The Jazz Age was a golden age in America, a time of excitement and carefreeness, the entire nation obsessed with good looks and from money. As a reputation as rich became more important than ever, Americans became increasingly materialistic and yearned for the “good life” – a life with big houses, fancy cars, and lavish parties. The highest level of success came not from a hard work ethic like the old days, but rather from this new, flashy American Dream, a dream focused neither on happiness nor satisfaction, but solely on achieving wealth. Americans mistakenly associated ultimate happiness with the possession of money, and often intertwined the two, reducing the old American dream to nothing more than a corrupt vision of wealth. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald exposed the birth of this cheap, gilded, materialistic American dream, as well as the empty lives it created. Illustrating both the incessant dissatisfaction and immoral ignorance of wealthy East-Egg socialites during this flamboyant jazz age, Fitzgerald demonstrated how money can destroy and distort the wondrous purity of a simple dream. Fitzgerald highlighted the extent to which money can corrupt a dream. in the character of Jay Gatsby. A young Gatsby, constantly improving himself, had always been working towards some kind of goal. “Jimmy was destined to get ahead…he was always great at it” (Fitzgerald 173). Not influenced by money at the time, Gatsby's motives were pure. He worked to accomplish something, and when he did, he didn't rest, effortlessly moving on to another part of his life that required perfection. Gatsby's perseverance and determination to improve were characteristic of old dreamers: people who defined success not as wealth, ... half of paper ... The Great Gatsby beautifully documents the death of the pure American dream in the 1920s. , when wealth and materialistic attitudes began to replace the pure ideals of success and genuine content. Because of Gatsby's dissatisfaction with the unfulfilling life that money offered him and because of Tom and Daisy's immoral recklessness caused by their selfishness, Fitzgerald accused the rich of killing the old American dream and creating a materialistic society that rarely she was satisfied with what they had. Fitzgerald blamed the destruction of the old American dream on money and those who obsessively worshiped it, exposing the nation's open willingness to give money the power to control and corrupt American lives. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 2004th ed. New York: Sons of Charles Scribner, 1925. 1-180. Press.