象征主义在《了不起的盖茨比》中的运用SymbolisminTheGreatGatsby英语论文.doc

河南科技学院新科学院河南科技学院新科学院 20122012 届本科毕业论文届本科毕业论文 symbolism in the great gatsby 象征主义在 了不起的盖茨比 中的运用 symbolism in the great gatsby contents acknowledgments i abstract in english ii abstract in chinese iii i introduction 1 1 1 fitzgerald and the great gatsby 1 1 2 previous research on the great gatsby 3 ii symbolism 5 2 1 the definition of symbolism 5 2 2 symbolism in literature works 6 iii symbolism in the great gatsby 8 3 1 symbolism in colors 8 3 1 1 green 8 3 1 2 white 10 3 1 symbolism in settings 11 3 1 1 east egg and west egg 11 3 1 2 the valley of ashes 13 3 1 symbolism in animals 15 3 1 1 the dog 15 3 1 1 the moth 16 iv the effects of symbolism in the great gatsby 17 4 1 the effect of symbolism in colors 17 4 2 the effect of symbolism in settings 18 4 3 the effect of symbolism in objects 19 v conclusion 19 bibliography 21 acknowledgments this paper could not have been completed without the help of a number of people here i would like to express my sincere heartfelt gratitude to those who have figured most prominently over the last two years of my graduate study for encouragement support and frank criticism at various stages of development of this paper i am deeply indebted to my supervisor zhang xuena who has afforded me pithy scholarly advice and corrected my paper patiently i am also grateful to my family and friends without whose love and support i could not have completed this paper during the process of writing the paper i had been ill for some days and my parents support me materially and spiritually they bought me some journals and books related to my paper i am really grateful to my family abstract francis scott key fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century s greatest writers and considered as a member of the lost generation of the twenties the great gatsby is widely accepted as a classic of american literature it is not only a great story but an insight into the flows of real life during the roaring twenties this paper analyzes the novel through the perspective of symbolism it consists of five parts the first part introduces fitzgerald and the great gatsby the second part describes the symbolism of the specific meaning and the use of it in literary works the third part mainly discusses the application of symbolism in the great gatsby the fourth part focuses on the effects of symbolism in the great gatsby the fifth part is the conclusion this part gives the prominence to the theme again and explains fitzgerald s special writing style of criticizing american dream the author thinks that beside the excellent technique and style in narrative form and structure its outstanding artistic merit also lies in fitzgerald s original and successful use of symbolism in the novel to depict his view especially of his own times therefore this paper will emphasize on elucidating the intangible meaning of these symbols to readers so that readers can get the further understanding of the great gatsby key words fitzgerald the great gatsby symbolism 摘摘 要要 弗 司格特 菲茨杰拉德是 20 世纪 20 年代美国最杰出的作家之一 被誉为 美国 爵士时代 的代言人和桂冠诗人 了不起的盖茨比 是菲茨杰拉德的代 表作之一 其叙述技巧和结构方面的成就早已被评论界一致公认 并受到人们 的广泛好评 本文立意象征主义的角度来分析这部作品 主要包括五部分 第一部分介 绍了菲茨杰拉德和 了不起的盖茨比 第二部分阐述了象征主义的具体含义 以及它在文学作品的运用 第三部分主要讨论象征主义在 了不起的盖茨比 中的运用 第四部分重点分析颜色 背景和事物的象征意义和作用 第五部分 为总结 这一部分再次突出主题思想 并阐释了菲茨杰拉德批判美国梦的作品 风格的与众不同 笔者认为他在小说中成功而广泛的运用了象征主义手法 突出了其主题思 想 也使菲茨杰拉德批判美国梦的作品风格极为与众不同 富有张力 因此本 论文着重向读者阐述这些象征手法的浓厚含义 使读者能全面而深刻的了解作 者笔下的 了不起的盖茨比 关键词 关键词 弗 司格特 菲茨杰拉德 了不起的盖茨比 象征主义 i introduction 1 1 fitzgerald and the great gatsby francis scott fitzgerald september 24 1896 december 21 1940 is an american author of novels and short stories whose works are the paradigm writings of the jazz age a term he coins himself he is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century s greatest writers and considered as a member of the lost generation of the 1920s the great gatsby is widely accepted as a classic of american literature which is published in 1925 the 1920s proves the most influential decade of fitzgerald s development fitzgerald s marriage is mixed both destructive and constructive fitzgerald draws largely upon his wife s intense and flamboyant personality in his writings at times quoting direct passages from her letters and personal diaries in his work zelda his wife makes mention of this in a 1922 mock review in the new york tribune saying that it seems to me that on one page i recognized a portion of an old diary of mine which mysteriously disappeared shortly after my marriage and also scraps of letters which though considerably edited sound to me vaguely familiar in fact mr fitzgerald i believe that is how he spells his name seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home bruccoli 2000 6 but the impact of zelda s personality on his work and life is often overstated as much of his earliest writings reflect the personality of a first love ginevra king in fact the character of daisy as much represents his inability to cultivate his relationship with king as it does the ever present fact of zelda the great gatsby is regarded as the most mature work of fitzgerald nick carraway the narrator is a young man from minnesota goes to new york city as a bond broker he quickly makes friends with his neighbor the mysterious jay gatsby gatsby the title character and protagonist of the novel is entertaining hundreds of guests at lavish parties gatsby tells nick that he falls in love with nick s cousin daisy however daisy married affluent tom buchanan gatsby persuades nick to help him to win daisy back but has made his money from bootlegging daisy hits and kills myrtle wilson by driving gatsby s car gatsby intends to take the blame and protect daisy tom tells myrtle s husband that gatsby was the driver of the car george who has leapt to the conclusion that the driver of the car which killed myrtle must have been her lover finds gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead he then fatally shoots himself nick arranges a small