The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays American society in the 1920s, after the end of World War I, a decade of unprecedented economic prosperity. In the book, Fitzgerald criticizes the loss of moral values ​​and the degradation of American society, symbolizing it as a “valley of ashes, a fantastic farm where. . . the ashes take the form of houses, chimneys, and rising smoke” (Fitzgerald 23). Through the characters of the book, Fitzgerald reveals the American dream behind its dazzling veil of happiness and success, and characterizes its true form: a mad, desperate and hopeless rush towards something unattainable, transforming a once innocent dream into a broken nightmare, destroying everything in its wake. The book is set in Long Island, New York. During the 1920s, New York was especially prosperous and attracted many wealthy people and people who wanted to become prosperous. Nick Carraway was one of them. Originally from Minnesota, he moved to New York to learn the bond business. Through Nick, a self-proclaimed "honest man" who is "inclined to reserve all judgment, a habit which has opened to him many inquisitive natures" (Fitzgerald 1), Fitzgerald narrates the book and presents readers with his views on money and society. In the beginning, Fitzgerald tricks the reader into believing in the illusion of the American dream only to tear it to pieces later. At the beginning of the book, shortly after moving to New York, Nick meets his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, who he will gradually get. to know more intimately. Gatsby embodies the American dream. Once a poor boy from North Dakota, he slowly rises in society and becomes extraordinarily wealthy. On weekends he throws lavish parties where “the air is filled with chatter and laughter… middle of paper… never achieved, fate has already deemed it impossible. Nick laments that Gatsby “did not know that [his dream] was already behind him, somewhere in that vast darkness beyond the city” (Fitzgerald 180), concluding the futility of the American dream. Through Nick's reflections on Gatsby's life and the people in it, Fitzgerald reveals that America has become the corrupt "valley of ashes," no longer allowing it to hide behind its veneer of glitz and glamour. Fitzgerald reinforces the hollowness of the 1920s and the destructiveness of blindly pursuing the “American Dream” and the false happiness that comes with it. Instead, revealing the unpleasant truth. The Great Gatsby is the story of the double-edged sword that is the “American Dream”; while it uplifts society and brings happiness, it self-destructs and brings materialism and corruption.