了不起的盖茨比The Great Gatsby

The Disillusion of American Dream inThe Great Gatsby*****Supervisor*****School of Foreign Languages,###########December, 2013ContentsAbstract.........................................................................................I. Introduction to Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby (4)A. Fitzgerald’s Life and His Works (5)B. Social and Historical Context of The Great Gatsby (6)C. The Main Content of The Great Gatsby (7)III. The Disillusion of The Dreams (8)A. The Disillusion of The American Dream (8)1. The Definition (8)2. The Development (9)3. The Corruption (9)B. The Disillusion of Gatsby’s Dream (10)1. The Fortune Dream (10)2. The Love Dream (12)V. The Fundamental Reasons (13)VI. Conclusion (14)The Disillusion of American Dream inThe Great GatsbyAbstractF. Scott. Fitzgerald (1896-1940), as one of the most famous and greatest writer of the 1920s, is regarded as a representative of the “Jazz Age” --- an age between the end of the First World War and the outbreak of the Great Depression. The exploration of moral emptiness and hypocrisy beneath the Jazz Age, together with the stylistic language brilliance of the novel ensures Fitzgerald’s position in American literature. Owing to its extraordinary literary merits, Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby is listed among the most notable twentieth-century American novels. This thesis analyzes Fitzgerald’s life and his works, social and historical context of The Great Gatsby, the main content of The Great Gatsby, the disillusion of the American Dream and Gatsby’s dream, and the fundamental reasons, exposing the social status of American Jazz Age.Key words: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, American Dream, Gatsby, disillusion论了《不起的盖茨比》中美国梦的破灭内容摘要弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德（1986--1940），作为19世纪20年代最具盛名的作家之一，被公认为是美国爵士时代（第一次世界大战后至大危机之前的一个时期）的代表作家。

对爵士时代下道德空虚和伪善的探索，以及他独特的小说语言文体使他在美国文学史中占重要地位。

由于其非凡的文学价值，菲茨杰拉德的《了不起的盖茨比》被列为二十世纪美国最著名的小说之一。

这篇论文分析了菲茨杰拉德的生活和主要作品，《了不起的盖茨比》的社会和历史环境及其主要内容，美国梦及盖茨比的梦想的破灭和其根本原因，揭露了美国爵士时代的社会现状。

关键词：菲茨杰拉德，了不起的盖茨比，美国梦，梦想，破灭I. Introduction to Fitzgerald and The Great GatsbyA. Fitzgerald’s Life and His WorksTo an upper-middle-class family, Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota in1896. He came from Mid-West and his family was considered socially prominent and actually poor. With the financial aid of his mother’s side, he finished his prep study and to Princeton. Then he was once commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, Alabama. While at a country club, Fitzgerald met and fell in love with Zelda Sayre (1900–1948), the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court justice. The war ended in 1918, and Fitzgerald moved to New York City hoping to marry Zelda who accepted his marriage proposal at first, but at last she break off the engagement. Fitzgerald returned to his parents' house in St. Paul, to revise The Romantic Egoist, recasting as This Side of Paradise. The revised novel was accepted in the fall of 1919 and he became a best-seller, so he got a fame and commercial success. He returned to Zelda and married her. With a series of success of his writing, the couple had a high standard life.It is the most influential decade of Fitzgerald’s development in the 1920sin Paris. Fitzgerald made several excursions to Europe, mostly Paris and the French Riviera, and became friends with many members of the American expatriate community in Paris, notably Ernest Hemingway. Like most professional authors at the time, Fitzgerald supplemented his income by writing short stories for such magazines as “The Saturday Evening Post”, “Collier's Weekly”, and “Esquire”, and sold his stories and novels to Hollywood studios. (Buckley 172)The decade influences Fitzgerald and his writing a lot, just as Arthur Mizener observed that “Scott Fitzgerald had an imaginative sense of the experience of the 1920’s, who was indeed a writer so closely related to his time. He was in danger of being wholly absorbed by his sense of it and of writing books that would not survive it.”