20世纪美国文学《了不起的盖茨比》

邯郸学院外国语学院School of Foreign Languages of Handan College 20世纪美国文学学期论文论文题目：《了不起的盖茨比》中象征主义分析Title：On the symbolism in The Great Gatsby专业：英语（师范）_On the symbolism in The Great GatsbyAbstract:F. Scott Fitzgerald is a great novelist of the 20th century in American literature. The Great Gatsby is written by him and this novel is one of his best works, which is so important for researchers to study the life of “roa ring twenties”. In this novel, Fitzgerald describes the failure of American dream and crisis of values through the different characters’ life. The author stresses the themes from several aspects, among them; the symbolism is an obvious one. In this novel, the dream, the colors and the name of characters are very vivid, and all of them, have their true meaning. This thesis intends to show a comprehensive analysis of the symbols in The Great GatsbyKey words: symbolism American dream valueIntroductionThe Great Gatsby portrays a young man’s dream of pursuing of love and wealth, however, after he is successful to reach his aim of money, he is fallen into a series of fantastic accidents. The hero, Gatsby is a poor youth from Midwest, and falls in love with Daisy who is a wealthy girl, but he is too poor to marry her. After the girl married to a rich young man, he decides to make his lost love be back. Gatsby earns enough money to buy a palatial house through some improper means. In order to allure the Buchanans to come, he holds dazzling parties every weekend. However, after they finally come, Gatsby is only to find that the woman is no longer the ideal love of him. His wonderful dream is almost destroyed. At last, Gatsby is shot when Daisy kills a woman in an accident and her husband shifts the blame on him.“Fitzgerald’s greatness lies in the fact that he found intuitively, in his personal experience, the embodiment of that of the nation and created a myth out of American life. The story of The Great Gatsby is a good illustration.”(A survey of American Literature. 2008 :217)To sum up, F. Scott Fitzgerald is the great writer who is full of imagination and creation. He skillfully employs plentiful symbolism in this novel to reveal the themes.1. The symbolic meaning of charactersIn American society, the people who lived in the midst of the “roaring twenties” drove fast cars, drank hard, and just took an immense delight it. Fitzgerald describes those people’s life by using various characters.The hero, Gatsby, is a romantic dreamer; he intends to pursue his ideal love, wealth and splendid life. It is actually a mirror of the whole American life. Gatsby’s life follows a clear pattern: there is, at first, dream, then disenchantment, and finally a sense of failure and despair. So, Gatsby’s personal experience approximates the whole American experience up to the first few decades of the twentieth century.Daisy is a shadow of American woman. At the beginning, For Gatsby, Daisy is a total perfect woman, who represents noble, wealth, grace and all of beautiful things. A creature of "whiteness" indeed, Daisy is the "fairy girl" of Gatsby's dreams in more ways than one--and her essential lack of emotion provides an important link in the chain of perverted "Ideal," pathetically futile gestures, and sordid circumstances that finally destroy Gatsby and his dream. Daisy, in short, is "in love" less with Jay Gatsby the man, than with Jay Gatsby the "Knight Errant". Some comments say that she loves the gesture which Gatsby has made, the "romance" of unrequited love and noble devotion. This attitude, of course, is a basic irony of the book. ( Stanley Cooperman. 1996 :44 )2. Symbolic theme of American dreamThe American dream is based on the ideology that each one can be successful through his own efforts and cultivating his qualities. Lots of American has realized their dreams by lots of methods. Frankly speaking, American dream relates to an aspiration for spiritual and material improvement, especially the pursuit of material. This dream, after all, is one of the most glowing visions of civilized man --a vision of a New World, of unbound opportunities, of a potential Garden of Eden whose lack of limitations staggered the imagination. ( Stanley Cooperman. 1996 :42 ) From Gatsby' adolescence, in short, he has been pursuing the Holy Glow of some vaguely imagined "Succes" an "identity" gleaming like a mirage just over the horizon of tomorrow. The result is both complete romanticism and complete lack of any real identity at all. In this society, Gatsby is destined to be isolated helpless and to fail in all. Obviously, Gatsby is one of typical representatives of American Dream that all generations of American people pursued. Although Gatsby struggle for his dream, he almost can not get into the upper class entirely. What's more, Gatsby's smile is another symbol of the vacuum beneath the surface of his appearance. Representingnot a state of emotion but a state of ambition, the "smile" is an instrument to be deliberately manipulated; it is a stoical weapon rather than a personal tribute.3.Symbols about colorsSeveral colors are used for symbolism in the novel The Great Gatsby. For example the colors green, white, gray and yellow are used throughout the book.The green light at the end of the Buchanan's dock represents Gatsby's yearning for Daisy, the hope of a better life and the birth of the American Dream, because in this new found land people could have anything he wants if he works hard enough. Thus, Gatsby is driven to become rich and throw lavish parties in order to get the attention of Daisy. Over time the association changed. The green trees had made way for Gatsby’s house and now green represented the greedy thoughts on money. If one work hard enough one could have as much money as he wants, a subtle change that people don’t notice until they ha ve all the money they want and realize they still are not happy. Because of this Green also represents corruption and the failing or death of the American Dream.Besides,the color of white means innocence. Daisy's car is white, so are her clothes and the rooms of her house. But, here, Daisy is hardly the picture of girlish innocence. At the end of the novel, she's described as selfish, careless, and destructive.As for, gray, it is connected to barren lifelessness. And it stands for the waste and destruction caused by the luxurious lifestyles of the rich. The valley of the ashes is the dumping ground for all the waste from New York that has been burned and the ash covered workers there represent the forgotten working class.The color of yellow represents corruption or a lack of moral values. Gatsby’s car is yellow because he bought it with drug money. The girls at his party wear the yellow are showed that they lack of values (they go to his parties, drink he alcohol, gossip about him and try and pick up rich men), a nd the yellow rims of Dr Eckleburg’s glasses that surround his eyes indicates he has cut himself off from the world.Symbolism can make a story complete. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald presents a novel with intricate symbolism. Fitzgerald integrates symbolism into the heart of the novel so strongly that it is necessary for reader to read the book several times to gain any level of understanding. The overtones and connotations that Fitzgerald gives to the dialogues, settings, and actions is a major reason why The The Great Gatsby is one of the classics of the 20th century.ConclusionIn brief, F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of famous writers in American literature. Some critics point out that it is a legend of “Americans adolescence before pain set in.” Fitzgerald become “the angel of the twenties”and his writing those of a man inside that legendary period (A survey of American Literature. 2008 :215)His description of American people’s manners, dreams and attitudes provide a vivid picture about the social reality. Thus, there is no wonder that he is one of great stylists in American literature. What’s more, as The Great Gatsby is treated as Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, it marks the highest point of his artistic achievement. So a number of critics study it hardly, especially for its symbolism which is so splendid.T. S. Eliot once read The Great Gatsby and concluded that it was “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”.(A survey of American Literature. 2008 :215) Therefore, in American literature, the significance of this novel is immeasurable; it is easy for readers to find that Fitzgerald put symbols with theme harmoniously to accomplish the work which is well worth studying. In addition, this style influences for a long time even for today.BibliographyBruccoli, Matthew J. The American Novel–New Essays on The Great Gatsby. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 1985.Hoffman, J. Frederick. The Twenties. New York: Collier Books, 1965.Fahey, William A.F. F. S cott Fitzgerald and the American Dream. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1973.Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1925.常耀信. 美国文学简史[M].天津:南开大学出版社, 2008.库普曼. 作品赏析--了不起的盖茨比[M].王小梅译.北京:外语教学与研究出版社, 1996。