The Great Gatsby and the American Dream.doc

the great gatsby and the american dream盖茨比及其美国梦摘要了不起的盖茨比是菲茨杰拉德的一部名著,通过对盖茨比的悲剧的描写再现了美国20 世纪20 年代“迷惘一代”的美国梦的必然破灭。作品深刻反映了社会现实,揭示了美国社会浮华背后的精神危机,揭露了生活在美国爵士时代的不同阶层在金钱面前的不同表现和美国梦的必然破灭。主人公杰伊盖茨比是美国梦的牺牲品, 他的一生充满了悲剧性的色彩,他的梦想的破灭正是美国二十世纪前半期的写照, 他的这种梦想也是美国人当时心态的反映。盖茨比的执著追求归于毁灭, 有着其深刻的社会原因: 扭曲变质了的美国梦、美国社会的道德和价值观念的沦丧和堕落。本文首先阐述了美国梦的定义及演变，然后简介作者和作品的背景。第三部分细讲盖茨比的财富梦和爱情梦。最后认为美国梦的破灭是必然的及其给世人的启迪。关键词：了不起的盖茨比;美国梦;财富梦;爱情梦abstractthe great gatsby is one of fitzgeralds masterpieces. the author vividly presents the doomed failure of the lost generation in the 1920s by describing the tragedy of gatsby. the novel reflects the social reality, displays spiritual crisis behind the vanity, and reveals how the different strata in americas jazz age regarded money and the bankruptcy of the american dream. jay gatsby is the victim of american dream and his life is full of tragedy. the wreckage of his dream is just the reflection of american life in the first half of the twentieth century. gatsbys dream also reflects the state of mind of americans at that time. there are several reasons for gatsbys failure (from his pursuit of the dream to the destruction of his life): the corrupted american dream, the ruined moral and values in america. the paper firstly tells the definition and derivation of the american dream. then it gives a brief introduction of the background of the author and the work. the third part is the analysis of gatsbys fortune dream and love dream. finally, the author points out the inevitable disillusion of the american dream and presents the enlightenments of the novel.key words: the great gatsby; american dream; fortune dream; love dreamcontents1 introduction12 the american dream22.1 the definition22.2 the development33 the background of f. scott fitzgerald and the great gatsby33.1 the social background33.2 the writing background44 gatsby and his american dream54.1 gatsby and his fortune dream54.2 gatsby and his love dream85conclusion12references13acknowledgements14the great gatsby and the american dream1 introductionin the 1920s, f. scott. fitzgerald, a famous american writer wrote his masterpiece called the great gatsby which is known for its beautiful language, subtle techniques and so on. it also reveals the disillusion of the american dreamthe disparity between material richness and spiritual emptiness which is an irony of the american value system. to certain extent, the tragedy of gatsby is the tragedy of the time. gatsby himself is the victim of the whole society. the 1920s in america was a time of carefree prosperity, isolation from the worlds problems, bewildering social change and feverish pursuit of pleasure. the social, cultural, and historical milieu of the 1920s reflected in its pages is not so different from our own. f. scott fitzgerald is widely praised as the finest and most celebrated novelist of the twentieth century america. fitzgeralds masterpiece the great gatsby, as “the great american novel”, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. it is the classic novel about the american dream, one of the great novels of the 20th century as it captures perfectly some essential quality of the american myth and dream of the jazz age. the novel has profoundly portrayed the unsatisfied desire of wealth and displayed the theme of the novelthe disillusion of american dream. the novel can enrich the readers understanding of that time and make the readers know better about the influence of american dream on american society. america in the 1920s experienced superficial economic prosperity and also the latent crisis. the superficial economic prosperity and the business development distorted the american dream. people at that time believed that money could buy everything and that, if you had money, you could get whatever you wanted. from the first world war to the 1930s, the american youth pursued the american ream blindly and feverishly. at last, their dreams were all dashed to the ground. gatsby was not an exception. the great gatsby is a gripping tragedy of the realization and disillusion of the american dream. the reason why it can be distinctive from the customary money and banal love and brings amazement and warning to people is the woe in the construction of the dream. gatsbys pertinacity and artistic charm woke up the lost dream of people. the american dream made people combine it with the better days. they believed that material wealth could help them to realize the dream while the reality was not the case. gatsby did not understand the real function of money in society. the american dream and better days that he believed are just a great lottery which was entirely incompatible with the social reality. 2 the american dream 2.1 the definitiondream means an unrealized ideal that expresses a resolution or belief. the early americans who held this sort of dream came to america and hoped to achieve great successes in a short time. america becomes an attractive place called paradise where every person can realize their dreams, so america becomes a mythology. as we all know, “the american dream” has great effects on american history, especially on the life of american people, but what is, indeed, “the american dream”? different people have different understanding and interpretation. the so-called american dream, is a belief that after a hard struggle the united states will be able to achieve the ideal of a better life, that is, people have to work through their own hard work, courage, creativity and determination to move towards prosperity, rather than rely on specific social classes and other assistance. many european immigrants hold the american dream as the ideal of the united states. despite some criticism of the american dream of excessive emphasis on material