The American Dream in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby The 1920s were a time of partying, drinking and fun. Many aspired to be rich and prosperous and desired to be part of the upper class. Although this was the dream of many Americans of that time, it seemed almost impossible to join this social class unless you were born into it. Even those who worked hard to succeed and support themselves and their families were not accepted into this elite group of men and women, despite the fact that they too most likely had it all. This was a recurring theme of this decade and only a few people knew how impossible this dream was. Even though some managed to reach the top, they still failed to achieve true happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of these wise people and in The Great Gatsby he satirizes the American dream by creating characters from the new money, old money and working class, who fail miserably to achieve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . New York area new money settled primarily in West Egg, Long Island. This is where Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, and Jay Gatsby live. Gatsby is a self-made man who "was born out of his Platonic conception of himself" (95). Nick describes him as an invented man such as "a boy of seventeen would probably invent, and to this conception he remained faithful to the end" (95). This idea of ​​a self-made man was very popular in this era. Many people, especially those from the lower social classes, wanted more than anything to become rich and be part of high society. In Gatsby's case, his motivation is Daisy, a girl from Louisville with whom he fell in love. When Gatsby realized that he wasn't good enough for her because s...... half of the paper...... belongs. She can never truly leave this place and, even more ironically, she is killed by what she longs to be accepted by and separate from, the aristocracy. The society of the 1920s was masked by drinking, partying and extravagant waste of money, but underneath there was misery in all the lessons. Despite the variety of income, inheritance and economics, "there was no difference among men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well" and many men of this time were ill with depression (118). Fitzgerald makes it seem like it was virtually impossible to be happy in these times because no one could get what they really wanted. It describes this era in a cynical but historically accurate way and effectively depicts the misery of the decade and the failure to achieve the American Dream..