《了不起的盖茨比》所反映的社会意义

On the Social Significance Reflected in The Great Gatsby 《了不起的盖茨比》所反映的社会意义
摘要
弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德，美国小说家和短篇故事作家。

他是爵士时代的发言人，同时也被认为是二十世纪最伟大的作家。

二十世纪二十年代是当代美国社会初步形成的年代。

第一次世界大战造就了新的一代人，爵士乐时代也由此拉开序幕。

1925年《了不起的盖茨比》问世，这部小说无论是在思想上还是艺术手法上都是一部杰出的作品，奠定了弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德在美国最伟大的小说家的地位。

这部小说为我们描绘了一幅爵士乐时代的生动画面，展现了当时整个美国社会的缩影。

爵士时代指的是二十世纪二十年代，开始于1919年结束于1929年的十年期间。

这一时期，美国经历了深刻的文化与社会变革，新的发明与生产技术大大改变了人们的生活方式，许多人搬离乡村，妇女们获得了投票权。

成千上万的人们活在一个富裕，奢侈，空虚赚钱的生活中，疯狂的追求个人的成功与享乐。

在《了不起的盖茨比》这部作品中，作者刻画了美国所谓的“爵士乐时代”追求金钱和享乐的潮流，并以冷静的笔触反思了社会现实和浮华表面下蕴藏的精神危机和美国梦的破灭。

本文通过分析这部作品揭示了小说中美国梦的破灭所反映的社会意义。

关键词：社会意义；美国梦的破灭；爵士乐时代
Abstract
F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist and author of short stories. He was regarded as one of the greatest writers in twentieth century and was considered the spokesman of Jazz Age. The outline of contemporary America clearly formed in 1920s. A new generation and a new time—the Jazz Age was created in World War I. The Great Gatsby was written by Fitzgerald and first published in 1925. This novel is his best work in both thought and art and become one of the greatest American novelists. As an epitome of the whole American society, the novel showed us a vivid picture of Jazz Age. The time beginning from 1919 to the end of 1929 has a nickname which is called the Jazz Age. It is a time of profound cultural and social changes. In these ten years, many new inventions and techniques greatly changed the way people lived. Lots of people moved from countryside and women won the right to vote. Millions of people lived a rich, extravagant, frivolous money-making life, pursued individual “success” and personal enjoyment frantically. In The Great Gatsby, the writer—Fitzgerald describes the American tide of seeking wealth and enjoyment in Jazz Age, and makes introspection on the spirit crisis reflected from the reality and ostentation and the disillusionment of American Dream. This study aims at exploring the social significance embodied in the disillusionment of the American Dream.
Key Words: Social significance; disillusionment of American Dream; the Jazz Age
Contents
摘要 (I)
Abstract ........................................................................................................................ I I
1. Introduction (1)
2. An Analysis of the Novel (2)
2.1 An Introduction of F. Scott Fitzgerald (2)
2.2 The Social Background of the Novel (4)
2.3 A Brief Introduction to the Plot (5)
3. A Detailed Analysis on American Dream (6)
3.1 The Definition of the American Dream (7)
3.2 The Evolution of the American Dream (7)
3.3 The Disillusionment of the American Dream (9)
4. The Social Significance of the Novel (10)
5. Conclusion (11)
Bibliography (13)
Acknowledgments (14)
1. Introduction
F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in 1925. Even today it is generally considered one of the best novels in twentieth century.
It is a love story between a man and a woman. The hero—Gatsby was a bounder by selling wine and attending other unlawful activities to earn money in the 1920s. The fiction shows the break of the American Dream by describing the disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream and it indicated the tragedy of American society at that time. The background of the whole story is set on Long Island in New York City in 1922. In the novel, Gatsby’s great passion for Daisy was described clearly by the author. The American Dream makes every person believe that as long as he works hard, a poor man can get a lot of opportunities and become a millionaire on this wonderful land. (Gao, 2008) This kind of spirit encourages American people to make their dreams come true. However, when Gatsby’s life ended tragically and Daisy did not feel ashamed and sad and went to another city with his husband—Tom, which indicated Gatsby’s American Dream was shattered. In the novel, Gatsby’s passionate love for Daisy is earthy and enthusiastic, and he is willing to do anything for Daisy. Daisy fell in love with Gatsby when she learned that Gatsby was a young junior military officer. Unfortunately, she broke off with Gatsby quickly because Gatsby was born in a poor family. When Gatsby became a millionaire, Daisy fell in love with him at once. When Gatsby died, she did not attend to Gatsby’s funeral and went out of the city to have a journey with her husband. Gatsby’s American Dream was that he could become richer than Tom, Daisy’s husband who was wealthy enough and he could provide anything to Daisy. In their competition, Tom won Daisy’s love finally. Actually, Gatsby’s American Dream can not come true because there is a huge gape between Gatsby and Daisy in many respects. Daisy was born in a fortunate family, living in a wealthy life all the time. It is difficult for Gatsby to live an affluent life and become one of the
upper echelons of society figures, because Gatsby came from a poor family in North Dakota. He also can not afford the extravagant life of Daisy. As a love story,The Great Gatsby aims to criticize the present context of society at that time. In fact, it is a story of the disillusionment of American Dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess, in which lies this novel’s social meaning.
2. An Analysis of the Novel
