Analysis of symbolism in The Great Gatsby and its representation of 1920s America.

The story of The Great Gatsby takes place over one summer in 1922 in Long Island. On the surface it is a love story with a tragic ending but if one looks deeper into the novel's symbols and themes, one finds that it deals with larger, more serious social and existential issues. The Great Gatsby is a symbolic criticism of 1920s America and the corruption of the American dream by material excess and moral decay.
Fitzgerald portrays this decline by the fate and interactions of various characters typical of that place and era. Gatsby lives in a huge mansion on the "West Egg" of Long Island,…