了不起的盖茨比英文论文

Part One Introduction

1.1 Research Background and Significance

As “the spokesman of a crucial and revealing period in the cultural field of his country”,(Wang Weiping, 2004:57) Fitzgerald knows the society clearly due to his rich personal experience and creates many characters like Gatsby out of the American life. These novels describe the disillusionment of the American dream in the Jazz Age. And the reason is always that the transformations of the values of traditional morality make people not believe in any hero but pursue individual consumption and enjoyment. Fitzgerald deeply feels the spiritual emptiness and moral decadence under the superficial splendor and prosperity in that age, so he is called the spokesman of the Jazz Age. Most of his works describe the expectation, dissatisfaction and disappointment of the American young generation in the 1920s. One distinguishing feature of his works is that the close relationship between his personal experiences and works. Nearly all the characters in his novel can find the original shapes in reality sometimes even himself, especially in The Great Gatsby.

1.2 Motivation and Objective

Considering disillusion of the American dream, different people have different understandings. “In its board sense, it refers to the ideal of a nation such as democracy, equality and freedom. While in its narrow sense, it refers to the pursuit of obtaining success of life”. (Wang Weiping, 2004:57) Essentially, the American dream is a confident desire for perfection by means of progress. But the history and reality of American have proved that “the American dream” is, to some extent, a kind of illusion.

The great Gatsby is one of the representative works that reflects the illusory nature of the American dream.

Part Two Gatsby’s American Dream Gatsby is the representative figure of a self-made man in the twenties. He is born in a poor family in the west of America, and his parents are shiftless and unsuccessful farm people. He comes to the big city—New York where the young men are inspired to

make the most of their opportunities to get the key to be successful. They believe that they can be successful men in history, just like Benjamin Franklin, who has been man “of humble origin, narrow fortune, small advantages, and self-taught.”(Chen Qing, 2006:18) The poor boy is inspired to do the great deeds by the example of Franklin, like Gatsby. So in the end, Gatsby gets wealth and fame by industry. Some people may think that Gatsby has fulfilled his dream; it is obvious that Gatsby’s dream is a symbol of the American dream for wealth and youth. However, Gatsby’s real dream is to win back his first love Daisy but not to get the money only. Gatsby genuinely has a belief that money can buy anything, innocently thinking that his wealth can erase the last five years of his and daisy’s l ove and reunite them at the original point of 1917. He falls in love with the beautiful and wealthy girl of the upper class and he wants to enter into the upper class through his efforts. Although he devotes his whole life to win the wealth and position, he fails totally at last. Why does he fail? In the thesis the reasons for his failure would be discussed.

Part Three Reasons for the Disillusion

3.1Gatsby’s Dream is out of Connection with the Reality

Gay Gatsby is a great young man who has many superficial characters. He tries his best to realize his dreams, but he fails at last. The reason is that he is completely an American dreamer, a man of great imagination and extraordinary hope. He is willing to do anything to gain the social status he thinks necessary to win back Daisy who is the “golden girl” in his dream. His relentless quest for Daisy demonstrates that Gatsby has an outstanding ability to transform his dreams into reality. But actually, his great dream is swallowed up by the meanness of the upper class and his “golden girl”—Daisy, which are the superficial reasons for his failure. And the deep reason is that his dream is out of connection with the reality. In fact, the people in the twenties do n’t believe in the values of traditional morality any longer and they have their philosophy of life—to “seize every day” and “enjoy every moment”.(Chen Qing, 2006:1)

The differences in the understanding between Daisy and Gatsby narrates the