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1、The American Dream in “The Great Gatsby”I. IntroductionIn 1925, The Great Gatsby was published and hailed as an artistic and material success for its young author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is considered a vastly more mature and artistically masterful treatment of Fitzgeralds themes than his earlier f
2、iction. When I first know this book in one of American literature classes, I become interested in it.This book mainly told us as a story that the hero-Jay Gatsby fell in love with girl called Daisy in order to gain acceptance into the sophisticated, money world of the women he loves, he tried all me
3、ans to get money. Fitzgeralds dominant theme in the Great Gatsby focuses on the corruption of the American Dream had the assumption that each person could succeed in his life if he can try all means to get money, and also if getting enough money, then he can live happily. This novel examined the res
4、ults of the Jazz age generations adherence to false material values. In my paper, I illustrate the American Dream which revealed through the life of the main characters. Through learning this book, I firm the correct conception of wealth, especially in todays china, the development of market economy
5、 and modernization construction misleads some peoples attitude towards money, I hope my paper can make people know further that wealth is not the name of happiness.II. American Dream and The Great Gatsby A. The connotation of the American DreamThe American Dream, arose in the Colonial period and dev
6、eloped in the nineteenth century, had the assumption that each person could succeed in his life if he can try all means to get money, and also if getting enough money, then he can live happily.The Great Gatsby is a novel about what happened to the American dream in the 1920s. In this period, everybo
7、dy had the dream to change their own life, but what a pity that all their dreams, for example, to achieve fame, success, glamour, and excitement, had been crushed by the vulgar pursuit of wealth as the result. This book is a primary example of American culture. Who wish to succeed in everything we d
8、o, and get caught up in a life with little substance; it becomes plain, like the white dresses Daisy likes to wear. We look far ahead without seeing what should be cherished. The Great Gatsby has fully demonstrated the effects of the American Dream, and drives home the reality that life is not somet
9、hing that can be bought, but made through lasting relationships and the love of extraordinary human beings .The Great Gatsby mirrors our culture in such a way that not reading it would be misunderstanding the very themes that characterize us as human beings. By looking at each character in The Great
10、 Gatsby, we can easily found in that period American Dream was nation wide phenomenon.In Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, all the characters were, in one way or another, attempting to achieve a state of success and happiness in their lives. The main characters were divided into two groups: the rich upp
11、er class and the poorer lower class, which struggled to attain a higher position. Though the major players sought only to change their lives for the better, the idealism and spiritualism of the American Dream was eventually crushed beneath the harsh reality of life, leaving their lives without any m
12、eaning or purpose.B. The Great Gatsby1.The author of the Great Gatsby As the protagonist Jay Gatsbys story in some aspects are based on the writers own experience, here I will give a brief introduction about the author.F.S Fitzgeraldthe writer of the Great Gatsby , played an important role in the Am
13、erican literature during the 1920s and 1930s. He was the representative writer in the “Lost generation” and also the most successful poet in the “Jazz Age”! He was born in St.Paul, Minnesota. His family was considered socially prominent and genteelly poor. With the financial aid of relatives he was
14、sent to prep school and to Princeton. In 1917, in his senior year, he left Princeton to serve in World War I. In Alabama, where he was sent for military training, he fell hopelessly in love with Zelda Sayre, an embodiment of his romantic notions of a Southern Belle. Discharged from the army to win s
15、uccess, fame, and Zelda. He took a job with an advertising agency and worked on short stories and a novel at night. Eventually his first novel, This Side of Paradise, was accepted for publication. The book appeared in March 1920. A week later Fitzgerald and Zelda were married. From then on, he publi
16、shed The Beautiful and Damned(1922),Tales of the Jazz Age(1922) ,The vegetable(1923),The Great Gatsby(1925) and Tender Is Night(1934) etc. The Great Gatsby is one of his famous novels. Many of the characters in his novels are based on people from his life. Within the characters of Nick Carraway and