( Eble Kenneth, 1973:100)In 1925 Fitzgerald managed to complete The Great Gatsby. It gave him a critical comment and commercial failure. (Chang 282) However, everything changed after the first breakdown in 1930. Fitzgerald sank into alcoholism and was troubled by financial and psychological problems caused by his wife's luxury and jealousy of his writing. Tender Is the Night(1934) was completed around that time. He spent the rest of his life writing stories and screenplay. In1940, he died of a heart attack when he was only forty-four.B. Social and Historical Context of The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby was published in 1925 and did not receive many positive responses from critics and readers until 1950s. Throughout the 1920s, Americans were living in one of the eras of the greatest change. In the territory of the American Literature, there were a great number of great writers with their distinguished works, such as the works of T. S. Eliot, Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and their generation expressed the spirit of that times. (Lee, 98)There were many factors that made it different from any other period; the most important was the First World War. The war gave the impact on that period deeply. The people went into the war with an unusual amount of enthusiasm, inspired by the ideal of making the world safe for democracy. The United States made a large amount of money for selling munitions and became the richest country in the world, which made people feel that money was everywhere, and everyone also had opportunity to earn that of them. The war led to the switch of the world’s order, each country which participated in it more or less got seriously wounded, six million dead, the decline of economy, however, in the United States, his mainland was without any fighting, which stimulated its economy and technology. (Piper, 174) America was determined to concentrate on economic growth, technological development, and commercial expansion. Some new products had been made.The writers lived in the 1920s met a new challenge to their stable code of values, they got lost, acknowledged as “Lost Generation”, because of this reason theAmerican literature achieved a new diversity and its greatest heights.C. The Main Content of The Great GatsbyThe main events of the novel take place in the summer of 1922, narrated by Nick Carraway, a man from the Mid-West, who comes to New York to do business. He meets his second cousin Daisy at New York, and her husband Tom Buchanan. He hears about his neighbor, a mysterious man called Jay Gatsby, who always holds fabulous parties at his house.They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship, from whom he learns that Tom has a mistress, Myrtle, whose husband is a mechanic, George Wilson, also the story between Daisy and Gatsby.Nick gets invitation to Gatsby’s parties. He learns more about Gatsby, his background and his business and get familiar with him. He also finds that Gatsby’s desire for Daisy is part of his absolute belief in life and the happiness of his life. Nick promises to helps Gatsby to get Daisy to meet him.When Tom discovers that Gatsby is secretly involved with his wife, he immediately forces Daisy make a choice between them. To break the rising tension of the confrontation, Daisy suggests that the group drive to Manhattan to literally and figuratively cool off. At the Plaza Hotel, Daisy admits that she loves them both. But when Tom exposes some of Gatsby’s criminal activities Daisy is frightened.Daisy drives off with Gatsby in front. When Nick, Tom, and Jordan arrive at Wilson’s garage they discover that Myrtle has been knocked down and killed by Gatsby’s car. Nick later learns from Gatsby that Daisy has been driving the car, but he intends to take the blame. The next day Gatsby is killed by Wilson, Myrtle’s husband.No one appears at the funeral expect Gatsby’s father and another man who was a former guest at Gatsby’s party. Tom and Daisy just leave. Nick ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby's life and for the moral emptiness of the wealthy American lifestyle and the pursuit of the American Dream.III. The Disillusion of The DreamsA.The Disillusion of The American Dream1.The DefinitionIt is generally known that “the American dream” has great effects on American history, especially on the life of American people, but what is, exactly, “the American dream”? Different people may have different understanding and interpretations.The definition of the "American Dream" has been changing all the time in the long river of history, and includes both personal components and a global vision. In the United States Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers: "…held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Might this sentiment be considered the foundation of the American Dream? The early Americans who held this sort of dream came to America and hoped to achieve great successes in a short time. America becomes an attractive place called paradise where every person can achieve their dreams.It was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America written in 1931. He states: 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. (Adams 32)There are three remarkable characteristics of the American Dream. Firstly, the American Dream adopts a positive attitude towards material success and considers it as all important expression of self-fulfillment. Secondly, the