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1、毕 业 论 文毕业论文题目：The Disillusionment of the American DreamThe Social Significance of The Great Gatsby 学生姓名： 学 号： 院（系）： 专 业： 英语班 级： 指导教师姓名： 起止时间： 10Declaration of Academic IntegrityI promise that the thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any
2、institutes of higher learning and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except when due reference is made in the text of the thesis. I understand that to do so would mean that I had committed plagiarism, and t
3、hat it is my responsibility to be aware of the Universitys regulations on plagiarism and their importance.Signed: Date: The Disillusionment of the American DreamThe Social Significance of The Great GatsbyAbstract: The 1920s was a decade when the outline of contemporary America clearly formed. World
4、War I created a new generation, the Lost Generation and a new time, the Jazz Agea time of profound cultural and social changes. American people had to make a choice between traditional values and new standards adopted by young people. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as a
5、time of decayed social and moral values. Cynicism, greed, and pursuit of pleasure became the symbols of this period. They changed the nature of the original American Dream and finally ruined it. The intention of this study is to explore the social significance reflected in the disillusionment of the
6、 American Dream through the comparison between the characters and events in the novel and the social reality and the diachronic analysis of the American dream.Key words: social significance; the disillusionment of American Dream; the Jazz Age美国梦的破灭试析了不起的盖茨比所反映的社会意义摘要：二十世纪二十年代是当代美国社会初具雏形的年代。第一次世界大战造就
7、了新的一代人迷惘的一代，爵士乐时代也由此拉开序幕。在这一时期，美国经历了深刻的文化与社会变革，美国人也必须在传统价值观和广为年轻人接受的新价值观之间做出选择。在了不起的盖茨比中，菲茨杰拉德刻画了这个以玩世不恭、贪图享乐为标志，社会和道德价值腐化堕落，美国梦的本质发生蜕变并最终破灭的年代。本文将小说中的人物和事件与社会现实进行比较，对美国梦做了历时性的分析，从而揭示小说所反映的社会意义美国梦的破灭。关键词：社会意义；美国梦的破灭；爵士乐时代Contents1 Introduction12 A Panorama of American Society in The Great Gatsby22.1
8、 Materialism22.2 Immorality32.3 Inequality43 The Fall of the American Dream Reflected in The Great Gatsby63.1 The definition of the American Dream63.2 The evolution of the American Dream73.3 The disillusionment of the American Dream74 Conclusion9References10Acknowledgements11 The Disillusionment of
9、the American DreamThe Social Significance of The Great Gatsby1 IntroductionThe Great Gatsby, a novel written by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in 1925, is a highly specific portrait of American society during the Roaring Twenties. The central character is Jay Gatsby, who
10、 lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsbys neighbor in West Egg. After a reunion arranged by Nick, Gatsby and his love Daisy reestablish their connection and begin an affair. After a short time, Daisys husband Tom,
11、 though he himself is involved in an extramarital affair with Myrtle Wilson, is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful to him. Later, Gatsbys car has struck and killed Myrtle. Nick learns from Gatsby that it is Daisy who is driving the car when the accident happens, but Gat
12、sby will take the blame. Myrtles husband George soon finds Gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead. Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsbys life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life
13、 among the wealthy on the East Coast. The above is a brief summary of the novel. Though it tells us a story taking place over only a few months in a small area in the vicinity of Long Island, The Great Gatsby is a panorama of the entire American society in the Jazz Age, and a highly symbolic meditat
14、ion on 1920s America as a whole. On the surface it is a thwarted love between a man and a woman, but actually it is a story of the distorted American Dream disillusioned in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess, in which lies this novels social significance. 2 A Panorama of American
15、 Society in the Jazz AgeNo one can finish reading The Great Gatsby without being impressed by the opulent parties with wild jazz music that Gatsby throws every Saturday night. The novel is an epitome of the whole American society, showing us a vivid picture of the Jazz Age. The Jazz Age, referring t
16、o the period after the end of World War I, through the Roaring Twenties, ending with the onset of the Great Depression, is a time of profound cultural and social changes. American people are torn between traditional values and new standards adopted by young people. 2.1 MaterialismMaterialism can be
