发布时间 : 星期一 文章On American Dream in The Great Gatsby-浅谈《了不起的盖茨比》中的美国梦更新完毕开始阅读
www.wenwendata.com
On American Dream in The Great Gatsby 浅谈《了不起的盖茨比》中的美国梦
Abstract
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was one of the famous American writers in the early 20th century. Many of his works, such as Tender Is the Night and The Side of Paradise were on the disillusionment of the American Dream in the Jazz Age. Among them, The Great Gatsby is Fitxgerald’s masterpiece, which vividly revealed the real world in America in the 1920s. In the part of Introduction, this paper introduces the Jazz Age and Fitzgerald’s life experiences Besides, the explaination of the origin, development and disillusionment of the American Dream and the characters of the Jazz Age are cconcluded in this paper. Also, the analysis of the writing backgroud of The Great Gatsby makes it reasonable to illustrate the American Dream in The Great Gatsby. By Analyzing Gatsby’s pursuit of the American Dream, this paper reflects sharp social contradition and people’s mental crisis in the Jazz Age, what’s more, it reveals the nature of the American Dream .
Key Words: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, American Dream, Jazz Age
www.wenwendata.com
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Fitzgerald’s life experiences ..................................................................................... 1 1.2 Writing backroud of The Great Gatsby .................................................................... 2 Chapter 2. The American Dream and the Jazz Age ............................................................... 3
2.1 The origin, development and disillusionment of the American Dream .................... 3 2.2 The Jazz Age ............................................................................................................. 3
2.2.1 In materials ..................................................................................................... 4 2.2.2 In social ideology ........................................................................................... 4 2.3 In social systems ....................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 3. Analysis on American Dream in The Great Gatsby ............................................. 6
3.1 General introduction of The Great Gatsby ............................................................... 6 3.2 The formation of Gatsby’s American Dream ........................................................... 7 3.3 The American Dream in The Great Gatsby ........................................................... 8
3.3.1 The Disillusion of Gatsby’s American Dream ................................................ 8 3.3.2 The fragility of Gatsby’s American Dream .................................................... 9
Chapter 4. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 11 Notes .................................................................................................................................... 12 References ........................................................................................................................... 13
www.wenwendata.com
On American Dream in The Great Gatsby
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 Fitzgerald’s life experiences
Fitzgerald was born in a middle class family in Minnesota, America. His grandfather was a millionaire, and he was influenced by the trandition of the upper class. However, his father had no money to afford such luxury life for him. Though he once played with millionaires’ boys, Fitzgerald knew it clearly that he did not belong to their class, so he desired to become a millionaire in the future. Fitzgerald dropped school from Princeton University and joined the army in the First World War in 1917. In 1918, he was appointed as a Second Lieutenant and accreditted in Alabama, where he knew the daughter of a judge named Zelda Sayre. They fell in love soon and soon got engaged. Retiring from the Army in 1919, Fitzgerald went to New York and became a clerk with meager salary. Unfortunately, Zelda Sayre called off their engagement because she thought he was a poor clerk who could not afford her luxurious life. Fitzgerald went back to his hometown in despair and focused on correcting his novel. In 1920, his This Side of Paradise brought him great fortune and reputation, and his Zelda Sayre too. Hence, Zelda Sayre became the core of his life and the image of his works. They led a luxurious life just like what he described in his novels. They held parties and bought expensive cars and fancy clthes. They even became the idols of Americans in the upper class. Thus, Fitzgerald became one of the members in the upper class both in lifestyle and mentality. In most of his works, he used his life experience as a prototype. Most of his heroines are similar with Zelda Sayre, beautiful but vain, and his heroes pursue success in materials just like himself. 1 Fitzgerald filled most of his novels with the characters of the Jazz Age which were full of wordly enjoyments and selfishness. In reality, his life was like a novel that he created. His wife and him admired luxury and they spent money like water, which made him break the pale. Fitzgerald himself was a suitor of the American Dream. His American Dream crashed when his wife got schizophrenia and his money went away. Pitifully, this great writer died of heart desease at the age of 44. He could have creatived more excellent novel at such a
1