Final answer:
F. Scott Fitzgerald showed the decline of the American Dream in the 1920s through "The Great Gatsby", where material excess and the pursuit of success lead to moral decay, reflecting the period's extravagance, which he also experienced in his personal life.
Step-by-step explanation:
F. Scott Fitzgerald depicted the decline of the American Dream in the 1920s through his novel "The Great Gatsby", where the pursuit of wealth and pleasure leads to moral decay and disillusionment. In this novel, Fitzgerald paints a vivid portrait of the Roaring Twenties, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, and bootleg kings. Through the tragic figure of Jay Gatsby, who lives a profligate life, the narrative shows how the American Dream of self-made success and wealth is corrupted by the reality of unattainable desires and the ruthless pursuit of wealth at any cost. Fitzgerald's own life, often squandering the money made from his works, mirrored the decadence he described. The pervasive mood and the failures of the characters in his stories reflect on the larger societal experimentation with new freedoms that ultimately revealed the hollowness of the era's material success.