As one of the greatest novelists in the American literature of the 1920s, F. Scott Fitzgerald was called the spokesman of Jazz Age. As his masterpiece,The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, and the background of the novel is in a long island and New York City of 1920s.
2.1 An Introduction of F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a great Irish-American Jazz Age novelist, short story writer and was widely considered as the famous representatives of the lost generation. He was given birth in Saint Paul during World War I. Fitzgerald was named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, but was commonly known as “Scott”.
He crafted five novels and dozens of short stories about youth, despair, and age. The figures are vivid and authentic in his novels. His heroes—handsome, confident, and his heroines are typically beautiful, intricate, and alluring.
Fitzgerald spent several years with his father in New York, and then, he went to school in Saint Paul Minnesota from 1908-1911. In the following two years, he had to go to a boarding school of New Jersey because he was weak at his studies. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enter in Princeton and became a member of this school in 1913. Then, he became friends with Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop there. He burdened with academic difficulties and apathy plagued in the University throughout his three-year career. So Fitzgerald left the school to enroll in the United States Army when American was involved in World War I. Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant, and was stationed at Camp Sheridan. There he met Zelda Sayre，the “top girl”, in Fitzgerald’s words, of Montgomery, Alabama.
Fitzgerald realized that he was unable to provide what Zelda really want, so he decided to make money by working at an advertising firm and writing short stories. And Zelda’s overpowering desire for wealth, fun, and leisure led to delay their weeding until he could prove a success. This Side of Paradise was published in 1920, which caused a great literary sensation. Fitzgerald earned enough money to convince Zelda that he could support her. Then, Scott and Zelda were married in New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The 1920s proved the most influential decade of Fitzgerald’s development. His second novel—The Beautiful and Damned, which represents an impressive development beyond his previous immature, was published in 1922. The Great Gatsby, which was considered as his masterpiece, was published in 1925. Fitzgerald made several famous journeys to Europe, especially Paris and the French Riviera. He became friends with people who were the members of the American expatriate community in Paris; His wife’s intense personality had great effect on Fitzgerald’s writings. Sometimes, he even quoted several segments of his wife’s personal diaries in his own works. Zelda has ever mentioned this in 1922, saying that “In fact, Mr. Fitzgerald—I believe that is how he spells his name—seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home”(Zelda Fitzgerald: The Collected Writings, 1922: 338). Fitzgerald began to work on his fourth novel during the late 1920s. However, he was sidetracked by financial difficulties that necessitated him began to wrote commercial short stories. And the schizophrenia struck Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald in 1930. Her emotional health remained frangible for the rest of her life. She was hospitalized in Maryland of Baltimore in 1932. Tender Is the Night was published in 1934, which was regarded as one of Fitzgerald’s finest works by critics. Fitzgerald suffered two heart attacks in late 1940. After the first heart attack, the doctor told him not to do physical exertion and to live in a first floor apartment. Then, he followed doctor’s recommendation and moved in an apartment with his lover.
Fitzgerald died at the age of forty-four due to the second heart attack in 1940. Few people attended his simple and small funeral. However, Dorothy Parker, who was one of the attendants cried and murmured, “The poor son of a bitch”, a line from Jay
Gatsby’s funeral in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. His wife—Zelda died in a fire at a mental institution in North Carolina, in 1948.
2.2 The Social Background of the Novel
In the twentieth century, Americans’ life changed greatly since the emergence of a large part of great writers in the history of American literature. They are representatives of “the Lost Generation” in that age. At the same time, there are many famous works wrote by them to express their minds and feelings, such as the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Eliot.
America has entered a new era of the unprecedented economic prosperity after the World I, because the World War I has a great impact on that period of America. A lot of people attending the war believed that defending the country is their duty and they hoped their country to be a better place to live in. During the war, America earns a large sum of money by selling munitions and becomes the richest country. American Dream becomes the main purpose of Americans. They believe that their dreams can be realized by hard work.
World War I witnessed a new generation and a new time, the Jazz Age. With F. Scott Fitzgerald’s own words, “This is a miracle era, an era of art harvest, an era of big spenders, but also full of sarcasm era”. (李雪顺，2001: 165) It is a time of profound cultural and social changes and many new inventions and techniques greatly widen people’s horizon, changed the way people lived directly. Some new products were made by intelligent people. Along with society’s progress, scientific development, people’s living standard had the very big enhancement.
