It is also a great meditation on several themes that have a lot of meaning for me, personally: the artificial construct that is identity, the need for authenticity and, of course, a man who simply cannot let go of the past or the dream of the girl he once knew.
In many ways, Gatsby presents an excellent metaphor for young men who get caught up in the player or Pick-Up Artist lifestyle, trying to emulate the life that they think others are leading and only finding the reality to be vastly different 1 in the end. Gatsby presents himself as a larger-than-life individual: his mansion is unbelievably lavish in its splendor, he drives a flashy, custom made car 2 , he dresses impeccably in Saville Rowe suits and his parties… oh his parties are beyond extravagant.
He has a literal carte blanche in Manhattan, able to get cops to look the other way as he speeds recklessly through the crowded city streets. He wants only the best and most extravagant of everything.
He takes Nick with him to the speakeasy in the barbershop and glides through like he owns the place, past prize-winning boxers and the Police Commissioner to a seat front and center. And yet…. The reason why Gatsby is so extravagant, so cartoonish in his ostentatiousness is because this is literally how he always imagined how the rich lived their lives.
They believe that women are status-obsessed, hypergamous social climbers and convince themselves that all women are constantly trying to make men jump through hoops to prove their worthiness. Many PUA systems — especially any that have The Mystery Method in their institutional DNA — are based around this idea: that you have to present yourself as a very specific type of person in order to get women. In fact, many of these young men may have had their own case of Oneitis in the past and they hope that by learning these techniques, they can reinvent themselves and finally, finally win the heart of The One That Got Away.
