The ideal of the "American dream" has not changed much over the last century. The dream is a uniquely American phenomenon. It represents a nebulous concept exemplified by a set of American values. Many believe that wealth and success are the means to achieve this paradigm. When stability, security and family values ​​also become part of the suburban lifestyle, the American dream is close to becoming a reality. Nick Carraway, the heartfelt narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, analyzes the legitimacy of this principle through the inevitable downfall of Jay Gatsby. The novel is set during the Roaring Twenties in two sophisticated and wealthy neighborhoods on Long Island. The people in these neighborhoods embody the superficiality and arrogance that distorts the American dream. Fitzgerald uses this environment and its people to examine the negative attributes of the American dream. Fitzgerald portrays two neighborhoods, East Egg and West Egg, to show the slowly evolving corruption of the American dream. East Egg is home to old-money sophisticates, while West Egg welcomes less hip "nouveau riche" types. The apparent differences cause the two neighborhoods to develop an apparent rivalry. The different neighborhoods are connected through the characters that intertwine with each other. Both Carraway and his wealthy, but enigmatic neighbor, Jay Gatsby, live in West Egg. Carraway lives in a modest bungalow, overshadowed by Gatsby's extravagant estate. In his magnificent manor, Gatsby indulges in an excessive and over-the-top lifestyle that includes many lavish parties: “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whispers, the champagne, and the stars” (43). Gatsby sees his prodigious wealth and stature as the means to win back his one true love, Daisy Buchanan. Daisy's aura of wealth and privilege - her many dresses, her perfect home, her lack of fear or worry - attract Gatsby's attention and gradual obsession. Gatsby realizes that his ability to hope made Daisy seem ideal to him. He doesn't realize that he is chasing an image that has no true or lasting value. This realization would have made the world seem entirely different to Gatsby, like "a new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, wandered fortuitously hither and thither" (169). Daisy and her unfaithful husband Tom live in a large East Egg mansion directly across the street from Gatsby's estate. In this environment, Gatsby's fate with Daisy becomes his individual version of the American dream.