17、clearly seen from the life of Daisy and Gatsby. The former only loves material luxury and cares for nothing else, while the latter does not love material luxury itself but thinks large fortune will bring him love and happiness.Daisy is Nicks cousin, Toms wife, and the woman that Gatsby loves. She ha
18、s promised to wait for Jay Gatsby until the end of the war, but after meeting Tom Buchanan and comparing his extreme wealth to Gatsbys poverty, she breaks her promise. Money, ease, and material luxury are what Daisy truly wants: “If Daisy really loved Gatsby as a poor young officer, it was because s
19、he was not so corrupted and sophisticated then. Even so, when she was faced with a choice between true love and money, she chose the latter.”(Xu, 1994)Gatsby is the protagonist of the novel. From Nicks narration, we know Gatsby is a mysterious and wealthy young man. Every Saturday, his huge Gothic m
20、ansion in West Egg serves as the site of extravagant parties. He has been pursuing fame and wealth all his life with an ideal which he thinks can be realized. To fulfill his dream of getting Daisy back, he earns money by bootlegging and other illegal means because he believes that money can buy him
21、love and happiness. Materialism and money-worship pervaded in America during the 1920s. The people from various walks of life who attend Gatsbys parties show the greedy chase for wealth. The quick rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the nationa
22、l wealth and a newfound materialism and people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. (Du, 2002) Instead of some noble values, the goal which people were struggling for had become material luxury. To make matters worse, the romantic idealism held by the American youth promoted their mat
23、erialism. Car, house, beauty and so on, were symbols of their dream. They devote themselves into the pursuit of these things, of pleasure, excitement and novelty. No one can tell what on earth he was striving for, because everyone is striving for an unworthy illusion. “What they want is just living
24、in dream, in illusion. But their dream is too far away from the reality and they are definite to fail, to lose.” (Zhang, Wang, 2002)2.2 ImmoralityWe notice that World War I is the background of the story. It had great impact on Americans. During the war, men had fought against the enemy in faraway l
25、ands and women had aggressively entered the workforce. When the war was over, the survivors went home and tried to return to normalcy. Meanwhile, young women decided that they were not willing to waste away their young lives waiting idly for spinsterhood; they were going to enjoy life.However, the s
26、urvivers were not able to do it. Instead, they became disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had faced made the social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The worse is that more and more people got involved in crime and illicit activities. In the no
27、vel, Gatsbys business associate, Meyer Wolfsheim, is a notorious figure standing for the underworld. He is involved in organized crime, and even responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. He and Gatsbys illegal business gives evidence to the rise of crime and illicit activities in American societ
28、y during the Roaring Twenties. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld aiming to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike. In the 1920s, the development of productive forces liberate
29、s women from the heavy burden of housework. The chances of taking jobs are better than ever, making them more independent and rebellious. Women want to live as they hope and they begin to behave against the old rules and morals; women seek for first-class citizenship and try to play more satisfying
30、roles in the society; women especially the young wore short skirt, silk stockings, heavy make-up and short, bobbed hair, announcing their presence by their appearance, all as Daisys friend Jordan, an extremely cynical woman golfer with a masculine icy demeanor who cheated to win her first tournament
31、 does in the novel. Another example is Toms mistress Myrtle Wilson, an earthly, vital, and voluptuous woman who is desperate to improve her life. She shares a loveless marriage with George Wilson, a man who runs a shabby garage. She has been having a long-term affair with Tom, and is very jealous of
32、 his wife, Daisy. After a fight with her husband, she runs out into the street and is hit and killed by Gatsbys car. They were the so-called “flappers”. The flapper later became a popular model. “All over the country skirts rise, hair is shortened and traditional morals get loose.” (Zhang, Wang, 200