funeral for gatsby but he realizes only gatsby s father and one former guest attended daisy and tom move away leaving no forwarding address fitzgerald can animatedly describe the mysterious and desired wealth of gatsby as he had the experiences from an indistinct poor to a new talent in the literary word form arduous creative work to overmuch hedonism however what makes the author great is scarcely the author s voice in the novel but symbolically weld the outer world with the individual and the social environment with the personal emotions inconceivably after depicting the whole age fitzgerald reveals a vivid picture of the fall of american to us american dream like nick in the novel the author found the new lifestyle alluring and appealing like gatsby he has long been yearning for the very rich then fitzgerald found himself in this era like nick for one thing he is captivated by the fast tempo carousing lifestyle of new york for another thing he finds that lifestyle absurd and destructive in many respects the novel indicates fitzgerald s effort to face his incompatible feelings about the jazz age just like gatsby fitzgerald can do everything for his lover even the woman leads him toward everything he disdained the great gatsby is one of the greatest literary works of that period in which the american economy upswings bringing extraordinary levels of prosperity to the states prohibition was the political forbiddance of producing transporting and selling alcoholic beverages the eighteenth amendment was imposed in 1917 and was abolished in 1933 it gives birth to millionaires by bootlegging the hip flask filled with bootleg whiskey and displayed openly soon became a familiar symbol of the era every community of any size had their speakeasies where both imported and homemade alcohol cold be purchased the world war i left america in a state of chaos and the people who fought the war turned to furious and excessive living to compensate the staid conservatism and timeworn values of the previous decade were turned on their ears as money opulence and exuberance became the order of the day it is not only a great story but an insight into the flaws of real life during the roaring twenties byan bryan 1991 80 1 2 previous research on the great gatsby critics have generally agreed that the great gatsby published in 1925 is the crowing achievement of fitzgerald s literary career it evokes not only the ambiance of the jazz age searching for the american dream of wealth and happiness but also the larger questions of fading traditional values in the face of increasing materialism and cynicism early reviews of gatsby were mixed and relatively few copies actually had sold before fitzgerald s death in 1940 many critics most notably ernest hemingway were put off by the fact that fitzgerald had been known as a writer of stories for popular magazines like the saturday evening post it was not until a revival of fitzgerald s works in the 1950s that the novel began to attract serious criticism for the five ensuing decades gatsby has continued to attract critical attention and reappraisal critics have praised fitzgerald s tightly woven narrative and many have focused on the position of the narrator nick carraway and the subjective limitations of his observations of gatsby s saga although gatsby was for many years called a novel of the jazz age critics have agreed that it has a much more universal meaning not the least of which is a trenchant critique of materialist american society much like t s eliot s the waste land the appearances of at least four biographies in the 1990s and early 2000s is an indication that interest in fitzgerald s novels remains unabated earlier critics of gatsby emphasized biographical and cultural influences on the novel and formalist approaches dealt with the novel s structure point of view symbols use of language and so on from the 1980s to the 200s a variety of approaches both heavily theoretical and non theoretical have been evident in critics commentaries while many have continued to explore biographical influences or comparisons with other authors or to use new critical analyses others have increasingly employed such techniques as deconstruction feminist criticism and discourse analysis to uncover hidden meanings in the text now people still keep reading the novel many people analyze it though different perspectives such as the stylistic perspective or structuralism by using these narrative skills fitzgerald makes the reader possible to keep some aesthetic distance from the events and the characters in the story liu li 2008 45 a lot of the critical attention has been on the theme american dream the american dream has ultimately becomes corrupt with gradual overemphasis laid on its material fitzgerald keenly detects the tendency of corruption in the 1920 s and gives somber reflection on in his novel the great gatsby hua suyang 2002 12 binary oppositions underlie the content of the great gatsby and the pattern of actions structures the narrative of each character as one picture is seen and appreciated form different perspective quite different sceneries would be enjoyed structuralism opens another window for us zhang junling 2002 38 besides the excellent technique and style in narrative form and structure its outstanding artistic merit also lies in fitzgerald s original and successful use of symbolism in the novel to depict his view especially of his own times and this thesis studies the symbolism in the great gatsby symbolism as a unique artistic technique has two important meanings according to webster one is to explain invisible things by using visible symbols the other is the connection and relation between symbols and meaning hence symbolism in fiction aims to present the hidden things and thoughts under phenomena the employment of symbolism plays a key role in the novel the application of symbolism made this work surpass the narrow individual world connecting the subjective with the objective symbolism