Francis Scott Fitzgerald depicts the American dream, originally a set of goals including freedom, colonization, and an honest life with the possibility of upward social and economic mobility achieved through hard work, corrupted and debased by the selfish materialism of the 1920s, an era that Fitzgerald characterizes primarily by its greed and lavish hedonism, in his famous novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald, in The Great Gatsby, seeks to discredit the supposed purity of the American dream and the belief that anyone can achieve it through hard work. Instead, he argues that the dream is a mere illusion, so greatly altered from its original form that its pursuers aspire to and achieve nothing more than the accumulation of hollow material goods and empty pleasures. Fitzgerald critiques the American dream through his characterizations of Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby, and the people who attend Gatsby's extravagant parties uninvited. A minor character in The Great Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the Valley of Ashes with her poor husband. George Wilson, represents the degeneration of the once cherished American ideals of hard work and honesty as Myrtle attempts to rise up the social ladder by becoming the mistress of the wealthy Tom Buchanan. She lucidly embodies the free morals and hedonism of the 1920s, because, when Tom visits her, Myrtle, in front of her husband, approaches Tom, “[looks] at him red in the eyes, [wet] her lips » and tries to act in the most sensual way possible in order to attract his favor and his interest (Fitzgerald 30). Additionally, she frequently lies to her husband, telling him that she plans to visit her sister when in reality, she is leaving her house to have sex with Tom, who lures Myrtle in with...... in the middle of paper. ....ald argues that the 1920s, an era of greed, corrupted the American dream, its ideal of hard work, and Americans. In conclusion, through his portrait of Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the party people, Fitzgerald illustrates that the American dream is a mere illusion, so corrupted by the people of the 1920s that it is barely recognizable . It reveals the superficiality of the American dream – how, beneath its glittering, golden surface, lurk greed and deceit. Works cited by Fitzgerald, F. Scott and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print. Smiljanić, Siniša. “The American Dream in The Great Gatsby.” The American dream in The Great Gatsby. Np, April 2011. Web. February 16, 2014. “The Great Gatsby: Awakening the American Dream.” Inhabit the text. University of California Press, nd Web. February 20. 2014.