The Nation as a Whole

Jay Gatsby and the American hero, Benjamin Franklin, despite seemingly different, have a lot in common. Both are self-made men - invented literally out of thin air. On top of this both seem to be magicians- the kind that are cons. Benjamin Franklin with his many personas - Silence Dogood and Anthony Afterwit- seems to be the very drawing board for Jay "Gatz" Gatsby. The only difference is that Gatsby had a more dark side, whereas Franklin wanted to better society.
These parallels that are drawn between the two men serve, only to show how the American dream has lasted beyond the 1700s and well into the 1920s. Fitzgerald drew from Franklin to show how the "American Dream" has become and ingrained part of society. It is always lurking about. Over the course of the novel, Gatsby, like Franklin, comes to represent the nation. Gatsby represents the promising idea that one can  successfully reinvent oneself. Although Fitzgerald writes about this optimism, he definitely does not share it. Unlike Franklin's embodiment of the self made man, Gatsby's ultimate death marks the boundaries of the corruptness of the American dream.
The Great Gatsby, seems to epitomize the "American Dream", while yet displaying its hideous corruptness. Gatsby carries all the fraudulent connotations of this 1920 American Dream which Fitzgerald has seen fit to compare to Franklin's position as the epitome of this ideal dream. Gatsby and Franklin together form the nation - both ideal and opulent to corrupt and decayed on the inside.