work. He parlayed his luck into a fortune by servicing the desires of the rich, through bootlegging. While he may have worked hard, his business was illegal. Gatsby acquires the outward symbols but does not have solid values. His unrequited love is for a shallow rich girl. Wilson, the unsuccessful hard worker, becomes the instrument of Gatsby's demise but pays with his own life as well.

On the one hand, The Great Gatsby represents the American Dream in the 1920s (a phrase not coined until much later) as the potential to succeed in striving, to better one's financial prospects and abilities, and to climb to the level of wealth held by "old money" of long-established wealthy families. Gatsby embodies this as he strives to attain a level that will be acceptable to Daisy.

On the other hand, The Beautiful and the Damned represents the American Dream as the desire for choking indulgence in all things physical that incline toward physical, mental and spiritual dissipation in the partaker. Gloria and Anthony seem to display their digust with this "dream" through their rebellion.

The pursuit of the "American Dream" is a recurring theme in Fitzgerald’s canon. But what does this phrase mean, exactly? Scholars point to the definition as it was first publicly laid out by James Truslow Adams, in his 1931 book Epic of America. To quote the author:

The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. . . . [It is not] a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.

How does this concept pertain to Fitzgerald’s second novel? The Beautiful and Damned, it’s worth pointing out, is widely considered to be loosely autobiographical. The protagonist, Anthony Patch, is a stand-in for the author himself, and Patch's wife, Gloria, represents Zelda Fitzgerald. In the story, Anthony and Gloria are blessed by wealth and good fortune—they're socialites, with plenty of money and party invitations—but they're lazy, too. They don't have to work for their privilege. They were born into it. And though they seem to be living the dream, the endless stream of cocktails and social engagements isn't exactly good for them. Gloria picks fights; Anthony turns, more and more, to heavy drinking, failing to commit to any occupation as he waits around for the massive inheritance he's in line to receive from his grandfather.

There's a melancholy edge to this novel. What are two young, beautiful, and talented people supposed to do when they have nothing to do—when there's no "American Dream" to pursue because they already have everything they could want? The Beautiful and Damned explores that uncomfortable ennui and the human condition in general: ambition, greed, our propensity for boredom, and the need for a purposeful life.