20世纪20年代的美国梦——评析《了不起的盖茨比》和盖茨比的梦想

20世纪20年代的美国梦——评析《了不起的盖茨比》和盖茨比的梦想 本科生期末 题 目: 20世纪20年代的美国梦——评析小说 《了不起的盖茨比》和盖茨比的梦想 学 院: 行知学院 专 业: 英 语 学生姓名: 屠冬艳 学号: 09096110 指导教师: 江玉娇 职称: 教授 合作导师: 职称: 完成时间: 2011 年 12 月 成 绩: 1 The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby 目录 Abstract..................................................................................................................... 1 摘 要 ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.Introduction ........................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Introduction of the author ................................................................. 2 1.2 Introduction of the novel ................................................................... 2 1.3 The plot of the story .......................................................................... 3 2.American dream ..................................................................................................... 4 2.1 The definition of the American dream ............................................... 4 2.2 The development of the American dream .......................................... 4 3.The dream of Gatsby .............................................................................................. 4 3.1 Gatsby’s wealth dream ...................................................................... 4 3.2 Gatsby’s love dream .......................................................................... 5 4.Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 6 Work cited................................................................................................................. 7 1 The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby Tu Dongyan Abstract: F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is one of the most outstanding writers in America during the 1920s. The Great Gatsby is the best work of Fitzgerald. It is the reflection of Fitzgerald’s life. And the novel also reveals the hollowness of the American worship of riches and the unending American dream of love in 1920s. It condemns the privileged class in America. The paper focuses on the analysis of the novel and the dream of Gatsby. It also explores the background of the novel, the definition of the American Dream. And Gatsby’s dream is divided into two parties: Gatsby’s American dream and Gatsby’s Love dream. Key words: The Great Gatsby, the American dream, Fitzgerald 20世纪20年代的美国梦——评析《了不起的盖茨比》和 盖茨比的梦想 屠冬艳 摘 要: 菲茨杰拉德 (Francis Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940)美国二十年代二 十世纪最杰出的作家之一。《了不起的盖茨比》是菲茨杰拉德写作生涯的顶峰 之作，也是菲茨杰拉德真实生活的写照。小说刻画了二十年代美国人在财富和 成功掩盖下的未被满足的欲望，反映了当时“美国梦”的破灭，同时也谴责了 美国的特权阶级的为所欲为。 论文着重小说的主要内容和盖茨比的梦，同时进一步介绍当时美国梦的 内涵。论文将盖茨比的梦剖析成两部分:盖茨比的美国梦和盖茨比的爱情梦。 关键词:《了不起的盖茨比》，美国梦，菲茨杰拉德 1 The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby Tu Dongyan(090110) 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduction of the author Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. After an unsuccessful undergraduate career at Princeton, he entered the Army as a second lieutenant and while in the training camp he met the beautiful girl who was to become his wife. He married Zelda Sayre as his literary career got off to a meteoric start in 1920. Through the 1920s when money seemed plentiful and postwar morality encouraged a reckless pursuit of happiness, he and Zelda traveled in Europe and New York, acting out the glamorous life-style he wrote of his most popular magazine fiction. He was a spokesman for the so-called Jazz Age, setting a personal as well as literary example for a generation whose first commandment was: Do what you will. T he tempo of his life slackened as his life was shredded by Zelda’s insanity and his own self-destructive alcoholism. He fell from favor as a writer when the indulgent decade of his triumph went down under the impact of the worldwide depression in the 1930s. Through years of emotional and physical collapse he struggled to repair his life by writing for the Hollywood – producing at the same time a series of stories that exposed his humiliations there. His novels such as The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender Is the Night (1934), and The Last Tycoon (1941), amplify the melancholy he discovered beneath the glitter of American-style success. In his pathetically candid book The Crack-up (1945) Fitzgerald documents the shattering of his personal ambitions. His stories were collected in Flappers and Philosophers (1921), Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), All the Sad Young Men (1926), and Taps at Reveille. Of all his novels, the Great Gatsby (1925) is by far the finest. At the time of his death in 1940, all of his books were out of print and his last novel remained uncompleted. 1.2 Introduction of the novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is widely considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s greatest novel. It is also considered a seminal work on the fallibility of the American dream. It focuses on a young man, Jay Gatsby, who, after falling in love with a woman from the social elite, makes a lot of money in an effort to win her love. She marries a man from her own social strata and he dies disillusioned with the concept of a self-made man. Fitzgerald seems to argue that the possibility of social mobility in America is an illusion, and that the social hierarchies of the ―New 2 The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby World‖ are just as rigid as those of Europe. The novel is also famous as a description of the ―Jazz Age‖, a phrase which Fitzgerald himself coined. After the shock of moving from a policy of isolationism to involvement in World War I, America prospered in what are termed the ―Roaring Twenties.