17、Jay Gatsby we can see the dueling parts of Fitzgeralds own personality. “Gatsby and Fitzgerald are alike by both being self-made men who have achieved financial success. Similarly, they both achieved their financial success for the love of a woman”(Wu Weiren,215). Gatsby felt that he needed wealth t
18、o win the hand of Daisy, and Fitzgerald felt the same about Zelda. The love of a woman was the motivating factor behind virtually all of Gatsbys actions, and many of the young Fitzgeralds. Fitzgerald would spend the majority of his career struggling to earn as much money as possible to maintain the
19、privileged lifestyle that Zelda desired.2.The protagonist: Jay GatsbyJay Gatsby, the title character of The Great Gatsby is a young man, around thirty years old, who rose from an impoverished childhood in rural North Dakota to become fabulously wealthy. However, he achieved this lofty goal by partic
20、ipating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. From his early youth, Gatsby despised poverty and longed for wealth and sophistication-he dropped out of St.Olafs college after only two weeks because he could not bear the janitorial job with which
21、he was paying his tuition. Though Gatsby has always wanted to rich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his love for Daisy Buchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville before leaving to fight in World War I in 1917. Gatsby immediately fell in love with Daisys aura of
22、luxury, grace and charm, and lie to her about his own background in order to convince her that he was good enough for her. Daisy promised to wait for him when he left for the war, but married Tom Buchanan in 1919.From that time on ,Gatsby dedicated himself to winning Daisy back,and his acquisition o
23、f millions of dollars, his purchase of a gaudy mansion on West Egg,and his lavish weekly parties are all merely means to the end. Fitzgerald delays the introduction of most of this information until fairly late in the novel. Gatsbys reputation precedes himGatsby himself does not appear in a speaking
24、 role until chapterIII. Fitzgerald initially presents Gatsby as athe aloof, enigmatic host of the unbelievably opulent parties thrown every week at his mansion. He appears surrounded by spectacular luxury, courted by powerful men and beautiful women. He is the subject of a whirlwind of gossip throug
25、hout New York and is already a kind of legendary celebrity before he is ever introduce to the reader. Fitzgerald propels the novel forward through the early chapters by shrouding Gatsbys background and the source of his wealth in mystery. As a result, the readers first, distant impression of Gatsby
26、strike quite a different note from that of the lovesick, nave young man who emerges during the later part of the novel. “Fitzgerald uses this technique of delayed character revelation to emphasize the theatrical quality of Gatsbys approach to life, which is an important part of his personality(Chang
27、 Yaoxin, 53). This talent self-invention is what gives Gatsby his quality of “greatness”: indeed, the title “The Great Gatsby” is reminiscent of billings for such vaudeville magicians as “The Great Houdini” and “The Great Blackstone,” suggesting that the person of Jay Gatsby is a masterful illusion.
28、 III. American Dream of Tom and Daisy, Myrtle Wilson, Jay GatsbyBy describing the life of characters: Tom and Daisy, Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald revealed that the American Dream had been transformed into a scheme of materialistic power.“People in
29、the 1920s, whether they felt the time to be liberating or frightening, very often found themselves flooded with a sense that theirs was a decade in which all was changing, all was new”(Lutz Catherine, 6). A. Tom and Daisys American DreamTom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich socialite couple, seemed to ha
30、ve everything they could possibly desire; however, though their lives were full of material possessions, they were unsatisfied and sought to change their circumstances. Tom Buchanan: An ex-football star from the same college Nick Carraway attended, Tom was described as a nation figure in a way, one
31、of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax (F.Scott.Fitzgerald, 32). Now thirty, Tom had become enormously wealthy, yet remained physically powerful with his cruel bodyand arrogant eyes (F.Scott.Fitzgerald, 32). Tom, the ar
32、rogant ex-football player, drifted on “forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (Fitzgerald, 34) and read “deep books with long words in them” (Fitzgerald, 34) in order to have something to talk about. Though he appeared happily married to D
33、aisy, Tom had an affair with Myrtle Wilson and kept an apartment with her in New York. Toms basic nature of unrest prevented him from being satisfied with the life he lead, and so he created another life for himself with Myrtle. He did things that he wanted to do, he did not concern himself with the
