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A Structuralist Analysis of The Great GatsbyAbstract: Since Francis Scott Fitzgerald had his masterpiece The Great Gatsby published in 1925, it had won many favorable praises. Now people keep reading it and the researches on it are inexhaustible. This present thesis will offer a re-reading of The Great Gatsby from a structuralist perspective. This thesis is mainly composed of two parts. The first part will present us a brief introduction of the author, a summary of The Great Gatsby and the corresponding theories about Structuralism. The second part is to analyze The Great Gatsby with binary oppositions which underlie its theme, setting, characters and the meaning of symbols: illusion and disillusionment in theme; ideal land and realistic world in setting; insiders and outsiders in characters; superficial meaning and implied meaning in symbols. In a word, this thesis intends to render us to appreciate The Great Gatsby from a new perspective that is the structuralist perspective.Key words: Francis Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby Structuralismbinary oppositionsIntroductionFrancis Scott Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and his most famous, The Great Gatsby. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with despair and age.Undoubtedly, The Great Gatsby brought Fitzgerald great popularity. Many of Fitzgerald’ peers agreed T. S. Eliot, in a letter to Fitzgerald that the novel was called “the first step the American fiction has taken since Henry James.” (常耀信，1994：292) The basic plot was very simple. James Gatz, a poor boy living in the Middle West was driven to realize a dream of success and elegance. By that time America entered WW Ⅰ, James Gatz had become James Gatsby, met and loved Daisy Fay , the first “nice”girl, who was to embody all his dreams. But later he went to France and Daisy married to a man named Tom who was fabulously rich. After the war, Tom and Daisy were occupying a great house on the Long Island, leading a reckless and idle life, with Tom seeking excitement in his adulteries. Gatsby, now rich from underworld connections, and still obsessed with Daisy, took a house near Buchanan, near enough so that at night he could see the “green light” on Daisy’ dock. He began to hold wild parties, in order to attract Daisy’ attention, and finally he managed to persuade Daisy that she had never loved Tom. However, Daisy retreated to Tom soon after a short period of swaying. Unfortunately, Gatsby was shot to death by George who mistook Gatsby as the exact murderer of his wife. In fact, it was Daisy who ran down George’wife and killed her.Generally speaking, most of the criticism put this book The Great Gatsby in the case of psychological and sociological factors for analysis, which are the factors outside the literary text. Therefore, this thesis will offer an analysis of The Great Gatsby thatwill be viewed from a structuralist perspective, mainly in terms of the theory about binary oppositions.First of all, essential knowledge on structuralism must be introduced. Structuralism is one of the humanistic thoughts that have great impact on the 20th century, which rises to its prominence in France through the application of the Saussurian linguistics to the study of the cultural phenomena by the French anthropologist Claude Levis-Strauss. Structuralism argues that a specific domain of culture may be understood by means of a structure—modeled on language—that is distinct both from the organizations of reality and those of ideas or the imagination. Besides, it is Roman Jacobson who first brings forward the concept of binary oppositions, which is the essential principal adopted in the analysis of The Great Gatsby. For him, human mind naturally operates to oppositions and the binary oppositions in story’ structure reveal its meanings. Later, Greimas applies this principle in the narrative analysis. He observes that human beings make meaning by structuring the world in terms of two kinds of opposed pairs and he believes that this fundamental structure of binary oppositions shapes our language, our experience and the narratives through which we articulate our experience.1. Binary oppositions in The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby is historically a product of times, a typical war novel. With regard to the idea of The Great Gatsby, the novel attempts success in conventional terms: love, money and power. However, in terms of form, this novel is no doubt a good application of binary oppositions from the structuralist perspective.1.1Binary oppositions in themeThrough reading the whole novel, we will not fail to discover binary opposition in its theme, that is, the tension between illusion and disillusionment, pursuit and loss, dream and reality. As Fitzgerald saw