33、2) Tom and Daisy are two typical people with loose morals. Daisy, a selfish woman, is nothing but a money-worshipper, which can be seen from her crying over Gatsbys piles of shirts. She only cares for herself and nobody else. So does Daisys husband, Tom, an egoist symbolizing the degenerated East. H
34、e is a brutal, hulking man who, like Daisy, comes from an immensely wealthy Midwestern family. He would never hesitate at all in doing anything for his own good at the expense of others. He is a hypocrite who lives by double standard: though he himself an extramarital affair with Myrtle, he is outra
35、ged by the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. He asserts to Gatsby that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby will never understand, and announces to Daisy that Gatsby gains his fortune through illegal means. Tom and Daisys extreme selfishness can be reflected from Nicks following criticism:“T
36、om and Daisythey smashed up things and creature and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the messthey had made” (Fitzgerald, 1925)2.3 InequalityIn The Great Gatsby, inequality can be seen from two as
37、pects: I) the gap between the established rich and the newly rich; II) the gap between the rich and the poor.First we discuss the former aspect. As the story goes on, we learn that Gatsbys real name is James Gatz. He was born to an impoverished farming family in North Dakota. When he is a young lieu
38、tenant in the army, Gatsby meets Daisy and falls in love with her. He lies about his background to Daisy, claiming to be from a wealthy family in order to convince her that he is worthy of her. Then he works briefly for a millionaire, and becomes acquainted with the people and customs of high societ
39、y. Inspired by all these experiences above, later he devoted his life to acquiring huge fortune.Gatsby comes from the lower class and is in nature a kind, persistent, agreeable and innocent man as sharply contrasted to the selfish, careless and cruel Tom and Daisy. He corrupts himself in the quest o
40、f the corrupted Daisy because of his innocence. His fate turns out to be a tragedy because he is not conscious of the fact that he will never fill the gap between the two different classes:“He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didnt realize just how extraordinary a nice girl could be. She va
41、nished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby-nothing.” (Fitzgerald, 1925)Social discrimination still exists in the 1920s and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. There is no such a thing as equality, on which the American democracy bases. “In various unrevealed
42、 capacities he (Gatsby) had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire between.” (Fitzgerald, 1925) After Gatsbys death, Daisy does not go to his funeral and she does not even send a message or a flower. Actually it is Gatsby who wins readers hearts. But he has never
43、 been accepted by the class that he so earnestly wants, nor won back the lost Daisy even at the expense of his life. Then let us come to the second aspect, the gap between the rich and the poor. In the story, George B. Wilson and Henry Gatz can be the representative of the poor. George is Myrtles hu
44、sband, a listless, impoverished man whose only passion is his love for his wife. He is devastated by Myrtles affair with Tom. After her death, driven by his grief, George murders Jay Gatsby before committing suicide himself. Henry is Gatsbys father who tells Nick about his sons extravagant plans and
45、 dreams of self-improvement. His sons help is the only thing that saves him from poverty. During the Roaring Twenties, despite great economic success, wealth, power and privilege are not equalized. A few persons still monopolize the nations wealth and enjoy the delights of affluence, living in luxur
46、ious way, but millions of Americans still live in squalor with little prospect, no matter what they do, of improving their conditions. The decreasing unemployment, the rising general level of wages for workers, and some well-off farmers can shut out the picture of the othersthe tenant farmers, black
47、 and white, the immigrant families in the big cities either without work or not making enough to get the basic necessities.3 The Fall of the American DreamParticularly, tracing back the source of Gatsbys dream, we know it is a popular dream in America, what we call the “American Dream” today. Then l
48、et us explore deeper into the social reality reflected in The Great Gatsby to see the evolution and the fall of the American Dream.3.1 The definition of American DreamJames Truslow Adams coined the phrase “American Dream” in his 1931 book Epic of America:“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest s