transcends the plot the characterization and moral message of the story the employment of symbolism brings the themes of the novels to a new height and contributes to its popularity it was possible to see the relationship between the symbols and themes what the hidden meaning of the story is ii symbolism 2 1 the definition of symbolism the dictionary defines the word symbolism as the use of symbols to represent ideas especially in art and literature a s hornby 2011 1792 referring to symbolism says the encyclopedia britannica originated in the rebellion of some french poets of the late 19th century against the rigid conventions governing both technique and theme in traditional french poetry they launched a literary movement that is late called the symbolist movement the symbolist artists sought to express their emotion through the subtle and suggestive use of highly symbolized language their goal was to create an art that would convey the poet s own inner dream the evocative power of language was stressed and the images and characters were presented in starling ways this movement in the literary field and symbolist works had a strong and lasting influence on the european and american literature of the 20th century just as dialogue and plot work on the surface to move the story along symbolism works under the surface to tie the story s external action to the theme in the development of the fictional narrative the allegory is often produced through symbolism giving the event the person a new meaning and its allegorical counterpart a one to one correspondence or not so one to one in this way symbolism serves as a bridge connecting the visible with invisible and thus reveals the meaning the author is tending to convey symbolism offers the reader a concrete object that actually has a broader abstract meaning to the story this object can be a person an animal or something else all these objects carry with them a wide range of association that stand for something that is beyond any accurate explanation symbolism therefore is an integral component of fiction because it enriches the narrative subtly in addition symbolism is a satisfactory way to present the theme of a story meanwhile it is emotionally satisfying because it makes things easier on the readers part giving them a role to play in interpreting the story and an opportunity to share the author s own emotional experience 2 2 symbolism in literature works just as characterization and dialogue and plot work on the surface to move the story along symbolism works under the surface to tie the story s external action to the theme early in the development of the fictional narrative symbolism was often produced through allegory giving the literal event and its allegorical counterpart a one to one correspondence in john bunyan s pilgrim s progress for example everything and everyone stands for something else the protagonist christian to no one s surprise stands for every christian reader his goal the celestial city stands for heaven the places through which he passes on his way lucre hill vanity fair and the like stand for the temptations bunyan felt that christian readers were likely to encounter on their journey to salvation even the names of christian s fellow travelers mr feeble mind great heart and the like represent not individual characters but states of being john bunyan 2005 124 allegory is undoubtedly the simplest way of fleshing out a theme but it is also the least emotionally satisfying because it makes things a little too easy on the reader we feel that we are being lectured to it s almost as if the author is stopping every sentence or two to say now pay special attention to this because if you don t remember it you won t get the point essentially allegory insults our intelligence allegory also however limits our perceptions the best works of literature are those in which an element of mystery remains those which lend themselves to a variety of interpretations strict allegory seldom does this which is why religious allegory is generally less satisfying than the scriptural story on which it was based to take allegory to the next higher level we arrive at something that for want of a better term can be called symbolism at this level there is still a form of correspondence and yet it is not so one to one and certainly not so blatant whereas allegory operates very consciously symbolism operates on the level of the unconscious this does not mean that the author himself is unconscious of the process of creating symbolism merely that we as readers accept its input without really understanding how it works in shakespeare s hamlet for example we discover that hamlet is fascinated with actors and acting upon reflection an astute reader realizes that this is because hamlet s whole life has become unreal he is being haunted by the ghost of his father his father turns out to have been murdered by his uncle his mother has married his father s murderer the motif of the actors is a symbol for the unreality of hamlet s life similarly near the beginning of f scott fitzgerald s novel the great gatsby there is the famous scene of the valley of ashes where tom buchanan s mistress myrtle lives although fitzgerald never says so it is clear that the valley of ashes represents the real state of tom s soul although to the outside world his residence is in a mansion on the beautiful bay at east egg where everything is opulent and expensive and tasteful the inwardly rotten spiritually desiccated tom really lives where his heart does in a grim ashen valley presided over by a billboard decorated with a huge pair of bespectacled eyes the eyes represent god who sees tom s actions and knows the interior of his heart but ominously seems powerless to intervene other famous symbols are melville s great white whale in moby dick dante s journey into the underworld in the inferno and coleridge s albatross in the rime of the ancient mariner all these concrete objects or places carry within them a wide rang