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OUTLINEAbstractKey WordsI. IntroductionII. Background 2.1 Life Experience 2.2 Social RealityIII. Use of Symbolism 3.1 The Symbolism of Name3.1.1 Daisy3.1.2 Gatsby3.1.3 Tom 3.2 The Symbolism l of Setting3.2.1 East Egg and West Egg3.2.2 The Valley of Ashes3.3.3The Eyes of Dr.T,J,Eckleburg3.3 The Symbolism of Color3.3.1 Green-Hope, Dream, Envy3.3.2 Blue- Quiet Melancholy, Fantasy3.3.3 Yellow (Golden) - Fame, Fortune, Fall 3.3.4 White-Purity, Indifference, Empty3.3.5 Grey-Desolation Ruins Desperation. ConclusionBibliography中文标题、摘要、关键词On the Function of the Symbolism in Expressing Theme of The Great GatsbyAuthor：xierongfeng Number： Tutor：liuguoyingAbstract: F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short story writer, is widely consider the literary spokesman of the “jazz age”-the decade of the 1920s .In 1925, Fitzgerald published his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby .In this book, he employs all kinds of names, settings and colors as symbols to reflect the characteristics of the age and to deepen the theme of the work. The author of the paper mainly analyzes the function of the symbolism in manifesting the theme- disillusion of American dream-of the work from there aspects of the symbols-name, setting and color. Key Words: Symbolism; American dream; The Great Gatsby.IntroductionF. Scott Fitzgerald was born in a not rich family, so he wanted to earn lots of money to become rich to enjoy high quality life. To satisfy his wifes limitless requirements, he lived a very hard life. The tempo of his life slackened as his life was shredded by Zeldas insanity and his own self-destructive alcoholism. Through years of emotional and physical collapse he struggled to repair his life by writing for Hollywood-producing at the same time a series of stories that exposed his humiliation there. He became one of the greatest writers in American literature and wrote many works in his lifetime to manifest the life reality of that time. 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. He fell from favor as a writer when the indulgent decade of his triumph went down under the impact of a worldwide Depression in the 1930s. The Great Gatsby is regarded as his masterpiece. First published on April 10, 1925, the story is set in Long Islands North Shore and New York City during the summer of 1922. The novel tells of Gatsby ,an idealist , who tries to recapture his lost love but in vain and is finally destroyed by the influence of the wealthy people around him .The story deals symbolically with the failure of the American dream as personified in the rich and beautiful woman Daisy who belongs to corrupt society .The Great Gatsby evokes a haunting mood of a glamorous, wild time that seemingly will never come again. It is about the loss of an ideal and the disillusionment that comes with the failure embodied fully in the personal tragedy of a young man (Gatsby) whose “incorruptible dream” is “smashed into pieces by the relentless reality”. Gatsbys failure to realize his ideal symbolizes the disillusionment of the American Dream. Also, Gatsbys intensity of dream represents a state of commitment takes him in search of his personal grail; Gatsbys failure magnifies to a great extent the end of the American Dream. However, the affirmation of hope and expectation is self-asserted in F. Scott Fitzgeralds artistic manipulation of the central symbol in the novel, the green light, II. Background 2.1 Life Experience F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 into a St,Paul middle-class family . After an unsuccessful undergraduate career at Princeton, he entered the Army as a second Lieutenant and while in 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 in 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. The speed of his life slackened as his life was shredded by Zeldas 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 a worldwide Depression in the 1930s. Through years of emotional and physical collapse he struggled to repair his life by writing for Hollywood-producing at the same time a series of stories that exposed his humiliation there. 2.2 Social RealityThe writer lived in the 1920s which is called the Jazz Age in American literature. Following the shock and chaos of World War I, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the roaring 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers and led to an increase in organized crime. Although Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his novel, idolized the riches and glamour of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and lack of morality that went with it.The American Dream is the faith held by many in the United States of America that though hard work, courage, and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations. Nowadays the American Dream has led to an emphasis on material wealth as a measure of success and/or happiness. American Dream also refers to the dream of material success, in which one, regardless of social status, acquires wealth and gains success by working hard and good luck. The novel is remarkable for its evocation of an atmosphere of conflict and paradox. The party is crowded and yet empty. The night is beautiful but garish. The scene not only epitomizes