‖ The Eighteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, passed in 1919, prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol in America. ―Prohibition‖ made millionaires out of bootleggers like Gatsby and owners of underground salons, called ―speakeasies‖. Fitzgerald glamorizes the novel riche of this period to a certain extent in his Jazz Age novel. He describes their beautiful clothing and lavish parties with great attention to detail and wonderful use of color. However, the author was uncomfortable with the excessive of money and material success. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was not a great success during his lifetime, but became a smash hit after his death, especially after World War II. It has since become a staple of the canon of American literature, and is taught at many high schools and universities across the country and the world. Four films, an opera, and a play have been made from the text. 1.3 The plot of the story The entire story takes place in one summer in 1922. The novel describes the life and death of Jay Gatsby through the eyes of a narrator, Nike Carraway, who is Fitzgerald’s spokesman for decent, rational men. He lives in a house next door to Gatsby so he can observe the life of his rich neighbor, Gatsby. Gatsby is a poor youth from the Midwest. He falls in love with Daisy, a girl from a wealthy family. As a poor lad, Gatsby is too poor to marry her, so Daisy is married to a rich young man named Tom Buchanan. Determined to win Daisy back, Gatsby engages himself in Bootlegging and other illegal activities, thus earns enough money to buy a magnificent mansion. There he hosts dazzling parties every weekend in the hope of attracting the Buchanans to come. By chance his next-door neighbor, Nike Carraway, is Daisy’s relative and he helps Gatsby to make an appointment. The finally come and Gatsby meets Daisy again. But he finds Daisy is no longer the ideal love of his dream. A sense of loss and disillusionment come over him. Daisy and Tom do not really love each other. In fact, Tom has a mistress by the name of Myrtle Wilson, who is the wife of the owner of a garage. One day Daisy quarrels with Tom and in a fit of anger she drives Gatsby’s car and kills Myrtle in an accident. In order to protect themselves\, Daisy and Tom plot to shift the blame on to Gatsby, saying Gatsby has an affair with Myrtle and he kills her eventually. Myrtle’s husband George Wilson breaks into Gatsby’s house and shots him to death. The Buchanans escape, and the only two persons attending Gatsby’s funeral are Nick and Gatsby’s father, who reads the news in newspaper. 3 The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby 2. American dream 2.1 The definition of the American dream The American Dream is the concept widely held in the United States of America, which through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve prosperity (often associated with the protestant work ethic). These were the values of the original pioneers who crossed the American plains when Northern Europeans first came to America. What the American dream has become is a question under constant discussion. The American Dream can be described as a belief in the freedom that allows all citizens and residents of the United States of America to achieve their goals in life through hard work. Today, in America it generally refers to the idea that one’s prosperity depends upon one’s own abilities and hard work, nor on a rigid class structure, though the meaning of the phrase has changed over America’s history. For some, it is the opportunity to achieve more prosperity than they could in their countries of origin; for others, it is the opportunity for their children to grow up with an education and career opportunities; for others, it is the opportunities to be an individual without the constrains imposed by class, caste, race or ethnicity. 2.2 The development of the American dream The American dream is a kind of romantic expectation and also a belief in the possibility of achieving some sort of glowing future with hard work and sincere devotion. In the early years, the American dream was Puritan desire for the freedom in religion and creation. Along with the expansion to the west, the American dream developed into the pursuit of happiness, especially of success, including career, love and wealth. After the Civil War, the American dream become more popular and concrete and it made people believe that as long as he worked hard, a poor boy could becomes a millionaire on this wonderful land. 3. The dream of Gatsby 3.1 Gatsby’s wealth dream After reading this novel, we can see that one of Gatsby’s dreams is to be a rich man As a boy, Gatsby is poor and he is not content with things as they are. He works out a schedule in studies in order to change the environment of his family. Gatsby’s schedule is almost the same as the way what Benjamin Franklin wrote in his Autobiography. He asks himself to stick to do the things wrote in his schedule. We can find that Gatsby’s dream is deeply influenced by the American dream. When Gatsby is seventeen, he meets Dan Cody, a fifty years old man, who is rich from his many gold and silver mines in Mexico. Cody’s story has a deep influence to Gatsby and Gatsby’s pure dream begin to deteriorate. 