American Dream is also known to support the idea that the chance to achieve material success will falls onto the person who has high moral standards. Optimism is another remarkable characteristic of the American Dream. We can see this quality from Gatsby; he never loses his faith and confidence in his ability to attain his life goal from the moment when he kisses Daisy first time five years ago until the last days of his life.2. The DevelopmentAmerican dream was first formed when the early European Puritans stepped on the new continent. And in the middle of the 17th century, more and more people immigrated to this new land, where full of hopes and wishes. Some people immigrated for money, some for freedom and equality, and some for new life.After the establishment of this new country, more and more people from different places in the world came to it, with new hope and enthusiasm. The elements of American dream were better life and more money.After the civil war, the Westward Movement took place in this new country. At that times, cowboys were the heroes of the country. the American dream turned again. The dream elements contained adventure, self-accomplishment, and better life. The jazz age, in 1920s, America dream....After two world wars, America met its cold war with the Soviet Union, In fact, America had benefited a lot from the two world wars, and it benefited the most to some extend. So after this two wars, America quickly recovered itself. And American dream turned to establish American order in the world, which means all the countries live under the order of America. And it seem this dream is on its way.3. The CorruptionIt is true that the American Dream has played a positive role in the advancement of the nation and individuals in the American history. However, when it came to the twentieth century, some changes happened to the American Dream and make it both corrupt and corruptive.First, the economic boom after the First World War offers the soil for materialism and hedonism, both of which draw people’s attention away from the early Puritans’emphasis on spiritual and material improvement into merely desperate pursuit of material success. Because of the war, America has risen up as the wealthiest country in the world with no obvious rival. People just overspend their money and enjoy physical pleasure. The whole Americans go into a mad whirl of the unlimitedmaterialism and the immediate hedonism.Secondly, the faith crisis after the War causes grave moral decadence of the general society, which corrupts the moral basis of the American Dream. The faith crisis directly results from the tremendous impact that the First World War has imposed on people’s thought and feelings, in particular on the youth. At the very beginning, the young people are inspired to join into the war enthusiastically hoping to make the world more safe and democracy. But when they return from the war, it is disappointing that “the Great War” has brought the world nothing but grief and death. Then the faith crisis arises. It unavoidably invites emotions of despair and insecurity among the young generation. (里昂, 24) Nick’s account of one of Gatsby’s lavish parties in Chapter III shows a way of getting close to an accurate picture of the time: Gatsby’s vulgar ostentation of his incredible wealth, the wild jazz music, the careless crazy youth, the new daring dances and the chaos abounding at and after the party. With the effect of the strong wine and the Jazz music, both of which seem to give way to freedom, the young people are seen to go crazy for fun. As Fitzgerald pointes out through Nick’s voice in The Great Gatsby, the majority of the 1920s are “careless people”(Fitzgerald 1992: 158). They feel no shame at being “a bad driver”(Fitzgerald 1992: 157). Following the above analysis, we can see that it is the impact of the First World War and the economic doom following it that have changed Americans’ idea of life, which subsequently shakes the fundamental of the American Dream.B. The Disillusion of Gatsby’s Dream1. The Fortune DreamGatsby dreams to become a great man influencing by American culture. (Brain, 37) Since he is a boy, Gatsby has high aspirations and is not content with the reality. In the last chapter of the novel, Gatsby’s father proudly showed Gatsby’s schedule and general resolves written in 1906 on the last fly-leaf of the “ragged” copy book called Hopalong Cassidy(Fitzgerald 110) to Nick. It tells how deeply young Gatsby hasabsorbed the ideas of Benjamin Franklin through his autobiography into his ambition to be successful, believing that a man can be what he want to be by hard working. In the schedule, we discover the roots of Gatsby’s transcendental vision and it shows that Gatsby’s dream is deep-rooted in the American dream. (Donaldson 