The American 1920’s centered itself on the ideal American Dream. The era of swing and jive brought a false hope of happiness to the growing middle class. Idealized by society, the concept never really helped the Americans achieve their ultimate happiness. Instead it leads to an impractical sense of false hope. Most Americans aspired to rise to the top in happiness and self-reliance, but ultimately ended up living a life based more on materialistic items, this distorted the true meaning of the American dream. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses opulent lifestyles, superficial characters, and intangible symbols in order to exemplify the distortion of reality in the American Dream. Gargantuan houses, lavish meals, and high-priced clothing were the center of what was thought to bring the ultimate happiness. The east and west egg brought a new ideal to materialism in the 1920’s, old money and new money, causing more problems than happiness. Gatsby lives a crazy lifestyle with a huge house and numerous luxurious items contouring the problems more than happiness. Gatsby lives a crazy lifestyle with a huge house and numerous luxury items contouring the view of the American Dream. Joyce A. Rowe writes in the Delusions of American Idealism “His vision represents a kind of aestheticized materialism- the pursuit of a grail which conjoins wealth and power with all the beauty, vitality, and wonder of the world.” The American dream, supposedly based on happiness becomes distorted by the idea of materialism brought into it contours people’s views of the reality of the American Dream. The idea of material items distorted people’s view from the true American dream because instead of focusing on the happiness and a well life people began to lose themselves in the idea that they had to have a lavish lifestyle in order to live a happy life. Gatsby throws large parties and many people attend, but truly Gatsby has no real friends. The last time Nick sees Gatsby he tells him “They’re a rotten crowd. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 162). Nick believed that Gatsby was a good man but put himself down to be a part of that lifestyle. In William Fahey