the Jazz Age, its superficiality and tawdriness and its equally powerful sweetness and charm, but also represents the authors major theme: the disillusion of American Dream,III. Use of Symbolism Symbol means an act, a person, a thing, or a spectacle that stands for something else, usually something else palpable than that the named symbol. The relationship between the symbol and its referent is not often one of simple equivalence with. Allegorical symbols usually express a neater equivalence with what they stand for than the symbol found in modern realistic fiction. The term symbolism refers to the use of symbol, or to a set of related symbols; however it is also the name given to an important movement in later 19th-century and early 20th-century poetry: for this sense, see Symbolists. One of the important features of Romanticism and succeeding phase of Western literature was a much more pronounced reliance upon enigmatic symbolism in both poetry and prose fiction, sometimes involving obscure private codes of meaning, as in the poetry of Blake and Yeats. In the novel -The Great Gatsby, the writer has used many kinds of symbols, such as the symbolism of name, setting and color to manifest the theme of the novel and reflect the social reality of that time. 3.1 The Symbolism of NameIn the novel, the author uses symbolism skillfully, characterizing the roles, deepening the theme and reflecting the characteristics of the times. We are talking about most is the sound and color of the symbolic significance, and often overlooked symbolic meaning of symbolic name in the novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald treated the naming of the characters in the novel can be described as Originality. We all have a certain extent generated a fixed views on the habit of name, and the names of the characters in The Great Gatsby” have the intention to help shape the characters, deepen the theme of the novel, to guide readers to understand the deeper level of the ideological content of the novel.3.1.1 Gatsby Gatsby is the most important character of this novel. In order to win his beloved woman-Daisy back, he engages himself in bootlegging and other “shabby” activities, thus earning enough money to buy a magnificent imitation French villa. There he spreads dazzling parties every weekend in hope of alluring the Buchanans to come. They finally come and Gatsby meets Daisy again, only to find that the woman before him is not quite the ideal love of his dreams. Finally he was dead in innocently. His death is the product of carelessness and chance. Nick imagines it: I have an idea that Gatsby didnt believe himself that it the phone call from Daisy would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old worm world, paid a high price for living so long with a dingle dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously aboutlike the ashen ,fantastic gliding toward him though the amorphous trees.( Fitzgerald,2005,168) In the novel. Fitzgerald both recreated “the American Dream”, the dream of innocent, pastoral American Created by mans capacity for wonder, and also sees it as a nostalgic desire for that which time itself defeats, As Gatsby is an artistic surrogate, chasing with his “creative passion” a symbol that is both transcendent and corrupted, The Great Gatsby is a symbolist tragedy.3.1.2 DaisyDaisy is Tom Buchanans wife, her name is Daisy Fay, and her first and last names are important symbols in the novel. Fay means fairy, and Daisy is like the princess in a fairy tale and also means a little yellow flower. A daisy flower is yellow on the inside and contains white petals on the outside. Similarly, Daisy is pure and innocent outside for she always dresses in white, a symbol of purity and innocence, and drives a white car. However she is also coward and corrupt on the inside, symbolic of the color yellow. Daisys character symbolizes many of the rich girls of the authors time. Since F. Scott Fitzgerald was not rich, he could not date or marry any of these girls, which is similar to Gatsby. Daisys character also contains much charm, although her personality is empty. Her character symbolizes the “alluring aspects of monetary wealth” and represents how devoid it can be once attained. Daisy and Gatsbys relationship illustrates that money cannot bring happiness; money cannot bring the lost thing cone back. From the very beginning of their relationship, Gatsby realizes Daisys requirements for a wealthy lifestyle. When Daisygives birth to a daughter, she said,” thats the best thing a girl can be in this word ,a beautiful little fool ” (Fitzgerald,2005,24) Daisy is clever enough to understand the limits imposed on her and has become indulgent because of them. The word careless also describes Daisy well. She has very much trapped in herself. Part of this is due to the fact that she had been spoiled all her life. She was born into money and had an endless assortment of men who would continue to spoil her. 3.1.3 TomTom Buchanan, the wealthy ex-athlete from Yale, is a liar, a hypocrite, and a bully. Being born into a family that is wealthy has made Tom a spoiled man. He hasnt really worked his entire life and instead spends his days in indulgence and ease. He has a shameless affair with Myrtle because it satisfies his requirements. He shows