wealth and happiness, many americans really believe that the success of such an opportunity which is not found in other countries also does not exist in america. more and more people from different nations would like to pursue their american dreams in the us. so the american dream also characterizes serious american fiction. the great gatsby written by f. scott. fitzgerald is indeed one of the representative works that reflects the illusory nature of the american dream.2.2 the development 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 became more popular and concrete and it made people believe that as long as he worked hard, a poor boy could become a millionaire on this wonderful land.3 the background of f. scott fitzgerald and the great gatsby 3.1 the social background when human history develops into the twentieth century, the american dream becomes the main aim of americans. at the end of the first world war, one of the most important literary developments took place, in which a new group of writers called “the lost generation” rebelled against former ideas and values, but they replaced the former only with despair and cynical hedonism. american literature of 1920s is characterized by disillusion of ideals and by civilization that the capitalist society advocates. the lost generation in the 1920s shows a sense of loss after the first world war. the charge that f. scott fitzgerald was an irresponsible writer is refuted by the composition of the great gatsby. he began planning the novel during the summer of 1922 which is set in the midwest and new york at the end of the nineteenth century. at that time, he announced his decision to write “something newsomething extraordinary and beautiful and simpleintricately patterned.” (matthew j. bruccoli and margaret m.duggan, 1980: 112) the decade influences fitzgerald and his writing a lot, just as arthur mizener observed that “scott fitzgerald had an imaginative sense of the experience of the 1920s, who was indeed a writer so closely related to his time. he was in danger of being wholly absorbed by his sense of it and of writing books that would not survive it.”( eble kenneth, 1973:100) fascinated by the content of the american dream, f. scott fitzgerald employed what he knew and what he had, either directly or indirectly, experienced in post-war america to dramatize the disillusion that he felt amid the american greatness.3.2 the writing background among american writers in the 1920s, f. scott. fitzgerald is crowned with the most incredible achievement in the united states. his masterpiece, the great gatsby, conjures up the image of the roaring twenties, the age of flapper and the jazz age. its writing background was in the 1920s in america which was a time of carefree prosperity, isolation from the worlds problems, bewildering social change and a feverish pursuit of pleasure. the decade is often referred to as the jazz age. america had just come out of the first world war, one of the bloodiest and most violent episodes in this nations history. the protagonist, jay gatsby, a poor young man, falls in love with a rich girl while he is serving as an officer in the army during the first world war. she loves him but marries someone else when she has given up on his coming back to her. a few years later, he becomes rich and tries to persuade her to leave her husband for him. she nearly does, but instead stays with her husband. she kills her husbands mistress in an automobile accident. but the dead womans husband, deceived into thinking that gatsby is responsible, kills gatsby and then himself. f. scott. fitzgerald bitterly portrays the lamentable scenes he catches in the course of ethical and cultural collapse through disillusion of the american dream. in the great gatsby, there is a metaphor for an entire era when he portrays gatsbys world as an endless extravagant party, in which flappers seek frenetic pleasure. fitzgeralds novel the great gatsby is a parody of the american dream, because in the experience of jay gatsby we have the corruption of the dream itself, that is, the traditional devotions wasted on spiritual gumdrops and material trivialities.4 gatsby and his american dream4.1 gatsby and his fortune dreamit is the american culture that teaches gatsby to exert himself to “go ahead” in the world. he dreames to become a great man. as a boy, gatsby has high aspirations. he is not content with things as they are. trying to build up family fortunes and reach his goal, gatsby works out a schedule in studies. he forces himself to get up early every morning and then exercise with dumbbells and wall-scaling. the schedule and the resolve are nearly the same as what benjamin franklin wrote in his autobiography which are also an echo of typical benjamin franklins resolve concerning thrift, health and the goal of advancement. in the schedule, we discover the roots of gatsbys transcendental vision and it indicates one of the suggestions throughout the novel that gatsbys dream is deep-rooted in the american dream. however, the young gatsby is nothing.at the age of seventeen, gatsby meets dan cody on the lake superior. dan cody, a fifty years old man, is very rich from his many gold and silver mines in mexico. then cody does business in montana and accumulates millions of properties. actually he is a typical playboy who brings the couth and bad habits of border brothel and hotel to the eastern coast areas. when gatsby makes acquaintance with cody, cody is squandering what he earned in his youth which goes against with gatsby dream, but gatsby admires him. under the influence of cody, gatsbys thoughts and pure dream begin to deteriorate. then gatsby goes to the service, he falls in love with wealthy daisy. daisy eventually marries tom buchanan because of his