“The American Dream has become a death sentence of toil, consumerism, and fatalism: a fire sale in which the best of the human spirit is traded for comfort, obedience, and trinkets. It is unequivocally absurd.” –Zoltan Istvan. In both This Side of Paradise and This Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald comments on the corruption of the American dream. In the beautiful text and prose of his first and second novels respectively, Fitzgerald mocks the frightening nightmare that has become the American "Dream." The first follows the story of the fall of a rich and promising young man struggling to achieve romantic success, who joins the army along the way, to a poor alcoholic struggling to achieve romantic and commercial success. The latter is more or less the same tragic story told over and over again by F. Scott. Corruption and the failure of the American dream are the main and fundamental theme in general in all of Fitzgerald's works. In his writings he draws on his harsh reality. Furthermore, there are three major topics rightly worthy of note for in-depth discussion found in his thematic attack on the American Dream. The first of these includes the illusion of said dream compared to its actual reality. The next one concerns the actual transition from the classic American dream to the dream that became a nightmare. And finally, the final argument revolves around Fitzgerald's personal commentary attached to all of his stories, as he not-so-subtly draws from his real life. He had only one point to prove: the only thing that manages to drive away love and happiness is, in fact, money and the materialistic consumerism that it entails. The American dream is divided into two parts, both equally c.... .. middle of paper...... the upper class is pure happiness. Anthony and Gloria Patch are very wealthy and repeatedly parade around one exuberant party after another, living "the life." However, once again you would be wrong to believe that happiness can only be found in alcoholic binges of promiscuity and shopping sprees. This is the perfect demonstration of how vivid the picture F. Scott paints of the corruption of the American dream in favor of materialistic ideals. The population was enchanted by the promise that more and more things would make their lives easier and therefore happier. This is where reality comes into play. The reality of the American dream is that this is impossible. It cannot be fully realized. This is what the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald attempt to convey to the world. Happiness cannot be achieved through the gain of material goods or wealth.