The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is, at first glance, a disenchanted love story between a man and a woman that can never be together because of social status. The main theme, however, is less idealistic in the end. The Great Gatsby focuses on the 1920s as a time when incomparable wealth and material excess contributed to the decline of the American dream.

The corruption of the American dream ultimately stems from the "lost generation;" the disillusioned youth of the World War I era as well as the rise of the stock market after the war. The nation's increased wealth and self-indulgence led to the outrageous parties like those found in The Great Gatsby. Every Saturday night, Gatsby throws a party with loud jazz music and on the first night he goes to a party, Nick proposes he was "one of the few guests who had actually...