187) When he is seventeen, Gatsby meets Dan Cody on the Lake Superior . Dan Cody, an old man, who is very rich from his many gold and silver mines in Mexico, actually is a typical playboy. Under the influence of Cody, who Gatsby admires him very much, Gatsby’s early thoughts and pure dream begin to change. (Lehan, 102) Then Gatsby falls in love with wealthy Daisy, Who eventually marries Tom Buchanan because of his status and money. However, the love failure does not let him frustrated and depressed. On the contrary, it stimulates his fighting spirit. He finds out what he wants to be. His ideals include money, a good job, a beautiful car, a mansion, an ideal wife and so on, among which money is the material base. As everyone knows, one can do nothing without money. Then Gatsby’s dream has material change and at that time, he is extremely hollow and depraved. In order to make more money, Gatsby connives with gangland and tries all dirty means.In a few years, he changes from riches to rags through bootlegging. Then he spends the bulk of his energy acquiring wealth and appearing wealthy to prove that his dream has come true. First, Gatsby changes his name when he gets rich, for he does not want others to know his hard experience in the past and he is afraid that people like Tom may look down upon him. Then he moves into Long Island where can show off his social status. One of the most fantastic descriptions in the novel is about his luxurious mansion which is also another way to appear wealthy. In order to show off his great fortune Gatsby builds a house by imitating the old aristocratic style. Besides the colossal mansion Gatsby is also noted for his most fabulous parties held in his mansion every weekend night. Every time when Gatsby holds the party he would ask the servants to make up his mansion for the party and hire a big group of musicians to play music for dancing which makes his parties decent and attractive.With all of these, Gatsby thinks his fortune dream has come true. But he is wrong. He never succeeds through his own hard work, courage, creativity and determination.On one hand, Gatsby deliberately hides himself from the crowded guests. He has no interest in getting involved in the party. He needs to hide his real identity and carefully plays the role as a rich nobleman. On the other hand, the guests come to the party only for the sake of reveling and merry-making. What’s more, the rumors from the guests about Gatsby are also wild, glittering and chaotic that he is a German spy and a murderer. So he is not respected by people from their hearts, and his dreams have never come true. It is a big satire that nearly no friends or guests go to his funeral, which also reviews the failure of his fortune dream.2.The Love DreamGatsby’s another dream is love dream which seems to be more importan t than money. (赵峰83) He falls in love with the daughter of a man of wealth, a pretty girl named Daisy when young. But when Gatsby goes overseas, Daisy marries Tom Buchanan whom she does not love and then live a luxurious and dissipated life. So Gatsby believes that he could regain Daisy through money, with which can do nearly everything. And he keep the belief that he can realize his dream of love for getting Daisy from Tom. And Gatsby is sure that Daisy loves him as the same as he loves her all the time.In order to achieve his dream, he first buys a huge house near Daisy. Then he often holds gleaming and dazzling parties at summer nights in order to attract Daisy. (徐大文95) However Daisy has never been to. So Gatsby asked Nick to help him invite Daisy to his house for tea. At last he has a chance to express his love to Daisy, and regain Daisy from Tom.In the novel, we can find his love to Daisy is true, pure, passionate, concentrated and steadfast. (徐大文,97) When he saw Daisy again, he could not speak, and “he was simply amazed that Daisy was real and she was really standing so close to him. He had been dreaming of her for so many years(113).” He is so excited to see Daisy again. He dares to say to Tom frankly that he loves Daisy and Daisy also loves him. “She’s never loved you. She loves me,” s ays Gatsby, “She only married you because I waspoor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me! (160)”. And when Daisy kills Mrs. Wilson on a road by driving a car, Gatsby bears the responsibility bravely just because he is worried about her and he loves her. Here, we can see his love to Daisy is so true, and it is another way to see how much he wants to regain Daisy, and he can realize his dream of love.However, his love can not bring him happiness. On the contrary, he gains a dirty trick played by Tom and Daisy. When Tom finds his lover Mrs. Wilson killed by a car and is sure that it is Daisy who commits the crime, he schemes with Daisy to shirk the responsibility and shift the blame onto Gatsby. It’s just as Nick says to Gatsby that “They are a rotten crowd”, and “you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.