off their relationship in public because he dose not concern himself with the results of his actions, ha has never had to. This is also why he and Daisy escape in the end of the book. There was a situation they would have to face and they didnt want to. So they ran to their money and fled the situation, leaving it to be dealt with by others, Tom will spend his whole life doing things like that because that who he is: A careless man whole wont be bothered by the suffering he causes. The splendor of his surroundings is equaled only by his stupidity and “hard malice.” Today we would call him the perfect example of the upper-class fascist, who, obsessed with fear that the black races may overthrow “Nordic Supremacy,” sees himself “on the last barrier of civilization.” His fear, however, sharpens his cunning, and position in society gives him the opportunity to use it. Not only doses he lies to Myrtle Wilson, but with ruthless contempt, he exploits her husband, George, as an instrument of revenge on Gatsby. Morally speaking, he is the real murderer of Gatsby. 3.2 The Symbolism l of SettingThe use of setting is nit only a crucial contribution part a storys success but also a primary indicator of its authors artistry. The use of setting represents an extraordinary achievement in Fitzgeralds fiction-writing career. Through his powerful visions and descriptive skills, settings in his fiction are always featured charming but elusive, heavily weighed with symbolic connotations. They help him dramatize his perspectives of life. Each scene seems like a parable, functioning as suggestively as a microcosm of the whole American society. Fitzgerald believed that setting could be used as a rich source of imagery to objectively the social treed and individual desire at a certain time and to turn a story into a parable. The definition of the setting in fiction can be defined as a place presented by fixed descriptions, or indirect reference in the narrative or in the speeches of characters, a place that serves as the site as the necessary showplace for a sequence of actions or for an evolving pattern of human relations. If we read The Great Gatsby carefully, we can see a telling example of how a setting can make an essential contribution to the books mood. And we can also understand that as a key factor in the creation of atmosphere, a given scene plays a major part in rising, developing, maintaining, and repeating feelings in fiction. 3.2.1 East Egg and West EggThe address of the story had happened has been divided into two parts- East Egg and West Egg. In the beginning of the novel, Nike described the situation of these two Eggs. “I lived at West Egg, the well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a seasonmy own house is a eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbors lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires-all for eighty dollars a month. ” (Fitzgerald,2005,6) “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans . Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and Id known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago. ” (Fitzgerald, 2005, 7) The early American culture originated in the eastern colonies. After the Revolutionary War, America separated from the rule of British, but its thought, culture and ideology in the eastern U.S. still maintained much colonial shadow. With the forward t of American West Movement, As for absence of the heavy pressure of history, the Western civilization often showing more passion and vigor, giving a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Eastern and western are not just two conceptions of regions any more, but on behalf of contradictions and conflicts in two values between tradition and modern, conservation and innovation. East Egg and West Egg has become an important scene pre-ambushed in the novel. In East Egg, there lived Tom and Daisy who was born in rich and powerful family. They are of graceful and elegant on the surface, but cruel and greedy in their hearts. In West Egg, there lived Gatsby who was born in a poor family, was full passion and eager for success. The author set the historic and realistic situation into the symbolic regions. At the same time, the conflicts of regional conception ultimately reflected on the tragic fate of the characters which made the novel be of more far-reaching realistic significance,3.2.2 The Valley of AshesFitzgeralds striking description of the “valley of ashes” in chapter2 of his book. The “valley of ashes” is the symbols in the work. “About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joints the railroad and runs besides it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashesa fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and , finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawl along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swamp up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight. (Fitzgerald, 2005, 29)” The valley of ashes is the barren wasteland where the blue collar, working class people live in The Great Gatsby and is covered with dust from the ashes to symbolize no hope for the future. He exemplifies the people who live in the valley of ashes. He is a “spiritless” and “anemic” pale blond man whose life lacks purpose and meaning. The Great Gats