With the economic prosperity, American people began use money and wealth to measure a person. Society had been disoriented by changing values. At the same time, since traditional moral standards were breaking down and confront challenges and the new moral system is not formed yet, the United States faced with the collapse of moral system in the 1920s. Therefore, a car slowly became a symbol of status and wealth at this time. Millions of people lived a rich, extravagant, frivolous money-making life, pursed individual “success”, personal freedom and enjoyment frantically. During this period, social polarization is serious, the society presents
tremendous spiritual crisis hidden behind the prosperous.
Therefore, the writers who are the representatives of “the Lost Generation”began to publish a large amount of works to express the present situation of the America society. In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby to express his attitudes towards the America society and openly criticized the distorted American Dream.
2.3 A Brief Introduction to the Plot
The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and was published in 1925.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the great representative writers of the lost generation and the spokesman of Jazz Age. Though this work did not receive many positive responses from critics and readers until 1950s, it has important values and a great impact on America society.
This novel describes a love story between a man and a woman in New York City and long island. The hero is called Gatsby who was born in a poor family. However, he became a wealthy man by some illegal ways. In fact, he is the representative of pursing the illusory American Dream. In that social context, people believe that everyone has the equal rights and opportunities, as long as he works hard, he can gets whatever he wants, like money, status, love. However, we know that his hopes were destroyed at last, which is also a symbol of the American Dream. So, we can say that he is the representative of collapse of American Dream. Gatsby’s dream is devastated by its object’s invalidity, just as the American Dream in the 1920s is destroyed by the meaningless pursuit of wealth and entertainment.
The Great Gatsby is a love story about a young man named Gatsby and the beautiful girl called Daisy. During the war, Gatsby was in love with the nice girl called Daisy, who was always addicted to wealth and entertainment. He loved Daisy very much, but Daisy still firmly refused his proposal and left him.
After the war, Gatsby learned that Daisy had married a wealth man—Tom. However, Daisy was not happy because her husband—Tom had a mistress whose name was called Myrtle. At this time, Gatsby has a deep affection and love for Daisy. Therefore, he earned money strenuously, in order to regain the love of Daisy. Just in a
few years, Gatsby had made a fortune by smuggling and other illegal trade. Then, he bought a luxury house because it was only a bay away from Daisy’s and he always held fabulous parties at his house so that he could have chances to approach her. In order to catch Daisy’s attention, Gatsby often held luxurious parties. Nick, a man who was Daisy’s second cousin came to New York to do business met Daisy and he was Gatsby’s neighbor. He also was invited to Gatsby’s house and Gatsby wanted Nick to help him to invite Daisy to his party and without telling her that he would be also there. After an initially awkward reunion, they reestablish their connection and fell in love with each other again. After a short time, Daisy’s husband—Tom discovered Gatsby was involved with his wife, he realized Gatsby was in love with Daisy. He hated Gatsby seriously and regarded Gatsby as a social inferior. At the same time, Daisy confronted the tough choices between Gatsby and Tom. She drank wine and drove a car outside. Unfortunately, Tom’s mistress—Myrtle was killed by Daisy’s car. However, in order to protect Daisy, Gatsby took all the blame directly. But he did not know that Daisy had decided to abandon him with Tom and they would go out of the city to have a honey journey.
The next day when Nick got back home, he discovered that Gatsby had been killed, shot by George, Myrtle’s husband. Gatsby’s funeral was prepared by Nick and no one came except Gatsby’s father and another man who was a former guest at Gatsby’s party. However, Daisy and Tom traveled outside happily. The Great Gatsby is a story told by Nick who is a central figure of the novel. He is not only in the story, but also he is out of the story. He reflects the sound of the novel and he also expresses the author’s voice.
3. A Detailed Analysis on American Dream
Since 1776, Americans are convinced that everyone can be successful and live a happy life through their own efforts. They acquired opportunities and equal rights to get their achievements by their courage. This ideology is carved in people’s mind as a belief from generation to generation. In The Great Gatsby, the hero Gatsby is one of
the representatives of pursuing the American Dream. But we know that his dream is illusory and meaningless. However, the American Dream is very popular in that age. Then, let us explore the American Dream in details.