status and money. however, the love failure does not let him frustrated and depressed. on the contrary, it stimulates his fighting spirit. he finds out what he wants to be. his ideals include money, a good job, a beautiful car, a mansion, an ideal wife and so on, among which money is the material base. as everyone knows, one can do nothing without money. then gatsbys dream has material change and at that time, he is extremely hollow and depraved. in order to make more money, gatsby connives with gangland and tries all dirty means. in a few years, he changes from riches to rags through bootlegging. then he spends the bulk of his energy acquiring wealth and appearing wealthy to prove that his dream has come true. first, gatsby changes his name when he gets rich, for he doesnt want others to know his hard experience in the past and he is afraid that people like tom may look down upon him. so he constructs a new identity for himself because he is uncomfortable with his actual background. then he moves into long island, east of new york which is divided in the novel by a courtesy bay into two egg-shaped islandseast egg and west egg. they are dissimilar in every particular detail except in shape and size. the bay is a line of demarcation which separates the upper class from the lower class. the very rich live in big mansions in east egg while the poor and middle class inhabit in small and shabby houses in west egg. here the places where lives can show off his social status. one of the most fantastic descriptions in the novel is about his luxurious mansion which is also another way to appear wealthy. compared with the buchanans cheerful redand-white georgian colonial mansion inherited from their noble ancestors, gatsbys house is simply a factual imitation of the hotel de ville in normandy. in order to show off his great fortune, gatsby builds a house by imitating the old aristocratic style. whats more, gatsbys mansion is sparking under thin beard of raw ivy. this suggests his desire of incorporating into the upper class. besides the colossal mansion, gatsby is also noted for his most fabulous parties held in his mansion every weekend night. every time when gatsby holds the party, he would ask the servants to make up his mansion for the party and hire a big group of musicians to play music for dancing, which makes his parties decent and attractive. apparently, the parties are lively and crowded with numerous guests, and for gatsby, the parties are held to make an impression. he was engaged in his wealthy dream, enjoying the envy from other people. with his showiness about money, gatsby thinks his dream has come true. he lives in a huge mansion, holds lavish parties, wears pink suits and silver shirts, and prefers his big automobiles to be in a showy cream color. he has gained what other rich people have and the poor dream of. his identity, status and wealth have got others recognition which makes him think that he has been elevated into the upper class. however, all his realized dreams are fabricated and his dreams have never come true. in his eyes, the party is a tool to gain social recognition, which is held to show his social equality with the noble people like the buchanans. the parties do succeed in drawing people from all walks of life, but gatsby doesnt gain social recognition and sincere relationship as he wants. on one hand, gatsby deliberately hides himself from the crowded guests. he has no interest in getting involved in the party. he needs to hide his real identity and carefully plays the role as a rich nobleman. on the other hand, the guests come to the party only for the sake of reveling and merry-making. most of the guests belong to the dull and careless community. for example, doctor webster civet drowned last summer up in maine, clarence endice who came to the party and had a fight with a bum named etty in the garden, and henry l. palmetto killing himself by jumping in front of a subway train in times square. they are empty-minded people, seeking revels everyday. their life is hollow and meaningless as they cannot find any positive ambitions or future goals. they just come to seek pleasure and couldnt establish sincere relationship with gatsby. whats more, the rumors from the guests about gatsby are also wild, glittering and chaotic that he is a german spy and a murderer. so he is not respected by people from their hearts, and his dreams have never come true. in the novel, although gatsbys fortune dream seems to have been achieved, he never succeeds through his own hard work, courage, creativity and determination. he is rich through bootlegging, which violates the traditional american dream. here, dan cody and meyer woolfsheim seems as degraded version of the american dream. both of them help to make gatsby, and thus could hardly be the embodiment of the lasting purity of the american dream. whats more, gatsby has not broken away from their influence. if they are the debauched version of the american dream, so is gatsby. gatsbys transcendentalism can not have proper object in a corrupted material world. the dream is indeed “already behind” gatsby, but he remains as innocent as when he was 17 years old and can not see through the social reality. although gatsby is very rich, he is extremely hollow. therefore, he buys luxurious mansions, exquisite automobiles, floatplane and ostentatious clothes. every weekend when gatsby holds the party, the mansion is crowded with people. his blue garden is decorated like a palace in which men and women are enjoying themselves. however, after the party, the mansion is imbued with emptiness which better shows that gatsby is internally empty and he just uses parties to fill up his internal hollowness. though he is a seemingly great man, he actually receives no sinc