Social standing and the lack of ultimate meaning thereof is a central theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. Nick Carraway, the book's insightful narrator, is both repulsed and drawn to the "carnivalesque" lifestyle of the rich and/or famous residents in East and West Egg.

Jay Gatsby, who was born James Gatz to a poor, uneducated family in the Midwest, re-invents himself, trying to earn the love of a socialite who has neither the ability, nor the depth character required to love anyone other than herself and said "social standing."

Five years prior to the book's setting, Gatsby meets Daisy while on leave from the Army. He believes himself to be madly in love with her, although Nick sees that "love" for what it truly is: lust, not for a young woman, but for the lifestyle her existence represents to him. Gatsby is much like an awkward schoolboy, smitten with the homecoming queen of the senior class, oblivious to the fact that she murmurs the same promises of affection to all hapless young men who cross her threshold.

Gatsby's insatiable quest to amass enough wealth to impress Daisy draws him into unseemly occupations with questionable business associates, who strongly resemble some of the early mafia kingpins who began their rise to power during Prohibition. Indeed, a rather interesting irony is the fact that the book takes place during Prohibition, let the alcohol flows as freely through the books pages as the blood from Gatsby's mortal wound at the end of the book.

The lack of scrupulousness of business associates and personal acquaintances of Gatsby's continues to trouble Nick, yet goes seemingly unobserved by Gatsby himself. Equally vexing to Nick is the fact that despite all of the lavish parties Gatsby throws, no one he invites seems to care who he is, or how he acquired his wealth. The "friendliness" of the crowd is for one purpose only, and that is to satisfy their carnal needs at Gatsby's expense. They merely show up at the right time, drink his booze, eat his food, engage in drunken brawls, and puke on his lawn, verifying Nick's growing conviction that money does not equal "substance" of anything truly valuable.

Avariciousness and seeming lack of ethical morays are hallmarks of "Gatsby," and Nick's revulsion of both mirrors Fitzgerald's own distaste for the cupidity of the age. And symbolically, the "Great Gatsby's" love for Daisy proves to shadow the elusiveness of the Great American Dream.

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