3.1 The Definition of the American Dream
As a term, the “American Dream”was originally developed by an American writer James Truslow Adams in his book—The Epic of America written in 1931. He defined American Dream as “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.” (James Truslow Adams, 1931: 265)
He also wrote: “The American Dream that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty, though that has doubtlessly counted heavily. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and a woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes rather than for the sample human being of any and every class.” (ibid)
We can understand some meanings from James Truslow Adams’ words. He gave us a definite interpretation about the American Dream. He made us believe that the true spirit of the American Dream lies in the fullest development. It describes an attitude of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes. However, slowly as time goes by, the true spirit of the American Dream has been distorted.
3.2 The Evolution of the American Dream
The American Dream was influenced by the first group of immigrants. The first settlers who are the vulnerable persons from Europe became the founding father of the American Father in 18th century. A few of the European immigrants are Puritans of the England and insolvents of the Germany. These people in Europe got many kinds of harsh sufferings. They want to get away, to be rich and to take their values and philosophies into practice.
The puritans wanted to escape the religious persecution and rebuild the religious,
so they moved to the North American continent to make their dream came true in the New World. Therefore, their arrival had a great influence on the America society at that moment. These people believe that the America is a wonderful place and represented a new life of democracy, equality and freedom. People could acquire spiritual and material happiness finally. For those settlers of bankrupts, they were not so religiously inclined; they believed that America was a fairyland and a land of possibilities. If they got the land, they can be rich and get a happiness life rapidly. In fact, at that time, everyone can get large tracts of land to support all the expenses of them.
The first thirteen colonies came into being and the first settlers was given the religious and material hopes. The United States gave the world a wonderful vision when it was first established as a nation.
The American Dream began to sprout up quietly when American gained independence as a nation from the colonies of Britain in the mid-18th century. From that moment, In Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of the Independence of 1776, there is a famous sentence goes like this: “We hold these 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.”
As the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin is the archetype of American Dream. Without noble birth and top education, Benjamin Franklin taught himself almost everything and succeeded in many aspects such as literature, science, philosophy and politics. Benjamin Franklin pioneered the spirit of self-help in America. (Jim Powell, 1997: 329) He not only achieved his success through hard work and persistence, but also won both wealth and respect from others. (Yao, 2002: 156) Everyone was given the opportunity in this country, no matter what social class he lived in, what circumstance he was born, can be successful and made his dream come true through his own efforts.
Many gold mines were discovered in the western of the United States of the late 18th century and the early 19th century. A lot of lucky ones taped into the gold mines and became fortunate overnight. And many people have flocked to the Eastern
Seaboard and the thirteen colonies. To avoid overcrowding, the settlers began to move the West to pursue their American Dream. Along with the expansion to the West, the American Dream had changed a lot. After the Civil War, the American Dream becomes more popular and more concrete. During the 18th and 19th century, when the industrial revolution was coming, the American Dream was transformed into self-confidence, the pursuit of happiness and success, including career, love and wealth. Lots of persons have great achievements in the field of work and became the role models of diligence and wisdom. During this period, a lot of commercial geniuses have a common feature—all of them were born in a poor family and succeed by their own efforts finally. Then, the United States experienced a period of rapid economic expansion. After the World War I, the America became the most developed country in the world. More and more people swarm there and seek their own the America Dream. In the twentieth century, the American Dream becomes the main aim of Americans. But the nature of the American Dream has changed. The young generation disgusted the changeless conservatism and turned to purse money and pleasure as their new lifestyle. Success occupied an important position in society, people tried to realize their own dreams as much as possible because this kind of success was an important condition to measure the social status and the significance of life. There emerged a state of material well-being but lacking in spiritual life. So the author F. Scott Fitzgerald produced Jay Gatsby, a poor young man who earned money through some illegal ways to attract Daisy to get her love. Jay Gatsby embodies many positive and negative aspects of this dream. The author created this character as the representative of the American Dream to express his own minds and confusion under that social context.
