I remember reading this back to back in English class with A Farewell to Arms. Which is interesting because they both have opposing themes. The latter is a very romantic story about the importance of true love in a shitty world, while The Great Gatsby shows why romance and true love is complete bullshit.

One of my probably harebrained ideas about human nature is that we, to greater or lesser extents between different individuals, seek chaos, strife, failure, etc. Not uniquely and not solely, and usually not to a greater extent than we seek success, order, harmony, etc. But we do have a weird animal need for discord. So it’s interesting to consider those two books against each other. In the war story, there was literal chaos and discord and fear and horror all around, so the characters tried to find an actual love. In Gatsby the characters are comfortable, taken care of, safe, nigh-untouchable by real problems, so they chase a “love” that is chaotic and ruinous: both Jay and Daisy know full well that if they go for one another it will wreck multiple lives, as it ultimately does. They were just so bored with the good life that their dumbass animal brains sought discord.

I dunno, just one semi-articulate person’s hypothesis really!