued things like dreams and happiness, and the shock at what he found there, at what he found both in the emptiness of Daisy and the indifferent machine of the city were what killed all that he had ever hoped for. .

             Gatsby doesn't understand time; he wants to skew it as he skews his life and the lives of those around him. Gatsby believes, until the very end, that "it eluded us then, but no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther .