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1、ChapterIntroduction to Fitzgerald and Summary of the Great Gatsby1.1 Introduction to FitzgeraldF.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) enjoyed the same reputation of the famous American writer with Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, in the 20th century. He is best known for his novels and short stories a
2、nd he is generally regarded as the literary spokesman of the Jazz Age. He is the mirror of the times during the 1920s in American society. Fitzgerald was both a victim and an onlooker of the extravagant American society. It was the golden age of American novels during 1920s to 1930s, but this time a
3、lso known as the Jazz Age.” Also it is to create the era of the American dream. In which he indulged at the same time, Fitzgerald looks on, with their own taste of it lays the unique perspective of the coaching, with all the serious moral standards, and describe a post-war United States lost generat
4、ion for the destruction of the American Dream sad. As much as he enjoyed the “roaring” of the post-war boom years, he foresaw its doom and failure.Fitzgerald was a new literary voice ,and his masterpieces include The Beautiful and Damned ,The Great Gatsby ,and Tender Is the Night ,Tales of the Jazz
5、Age,This Side of Paradise. And the Great Gatsby stands smong the greatest of all American novels .It is the embodiment of Jazz Age in almost every day .Maybe for this reason ,he enjoyed great reputation in the world . To everyones regret ,he died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four.It is a bi
6、g loss for the world .Earnest Hemingway memorized that “Now that he could write The Great Gatsby ,I believe he could write a better book .”Therefore ，it was impossible to turn reality .1.2 The Summary of the Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is set against the ending of the war. The Great Gatsby is an a
7、ct of faith ,and an act of courage .It mainly tells of Gatsbys quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan .They meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby a poor officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal
8、, humiliating, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. Nick Caraway, the narrator of the story, is a young Miderwesterner who sells bonds in New York. He lives at West Egg, Long Island, which is separated from the city by an ash-dump. His neighbor is Jay Gatsby, who is a mysterious man, whose mansion and f
9、abulous entertainments are financed by bootlegging and other criminal activities .When Gatsby was a poor army officer, he had fallen in love with Daisy, Nicks beautiful cousin, but later Daisy married Tom Buchanan, who is wealthy but intelligent and brutal. After the war ,Gatsby devotes himself blin
10、dly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means available to him with a view to regaining Daisys love .However，Daisy is not what she used to be .She is in pursuit of money and social status .”Her voice is full of money”, Gatsby says admiringly ,in one of the novels most famous descriptions .With huge
11、 wealth accumulated ,Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island from Daisys noble East Egg address, throws generous parties ,and waits for Daisy to appear .When she does ,events carries up with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama . Then with the help of Nick, Gatsby tries to win Daisy back w
12、ith extravagant devotion .Meanwhile Daisys husband takes another woman Myrtle Wilson ,as his mistress .When Mr. Wilson ,a garage man ,becomes jealous and imprisons her in the room ,Myrtle escapes ,runs out on the highway ,and accidently hit by Daisy ,who drives the car at that moment .Gatsby tries t
13、o help Daisy ,and Tom tells Wilson that it was Gatsby who kills his wife .Wilson shoots Gatsby and then himself .At the end of the story ,Nick thinks over Gatsbys dream and decides to go back home to the West .Chapter Description of Gatsbys Dream under the Temporal Background2.1 Creating of the Nove
14、l under the Temporal Background The Great Gatsby is a work of realism to the pursuit of a young American dream and disillusionment to explain the origin, evolution and the reasons for the break of American Dream . After the World War I, American value concepts changed greatly and were different from
15、 before. In peoples mind, they thought that money took Gods place, the whole traditional order was collapsed, and Fitzgerald once summarized peoples characters at that time as “all Gods have died, all the wars have been over, and all the faiths have faded away.” American people lived in Jazz Age loo
16、ked down on the traditional faiths and revealed against the moralities and customs that their ancestors used to abide by.On one hand ,the novel is a true representation of the Twentieth Century America, the Jazz Age. On the other hand, Gates also showed self-improvement, hard work determination with
17、 other young Americans . Because the U.S. is not involved in the First World War, capitalism sweeping the entire country. Americans have become greedier, self-centered, changed the traditional American values, to meet the material and the pursuit of sensual life. Gatsby is a typical representative,
18、it reflects the distorted idealism, represents the depreciation of the American dream and fall .What happened to him is the song and dance laugh, Jazz Age itself.The Great Gatsby ,a masterpiece in American Literature ,also embodies America itself.The famous poet and stylist ,TSEliot read the novel t
19、hree times and concluded that “It was the first step that American Fiction has taken since Henry James”. 2.2 Description of Gatsbys Dream American dream is a popular belief that hard work will bring forth Americas bounty in the form of material well-being, a counter culture that rejects traditional
20、thinking while promoting their own causes, information explosion, reverse discrimination-in the workplace because so many employers are hiring women and minorities. Its the idea that the American way of life offers the equal possibility of unlimited economic, social, etc.From the novel The Great Gat
21、sby, there is a knowledge that Gatsbys American Dream is to win Daisys love, and everything he spares no effort to do is to regain the love of Daisy. In order to make his American Dream come true, Gatsby not only gets money from illegal trade of alcohol ,but he also does everything Daisy asks him to
22、 do including sacrifice his precious life. In his mind, Daisy represented all beautiful creatures of the upper class society in America, and in his memory, the first love between Daisy and him seemed to be a human fairyland. Four years before, he realized her and then loved her. It was deeply engrav
23、ed on his mind of original love. In the long time, to the love of Daisy, Gatsby memorized that Daisy became a beautiful miracle story in his mind, a historical event with wonderful experiences in a mysterious Vail. He desired to make the historical past transform to the future with same historical m
24、eaning through his own persistent efforts. And this green light representing his good ideal echoed with a fresh green breast of the world mutually at the end of this novel, which made Gatsbys experiences indicate the whole Americas ones; nevertheless, after five years when Gatsby met Daisy again, th
25、e miracle Daisy had lost her original glory. But the distinction between ideal and reality was huge. To some extent, Gatsbys love to Daisy reflected his wonderful memory of the past. The author gave highly emphasis to the figure of Gatsby, as if American Dream between golden past and golden future a
26、lways suffered from the realistic betrayal and crushthe realistic world appearing in front of people was bleakness and dejection that “it was full of fruits rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers” here and there. Gatsby could not build his hope future on the basis of cruel reality. He unique
27、ly recalled the past, only to make the past illusion take place of the reality and future. He could not face squarely the reality of uniting the past with the future in the realistic environment.ChapterThe Disillusionment of Gatsbys American Dream3.1 Historical Background of Jazz Age3.1.1 Social Rea
28、lityFitzgeralds life and described in U.S. history that was he named himself as the Jazz Age began in 1919 to 1929 at the end of the economic crisis. It has a huge impact on F. Scott Fitzgerald and the younger generation as well as the United States due to the World War I .American society has under
29、gone great change. The collapse of traditional moral values, young people have lost faith in the spirit of disillusioned and confused, known as the lost generation. But at the same time, this is America the most prosperous times in history. The rapid postwar economic development, people chasing the
30、life of luxury fashion, indulges in pleasures, but no goal and meaning of life, for all skeptical. One of the most desirable is the success - power and money, as to what success means no one cares. Idealism has been replaced by materialism. Fitzgerald had never hid his enthusiasm, in literature fait
31、hful picture of the era. However,he is acutely aware of hidden behind the surface of the bustling sense of crisis.The World War I took the young men into an age of alienation and dissentient. They entered the War with naive and blind patriotism and under the slogan of World peace and democracy. Retu
32、rning from the war, these idealized intellectuals felt separated by their war experience from conventional ideals and values of their homes. The economic bloom has a deep influence on the promising young men, not only destroyed their lives, but also destroyed their early innocent believes. Many exce
33、llent young men found its difficult to adapt to the after-war overflow of materialism. Scientific advances caused increase in industry, which brought vast changes to the character of American society. Millions of Americans were no longer content to follow former patterns and there was a rebellion ag
34、ainst the falseness of society as represented by Victorian generation. In order to show off the wealth, many people in upper class also held big parties in weekends. In those parties, there were every kind of people who were also famous or rich, and such kind of party were so extravagant that the re
35、ason people took part in it was to know more rich people. They were looking forward to having more money and then lived a better life, which was much more extravagant. In such a special period, there was a fact that the person who had more money and lived a more extravagant life would be respected m
36、uch more and have more friends. On the other hand, the person, who neither had money nor fame, would be looked down upon by others, not to mention living a better life or have a true love from another. Whatever their American Dream was, the only way and first thing they should do was to earn enough
37、money. Without money, there was no achievement, including love. Self-made and self-invented millionaire Gatsby who lived in the period of the First World War embodies some of Fitzgeralds, and his countries, most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed and the promise of new beginnings. At that ti
38、me, almost every one of the youth had an American Dream for themselves. And all the people including immigrants and poor people had a desire and regard for a perfect life. Such a perfect life should be full of big house, much money, delicious food, cost cars, as well as freedom. Everyone had a diffe
39、rent idea for his or her American Dream; everyones American Dream may be totally different from each other; that is what makes them all individuals. The dream may differ in that some people wanted to work hard and had financial success, or others might just want to have enough food and income to sur
40、vive, and made their life simple, healthy and happy.However, there was a common truth that everyone who lived in that period actually had an American Dream and eager to achieve it and everyone has an American Dream which is to have a good opportunity to realize personal dream.In the novel ,Gatsby al
41、so has a dream .Although he tried his best to achieve his dream ,it finally failed .Obviously ,under such historical backgaound of Jazz Age ,Gatsbys American Dream was inevitable to disillusionment .It is avoidable . 3.1.2 Social Value TrendAt that time, people abandoned the traditional industriousn
42、ess and thrift and began to enjoy life. Common peoples social value trend was the hedonism that money is first and materials are supreme; however, Gatsby, different from them, attached more importance to enjoy life in spirit than in material. What he always sought for is romantic and perfect ideal,
43、i.e. repeat the past with Daisy and live a happy life with her. Owing to lack of self-comprehension, Gatsby innocently comprehended the social value and greatness, and desired for the future; Gatsby unconsciously fell into the tragic consequence that the social evil power trapped for him. At the end
44、 of the novel, Gatsbys lonely funeral ceremony and peoples indifference completely reflected the American societys coolness and ugliness in 1920s. In this society, Gatsby was destined to be isolated helpless and to fail in all. Gatsby was one of typical representatives of American Dream that all gen
45、erations of American people pursued. He was really penniless before he had fulfilled his ideals, but at last he was overwhelmed by decadent ruthless society. No matter how did Gatsby struggle for it, he could not get into the upper class society; no matter how did he do hard, he could not get Daisy
46、and her heart; even if he tried his best effort to fulfill his dream, he was destined to fail at last. People could learn something from the Gatsbys tragedy that the upper class society in America was affected by American rotten life for pleasure, the world was the place where rich men could share l
47、ife, and that was a daydream for any one who wanted to seek for the pure love and sincere happiness there. Because Gatsby held different social value from common American people, the tragedy of believer and follower Gatsby persistently seeking for American Dream asserted the bankruptcy of American D
48、ream.3.2 Potential Disillusionment in Gatsbys Character3.2.1 Gatsbys IgnoranceIn fact, Gatsby was serious ignorance of the upper class society for he did not recognize the essence of the upper class society clearly: For Gatsby, the realistic background of Daisys family and her social intercourse act
49、ually became a kind of ideal symbol that is beyond reality and agreement with the myth circumstances. As an unknown and penniless man, Gatsby was just beyond reach, so he spent all his energy struggling for and weaving his ideal and dream, so that he could not see through the hypocrisy and the ugliness hidden in beauty and luxury. While he was alive, he constantly held tremendous feasts and had an endless stream of visitors. In his blue