(181)”In the end, Gatsby is killed by the dead woman’s husband who is deceived into thinking that Gatsby is responsible while Daisy and Tom leave together which signals the disillusion of his love dream.V. The Fundamental ReasonsIn 1920s, America society came into the stage of monopoly capitalism. The American society developed in a rapid speed, and economy was unprecedentedly prosperous. The entertainments enriched people’s life, notably Jazz music. Mass production, mass consumption, and mass leisure became essential to economic and cultural life and were soon to dominate the nation’s culture and institutions. The trend of social revolution was going on. Old moral codes were breaking down. Therefore, the following decades after the war were a time of nation prosperity, personal freedom, and the pursuit of pleasure. As American enjoyed the wealth, they became greed and epicurean. Money was the only goal which can be achieved by any means. However, the wealth brought void into people’s mind. So 1920s was a time of gastronomy, a time without any belief, a time for lost generation, and a time of tragedies. The Great Gatsby’s creative background is 20 to 30s after the First Word War. After First Word War, the impact of many people due to the torture of war suffering began to accept the epicurean philosophy. Rapid economic development in the United States, people forthe pursuit of money is even crazier. This periods of young people experience unprecedented prosperity, but a general feeling of confusion and loss of the times people put aside traditional moral standards, concept of values and believed in hedonism and indulge in sensual pleasures and dissipation. The destiny of the conservation, old values that they played while flashing and luxurious at morpheme is in vogue. Rich material and spiritual emptiness makes the young generation start against traditional flashy spiritual crisis looming behind the “American Dreamer”encounter burst. Gatsby’s life in the context of this era from the heart you want to keep holy, but his behaviors makes him self-destroys. So this self-contradiction caused by the social environment is bound to Gatsby’s dream shattered. No matter how precious Gatsby’s merits are, his romantic love still diverts from the reality and finally loses in the dirty society. Fitzgerald reveals the fact by Gatsby’s tragedy that it is not enough to only create corporeal property, the poverty of spirit can be occupied by the lack of moralities.VI. ConclusionOn the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. Actually it is a story of the distorted American dream failing in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Through to the author F.Scott Fitzgerald and his novel The Great Gatsby’s analysis, above the definition, development and disillusion of the American Dream, and the disillusion of Gatsby’s fortune and love Dream , we know that the money for the foundation is to the bursting of dream finally, the fullness of the spirit is permanent. Today there are still many people in pursuit of their owns “American Dream”. With the rapid economic development and highly prosperous society, we are on the initial stage of the socialist market economy country. we can see that it is a little like the American roaring jazz age which the description of the novel. In this money crazy modern times without number, many people make money from fraud ,bribery, overexploitation and smuggling. Also in this material world Wide Web, many people are thirsty for, worried and lost. So we have to be alert to the bustling behind the evolution ofspiritual crisis. We should swing it back to moral, faith ,sincerity and so on. And we should pursuit our Chinese dream with.ReferencesAdam, James Truslow. The Epic of America. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2012, 32.Brain,Barbour. “The Great Gatsby and the American Past.”The Southern Review, 1973.Chang Yaoxin. A Survey of American Literature.Tianjin: NanKai University Press, 1990, 282.Chen Aimin. Reading American Literature. Nanjing:Nanjing Normal University Press, 1996.Dan. Buckley, Comment on Fitzgerald[J].England: Eggbuckland Community College UK, 2001.Donaldson. “Possessions in the Great Gatsby”. The Southern Review, 2001(37), 187-210.Eble, Kenneth Eugene. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tway-ne Publishers, 1977. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. High, Peter B. An outline of American Literature. London: Long man Group Limited, 1986.Lee, Brian. American Fiction [M]. 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