3.3 The Disillusionment of the American Dream
Americans are convinced that everyone can be successful and live a happy life through their own efforts. They have equal rights and opportunities to get their achievements. However, with the development of the American society, the disappearance of equal opportunity became one of the reasons which lead to the disillusionment of the American Dream.
There is another reason that leads to this result of the American Dream. The contradiction between the aristocrats of the eastern and the upstarts of the western is serious.
The last reason is that the material aspects of the dream do not keep up with and even obliterated the early spiritual ideals.
For all the declaration of democratic principles, for all progress and prosperity, there are still poverty, discrimination and exploitation. And as for values and morality, there are also hypocrisy, corruption and suppression. Everyone began to dispute for money and profits insanely. So who can make their dream come true? The Americans attain their pursuit of the material by hook or by crook and make the wealth as a sign of the life. They equate the pursuit of material with the pursuit of the dream. The disillusionment of the American Dream is inevitable result.
4. The Social Significance of the Novel
Early in 1920s when the capitalism of the American developed to a stage of the monopoly, the industry developed rapidly. The development of the economy has been a polarization of society and the young Americans experienced the prosperity of the Jazz Age and felt confused about the social context. They had an empty feeling of spirit. Then, they began to drink wine and spent money like water to seek the pleasure of the life.
In the novel, Gatsby was the hero and the representative of the American Dream made by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby was born in a poor family with no money and status. However, Daisy was born in a rich family. At first, it is a blow for Gatsby for the huge gap between their social status and wealth when he fell in love with Daisy. He used his whole life to love Daisy and began to attend many illicit activities to earn money. The purpose of these behaviors was that he could retain Daisy’s love. He made every possible effort to realize his dream. The American Dream has deviated from its original way obviously in Gatsby’s pursuit of the wealth and status. When he earned much money, he held parties and invited many persons
everyday to attract Daisy. In fact, Gatsby did not get others’respect in the novel. When Daisy drove a car and killed her husband’s mistress, Gatsby helped her, took all the blame and lost his life finally. However, she did not have any shameful and grateful feelings for Gatsby’s behavior. In the end, Daisy went to other city with her husband to spend their holiday happily. Gatsby’s dream falling down represents the disillusionment of the American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald describes a progress of a man’s American Dream from beginning to the end, which is similar to the hero--Gatsby. So Fitzgerald expresses his own feelings sincerely in the novel. But the difference between Fitzgerald and Gatsby is that the author realized his American Dream was broken, Gatsby did not realized it at all. Gatsby did not know that he built an illusionary dream and this dream can not realize forever. The sharp contrast between the ideal and the reality will inevitably result in the breakup of the dream. Gatsby’s whole life is a tragedy because he lived in the past and made an illusionary dream of the future. Although it is the American success story that hard working allows a man to become wealthy, the history of the American was mocked seriously by the author in the novel. The American Dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. The novel describes the social phenomenon of money first in the 1920s.
5. Conclusion
In the novel, the author describes the hero—Gatsby’s whole life. When he was young, he fell in love with the beautiful girl—Daisy and he took her as his dream. He could do everything for her and gave up his nature to earn money as much as he could. Unfortunately, when he sacrificed his live for Daisy, he still did not get Daisy’s love. The author use Gatsby’s dream to symbolize the American Dream at that time. So his dream fallen down means the disillusionment of the American Dream. Gatsby lived in the past and made an illusionary dream of his life. His dream is illusory and unworthy and it is not the right time for him to use an inappropriate manner of self-display. When his native nature confronted with the ruthless and indifferent society, the
disillusionment of the American dream is inevitable. For Gatsby, there will be no place to escape but he has to die in the end. However, the novel gives people some enlightenment in their life. It makes people believe that there will be a harvest if you work hard enough. Gatsby was influenced greatly by the dream of Franklin and Carnegie. He made a work schedule and wrote some proverbs to encourage himself. He showed a fighting spirit for young people in modern society.
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