You can’t repeat the past.
An incorruptible dream
Gatsby built all of his wealth and status in service of reuniting with his lost love, Daisy.
Gatsby spent years hoping for a happy future with Daisy, but this future always receded into the distance. Nick claims that Gatsby's hopes for the future were elusive because they didn't relate to the future at all.
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The emptiness of their dreams and values
The hopelessness of the American dream
Myrtle
The lower class characters – Gatsby, Myrtle, and George – are thus essentially sacrificed for the moral failings of the upper class characters of Tom and Daisy.
