Published in 1925, the novel The Great Gatsby was considered to be a failure initially and viewed as

one of the greatest works in American literature presently. The novel, inspired by a relationship

between F. Scott Fitzgerald and a young socialite, captured the spirit of the Jazz Age, the wild and

glittering parties common in the elite society of the time and the spirit of the roaring twenties, a

decade which was marked by the end of the Spanish flu pandemic and the World War 1. World War 1

killed millions, both soldiers in combat and civilians. The Spanish Flu pandemic death toll was even

higher – an estimated number of between 20 up to 50 million people, most of them young and

healthy, died after contracting the virus. The novel depicts the restlessness of the generation of people

who survived two cataclysmic events, the society grappled by profound changes and the

disappointment and disillusionment in the American Dream. The article was written in June 2021,

during the summer when most countries joyously greeted the ease of COVID-19 restrictive measures

and the rise of hope after vaccination rollouts started in many countries. As we reread The Great

Gatsby, we might ask ourselves about the future of our post-pandemic world. Will we learn

something from the past? Can we expect the roaring 2020s? Will we see the same joy, the same

recklessness and the carpe diem of the roaring 1920s? Will we return to the pre-pandemic normal –

the consumerism, the lack of consideration for the environment, the greediness which brought us here

to begin with?