了不起的盖茨比英文论文

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教育资料 Part One Introduction

1.1 Research Background and Significance

As “the spokesman of a crucial and revealing period in the cultural

field of his country”,(Wang Weiping, 2004:57) Fitzgerald knows the society

clearly due to his rich personal experience and creates many characters

like Gatsby out of the American life. These novels describe the

disillusionment of the American dream in the Jazz Age. And the reason is

always that the transformations of the values of traditional morality make

people not believe in any hero but pursue individual consumption and

enjoyment. Fitzgerald deeply feels the spiritual emptiness and moral

decadence under the superficial splendor and prosperity in that age, so

he is called the spokesman of the Jazz Age. Most of his works describe the

expectation, dissatisfaction and disappointment of the American young

generation in the 1920s. One distinguishing feature of his works is that

the close relationship between his personal experiences and works. Nearly

all the characters in his novel can find the original shapes in reality

sometimes even himself, especially in The Great Gatsby.

1.2 Motivation and Objective

Considering disillusion of the American dream, different people have

different understandings. “In its board sense, it refers to the ideal of

a nation such as democracy, equality and freedom. While in its narrow sense,

it refers to the pursuit of obtaining success of life”. (Wang Weiping,

2004:57) Essentially, the American dream is a confident desire for

perfection by means of progress. But the history and reality of American

have proved that “the American dream” is, to some extent, a kind of illusion.

The great Gatsby is one of the representative works that reflects the

illusory nature of the American dream.

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教育资料 Part Two Gatsby’s American Dream

Gatsby is the representative figure of a self-made man in the twenties.

He is born in a poor family in the west of America, and his parents are

shiftless and unsuccessful farm people. He comes to the big city—New York

where the young men are inspired to make the most of their opportunities

to get the key to be successful. They believe that they can be successful

men in history, just like Benjamin Franklin, who has been man “of humble

origin, narrow fortune, small advantages, and self-taught.” (Chen Qing,

2006:18) The poor boy is inspired to do the great deeds by the example of

Franklin, like Gatsby. So in the end, Gatsby gets wealth and fame by industry.

Some people may think that Gatsby has fulfilled his dream; it is obvious

that Gatsby’s dream is a symbol of the American dream for wealth and youth.

However, Gatsby’s real dream is to win back his first love Daisy but not

to get the money only. Gatsby genuinely has a belief that money can buy

anything, innocently thinking that his wealth can erase the last five years

of his and daisy’s love and reunite them at the original point of 1917. He

falls in love with the beautiful and wealthy girl of the upper class and

he wants to enter into the upper class through his efforts. Although he

devotes his whole life to win the wealth and position, he fails totally

at last. Why does he fail? In the thesis the reasons for his failure would

be discussed.

Part Three Reasons for the Disillusion

3.1 Gatsby’s Dream is out of Connection with the Reality

Gay Gatsby is a great young man who has many superficial characters.

He tries his best to realize his dreams, but he fails at last. The reason

is that he is completely an American dreamer, a man of great imagination

and extraordinary hope. He is willing to do anything to gain the social

status he thinks necessary to win back Daisy who is the “golden girl” in

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教育资料 his dream. His relentless quest for Daisy demonstrates that Gatsby has an

outstanding ability to transform his dreams into reality. But actually,

his great dream is swallowed up by the meanness of the upper class and his

“golden girl”—Daisy, which are the superficial reasons for his failure.

And the deep reason is that his dream is out of connection with the reality.

In fact, the people in the twenties don’t believe in the values of

traditional morality any longer and they have their philosophy of life—to

“seize everyday” and “enjoy every moment”.(Chen Qing, 2006:1)

The differences in the understanding between Daisy and Gatsby narrates

the distance between the dream and reality; while competition between

Gatsby and Tom expresses the strange points of the material wealth and how

fragile of the pursuit of the spirit. And the difference between Gatsby

and upper class people reflects the downfall of the American society. All