34、 consequences of his action, and he had never had to. Because he was born in a family that was wealthy, this made him a spoiled man. He spend his whole life doing things like that because that he was a careless man who wont be bothered by the suffering he caused. He was extremely self-absorbed and a
35、n extremely careless man.Why Tom can live such life? Its an easy thing to find that Toms important value is wealth. He was very rich and thought that it made him superior to other people. He enjoyed showing off his possessions, Ive got a nice place here. It belonged to the Demaine oil man (Fitzgeral
36、d, 16). In this case, Tom was showing Nick his house and obviously thought that because it belonged to the Demaine oil man that it made it a little more important. Tom thought that poor people were inferior to him and he was quite the snob. He was from old money and often referred to the newly rich
37、as bootleggers, people who distributed alcohol during prohibition. Tom didnt think much of Gatsby, and claimed that he pegged him as a bootlegger the moment he saw him. When Daisy told Tom that she was leaving him for Gatsby he said, Shes not leaving me! Certainly not for a common swindler whod have
38、 to steal the ring to put on her finger! (Fitzgerald, 69). Later, Tom even sent Daisy home with Gatsby, obviously to show he always looked down upon Jay Gatsby and he was a presumptuous man.Tom was not only a self-absorbed man but also a careless man. He wanted things to do according to his own mind
39、. Controlling over other people was a common thing in Toms life. Throughout the novel he had shown, time and time again that he was the type of person who liked to control others and what they did. He often talked to George Wilson, his mistresss husband about selling him his car, which he never actu
40、ally intended to do. He was simply toying with the man, but become angry when Wilson tried to talk to him about it: Very well then, I wont sell you the car at all. Im under no obligations to you at all.And as for your bothering me about it at lunch time I wont stand for that at all! (Fitzgerald, 76)
41、. Tom was being extremely cruel at that moment because Wilson needed the money that would come from the car and Tom didnt care. There were times when Tom lost his temper when people didnt obey him. When Myrtle Wilson started shouting Daisys name (she said that she could say it whenever she wanted to
42、), Tom broke her nose. Later in the novel Tom couldnt stand it when he realized that his wife and mistress were slipping from his control. He confronted Gatsby in the hotel and said, I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if thats the
43、idea then you can count me out (Fitzgerald, 103). Later, he ordered Daisy to go home with Tom. That was how he handled the situation. Tom also valued aesthetics, which meant tasteful or sensitive to beauty. That is not to say that his actions were very tasteful, but that he acted like man of high cl
44、ass and good taste. He bought extravagant things such as a bunch of polo ponies or a $350 000 string of pearls for Daisy. He was concerned with what he saw as the loss of his own high status and was the perfect example of old money. He was extremely pompous: he married the girl that everyone wanted
45、and when he did that he came from Chicago with a hundred people in four private cars and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel( Hu Yintong, 47). Tom valued expensive things that were both beautiful and tasteful. But he didnt cherish them spiritually.Tom also valued morality, but it didnt practic
46、e in fact. He condemned the affair between Daisy and Gatsby and even claimed that it was a step toward the eventual collapse of society and inter-racial marriage: Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions and next theyll throw everything overboard and have intermarriag
47、e between black and white(Ward.Affred C, 34). Tom was the ultimate hypocrite: he condemned his wifes affair but had no qualms about his own infidelity. He even admited, Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool out of myself, but I have always come back, and in my heart I love her all the
48、time( Fitzgerald, 79) What kind of a person preached about the decline of society, using his wifes infidelity as proof and yet didnt blame his own actions.Tom was a very wealthy person in that period. He had his own mind and life style. He wanted to do everything he liked to do, never consider other
49、s feeling. His values were all shallow and in his own self interest. Daisy Buchanan was Toms 23-year-old wife, Nicks second cousin, and Gatsbys version of the Holy Grail. Daisy was an empty figure, a woman with neither strong desires nor beliefs. Even before her loyalty to either Tom or Gatsby was put to the test, Daisy did nothing but sat around all day and wondered what to do with herself. She knew that Tom had a mistress on the side, yet hesitated to lea