4 The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby After Gatsby meets Daisy, Gatsby becomes more active to achieve his dream which including money, a good job, a beautiful car, a big house, an ideal wife and so on. Of course, money comes first in his goal. When Daisy married Tom, Gatsby becomes more hollow and depraved. He thinks that only money can bring Daisy back. In a few years, Gatsby becomes a very rich man through bootlegging. At this time, his dream has come true in his our heart. He buys a luxurious house near the Daisy’s. What’s more, Gatsby holds parties frequently to meet Daisy and show his richness. And the parties are held to make an impression on his ne social class status. By now, he has gained what got other’s recognition which makes him think that has been elevated into the upper class. In the contrary, the people who went to his parties do not really respect Gatsby as he own thoughts, and his dreams have never come true. In this novel, Cody seems as degraded version of the American dream. And Gatsby’s richness through bootlegging is violates the traditional American dream. All in all, even though Gatsby becomes the great man, but his dream does not come true as the emptiness in his house after the parties. They were just the symbol of his richness. 3.2 Gatsby’s love dream In this novel, we can find that Gatsby’s another dream is his love dream. His love dream means much more important to him than his wealth dream. When Gatsby is serving the army, he falls in love with Daisy, the daughter of a man of wealth. As different class status of them, Gatsby knows he can’t marry Daisy. When Gatsby gets the message that Daisy married Tom, he makes determine to bring her back. He makes efforts to be a rich man so that he could be in the upper class status. In a few years, Gatsby becomes a great man. He still loves Daisy, and he does lots of things to get Daisy back. In order to achieve his love dream, he first buys a big house near Daisy. Then, he often holds parties at weekend nights. What he has done just wants to make Daisy know his richness. And he believes that Daisy may come over to his house one day. As time passed by, we can find his love to Daisy is true and pure. He also has the courage to say that he loves Daisy and Daisy loves her to Tom. What’s more, his love to Daisy also appeals in a story. When Daisy quarrels with Tom, Daisy kills Tom’s mistress by Gatsby’s car by accident. Gatsby bears the responsibility for he loves Daisy. He loses his life and gains nothing. Here, we can see his love to Daisy is so true and so pure. It is his death that shows Gatsby’s contradictions between idea and reality. He cannot wake up in his unreal dream of his love. In my opinion, Gatsby is so childish that when he dies he still thinks Daisy loves him. He is a dreamer in his own life. And I think his love dream would never come true in his whole life. Actually, Gatsby does not know Daisy very well, and he does not know what does Daisy thinks. He does not notice the change of Daisy. Gatsby’s fate turns to be a tragedy as 5 The American Dream during the 1920s—Analysis of Gatsby’s Dream in The Great Gatsby his foolish mind of his love to Daisy. Nobody come to Gatsby’s funeral after his death. The couple just goes to travel and have their happiness. They are so selfish to Gatsby. However, to Gatsby, it is a life filled with wonder, excitement, and self-worth, even though, his idealism is entirely misdirected. In the sense, Gatsby’s dream, just as the American dream, is a fantastic illusion. 4. Conclusion Taking an overview of this novel, at first glance, this novel may be regarded as a love as a love story. However, as we look into this novel deeply, we may find that it’s a story appeal the real society of America in the Jazz Age. In that period, the people pursue the wealth, and the novel reveals the hollowness of the American worship of riches and the unending American dream of love. What’s more, we can see the conflicts between the different social class statuses in America. The class status has a deep influence on the people’s minds, just like Gatsby’s dream. Gatsby makes great efforts to achieve his goal to a great man. By this way, he can make his wealth and especially his love dream come true. In this social background, it’s normal for a person to pursuit his wealth dream in the unrealistic visions. And there is a picture in my impression that is the selfishness of Daisy and Tom. It’s the reflection of the American society and the social morality. What attracts me most is the pure love of Gatsby. But it’s also the Gatsby’s ideal love dream cause his tragedy. Nowadays, there exists the same phenomenon as the American society in the Jazz Age. The people become so selfish that some people aim to gain what they want by all means, both the proper way and the insidious way. And more and more Chinese people pay attention to how they can be wealth and how they can be a great man in their vision, but not the real life they have. We are so thirsty and worried in this material world and we almost lose ourselves in it. 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