The Great Gatsby

[PeroK]

Just out of interest, I asked Google AI what was the theme of the novel The Great Gatsby. This is what it said:

The main theme of
The Great Gatsby is a critique of the American Dream, showing its corruption through the pursuit of wealth and the decay of morality in the 1920s. Other major themes include the destructive power of wealth and class, the impossibility of recreating the past, and the hollowness of superficial materialism.

Critique of the American Dream

• The novel questions whether the dream of a better life through hard work is truly attainable for everyone.
• Gatsby's story, a rags-to-riches tale, ends in tragedy, suggesting that wealth alone cannot buy happiness or social acceptance from the old money elite.

Wealth, Class, and materialism

• The pursuit of wealth and class is central, with characters' identities and motivations shaped by their financial status.
• Material possessions are used as symbols of success, but the novel reveals the moral emptiness that can lie beneath lavish displays of wealth.

 

[Klystron]

That synopses might have been written by journalist Jack Reed; that is, if Reed had not been buried in the Kremlin five years before F. Scott Fitzgerald published Gatsby. Also odd, no mention of Jazz Age literature nor characters such as Daisy and narrator cousin though the question asked for theme rather than narrative or plot.

The didactic repetitious response squeezes any juice out of what some consider the great 20th Century novel. Hardly entices one to read the novel or watch several good flicks based on "Gatsby".