Picture this, a person graduates from high school with honors, goes to college and graduates at the top of his/her class. After college, he/she is offered a job in the field he/she wants with an annual salary of about $400,000 a year. He/she marries the person of his/her dreams, has two children and moves into a large, elegant house. Forty years later that person retires with a pension and lives the rest of his/her life in luxury. This is the American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald had this dream and worked his entire life to fulfill it, with no avail. Fitzgerald was a sensitive young man who idolized wealth and luxury. He fell in love with a beautiful young woman named Zelda while stationed at a military camp in the South. Several years after meeting Zelda, he reached a high enough social standard that she agreed to marry him. Shortly after the wedding, Fitzgerald published his first big novel. He became a celebrity and fell into a wild, reckless lifestyle of parties and decadence. Fitzgerald thought he had achieved his dream. Unfortunately, his beautiful wife was the first part of his dream to crumble. In 1930, Zelda had her first of many mental breakdowns. S

As one can see, people throughout the Twentieth Century have thought nothing of the modern day conveniences they now have. The same is still true in today's society, but people seem to be more aware of luxuries than people of the '20's.

There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. On Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before. (Fitzgerald 89)

The once-rich society flapper, with whom Raft falls in love, is roughed up by him and told that she is just 'another dame with a skirt on.' The only difference between her and a cheap girl is how she manicures her nails. (Allen 87)

From the above quote, one should notice the bareness of the garage, and how eager George is, as he sees potential customers approaching. Although George does not receive much business from Tom Buchanan, he is very courteous to him. He believes Tom might send his "rich" friends to become clients of his. Stanley Lebergott of Wesleyan University explains in the book, Americans: An Economic Record, the distribution of wealth in the 1920s.

The previous quote shows how Gatsby went through much turmoil just to make it seem as though he had enough money to do as he wished. In the upper class, one person would try to outdo another by buying gifts that are more lavish and by throwing parties that are more extravagant than their friends last one. Robert Douglass wrote an article in 1938 about society at that time. In it, he described how people took so much for granted. The following is an excerpt from his article:

Marc, David. "Fitzgerald, F(rancis) Scott (Key)" Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation: N.P.

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Approximate Word count = 2145
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)