it, the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. In the 1920s depicted in thenovel, however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast. The main plotline of the novel reflects this assessment, as Gatsby’s dream o f loving Daisy is ruined by the difference in their respective social statuses, his resorting to crime to make enough money to impress her, and the rampant materialism that characterizes her lifestyle. Just as Americans have given America meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with a kind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Gatsby’s dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object—money and pleasure. Like 1920s Americans in general, fruitlessly seeking a bygone era in which their dreams had value, Gatsby longs to re-create a vanished past—his time in Louisville with Daisy—but is incapable of doing so. When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values have not decayed.1.2Binary oppositions in settingThe setting or the background of the seasons in which the novel is designed shows clearly the binary oppositions in the idealistic world and the realistic world, which at the same time serves as a foil to the novel’theme in effect. The novel begins with Nick coming to the east in the spring, reaches its climax in the heat of summer, and closes with the falling leaves of autumn. Spring is a season of hope and people are ready to seek for their happiness. As the story develops, struggles and conflicts explode in summer. Summer is usually endowed with romance, a symbol of successful quest, but failure looms and tragedy just comes around the corner. Autumn is the crown of a year, a time of fulfillment and enjoyment, while the great losses await the faithful seeker. Winter hides in the Nick’ intense nostalgia for the past and for the lost romance world Gatsby represents. The lyric description of the Christmas in the Midwest of his youth sets a melancholy air and a deep sigh to the world. And the tragedy sets in winter which symbolizes the cruelty of reality. Therefore, the story of Gatsby was laid out against a symbolic background of seasons, each corresponding to a phase of the culminating of his life.1.3Binary oppositions in charactersThe major characters in The Great Gatsby can be seen as both “insiders”and “outsiders” in respect of binary oppositions. Gatsby leads an affluent life but he insists upon the isolation from the world, devoting himself to the pursuit of his dream. He is an “insider”among the money-grubbing society, but he at the same time an “outsiders” of it. Gatsby wanted to create a new world of wealth and illusion, so he expelled himself from his parents and changed his name. Moreover, he held the faith that he could achieve his goals and win back his woman only through money, but he finally failed. He lacks of the maturity to realize that Daisy is unworthy of his ideal and she can not be obtained through wealth. Daisy though performs as central figure inside Gatsby’ dream, she is actually an “outsider” of it for she lacks the moral basis and the spiritual values appropriate to the dream.1.4Binary oppositions in symbolsThe Great Gatsby is rich in symbolism which functions in various ways. For instance, the color of gold and silver, white and green are endowed with deep meaning that go beyond the concerns of plot and characterization. Silver and gold are the most prominent colors in the novel, which are associated with the direct displays of wealth. They are so shining in Gatsby’ parties and seem to make all things possible, but in fact it is just the illusion created by money. Besides, Daisy’ color is white, since she wears white dresses and recalls her white girlhood. In contrast to Daisy’ purpose, the meaning of purity and naivety the color white connotes is denied by the emptiness and sophistication which Daisy is characterized by. In addition, the color of green, is the symbol of hope and promise and ultimately the green light at the first chapter is made paralleled to the “green breast of the new world,”(1986,182) at the end of the last chapter, uniting the hope and promise of Gatsby’s dream and that of America itself. But the sacred green light becomes nothing more that a burning bulb at Daisy’ dock, a symbol of corruption and depravity.ConclusionFrom the analysis above, it is obvious that binary oppositions can find its full application in the novel The Great Gatsby in the perspective of structuralism. In other words, the opposed ideas brought forth by the binary oppositions structure the novel’theme, setting, characters, and symbols.BibliographyCollier Books. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986. 常耀信. 美国文学简史. 天津：南开大学出版社，1994.胡经之，张首映. 西方二十世纪文论选. 北京：中国科学社会出版，1989.申丹. 叙述学与小说文体学研究. 北京：北京大学出版社，1998.A Structuralist Analysis of The Great Gatsby学院：外国语学院专业：英语语言文学年级：2010级研究生学号：2010110392姓名：闫佩。