了不起的盖茨比英文论文

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.

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 l ove 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

3.1Gatsby’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 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 do n?t believe in the values of traditional morality any longer and they have their philosophy of life—to “seize every day” 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 these contradictions and conflicts make people realize the fragile of the idealism when the dream confronts the reality. The pursuit of the spiritual life can not realize in the society which only pays a great attention to the material life.

3.2 Gatsby’s Love for Daisy is Idealistic

At the last of the novel, he expresses himself “I love only one girl forever”, (F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:143) which represents a kind of idealism. But this kind of idealistic love can not be realized, because the girl whom he loves is just a superficial and vulgar woman in reality. For Daisy, love should be built on the wealth and high position and she has accustomed to this sense of security, which can make her live happily. But Gatsby who is born into a poor family gains his wealth and position criminally; he can not give Daisy the security which she has accustomed to. And Daisy will not love anyone who can not give her this kind of security. So in front of Daisy, Gatsby?s real love is an idealistic dream, and this dream can not be realized forever.

Just as Americans have endued America with meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with a sort of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Just as the American dream in the roaring twenties is ruined by the unworthiness of its goal, money and pleasure, Gatsby?s dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its goal, Daisy. “He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn?t realize just how extraordinary a …nice? girl could be.”(Chen Qing, 2006:25) In Gatsby?s eyes, Daisy is a noble fairy, but she is a superficial and vulgar woman in reality.

Gatsby?s love and the American dream connect closely because his first love Daisy is the embodiment of his dream. Daisy is the symbol of wealth and position, and marrying Daisy means entering into the upper class, so he devotes his whole life to win her back. But he fails at last, that is because he can not recognize Daisy clearly and his blindness leads to his death in the end.

3.2.1Daisy in Reality

Daisy is born into the upper class and grows up in wealthy conditions, so she depends on wealth from her birth and only responds to surface. When Gatsby shows her around his splendid house, she admires what she sees. Later, Gatsby takes out a pile of shirts and throws them one by one before her. She likes these beautiful shirts so much that she even cries out, “They?re such beautiful shirts”, “It makes me sad because I?ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before”. (F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:124) “Daisy has n?t any practical value. The people whom Daisy likes are also beautiful without any true value.”(Chen Qing, 2006:15) When she takes part in Gatsby?s party, she sees many super stars that can only be seen on TV, which makes her very interested and excited. “Perhaps you know that lady”, (F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:140) Gatsby indicates a gorgeous woman who sits in state under a white-plum tree. Daisy stares and says“She?s lovely”，“I?ve never met so ma ny celebrities, I like that man—what was his name?”.( F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:141)

“Daisy likes to arrest men?s attention and to get men?s compliments in order that she can depend on them. Maybe it is because s he couldn?t make a liv ing independently, so she has to attach herself to a man, which is her way to live in this world.”(Chen Qing, 2006:15) Daisy marries Tom because of his large wealth and high social position. When Gatsby leaves her, she is very sad and even wants to kill herself. But with the arrival of Tom, her life changes immediately, and then she decides to forget Gatsby, and marries with Tom who has great wealth and high social position.

From this aspect we can see that, for Daisy, love is just an interesting game, whereas money and position are the most important things in it. For money and position, she forgets Gatsby quickly, and devotes herself to another wealthy man no matter she loves him or not. But in fact, she will “love” Gatsby if he can make her believe that she can live a wealthy and safe life together with him. Because they have such two different kinds of disillusions towards each other, Daisy can never understand Gatsby?s love for her and thus is not worthy of being loved by Gatsby.

After the marriage, the husband Tom treats Daisy badly. Daisy knows that Tom B do esn?t care about her and has a mistress outside, so she needs a chance to complain her

unfortunate life. Therefore, when Nike visits them, she complains about her misfortune to him. Nick feels very uncomfortable when he hears the complaint from Daisy because he can not understand Daisy. He says “It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms—but apparently there were no such intentions in her head.”(F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:27) Actually, Daisy can do nothing, she will not leave Tom. Without Tom she can not enjoy the wealthy life any longer. But she cannot control her fate and she feels sad for herself. So she wants to change her fate with someone?s help. Just at this very time, his first love Gatsby appears as a wealthy man and calls her back. It seems to be a good chance for her to make a decision to leave her bad husband. But instead she refused him, just because Gatsby?s background makes her lack of safety. She destroys Gatsby?s dream totally and goes away with Tom in a hurry. Daisy has to go on living with Tom, which is her fate, so in reality she is also an unfortunate woman. To this point, we can say that at this time, she still doesn?t deserve the love of Gatsby.

3.2.2 Daisy in Gatsby’s Dream

No matter how other people may think about Daisy, in the mind of great Gatsby, she should be cherished forever. Although Gatsby and Daisy have departed for five years, Daisy is a lways living in Gatsby?s memory and sh e has turned into an perfect fairy as time passes by. For Gatsby, if he can marry with Daisy, he can enter into the upper class naturally and gain the identity in the upper class. Maybe it is because in Gatsby?s mind, Daisy has been endowed with a kind of special value. For this special vale, Gatsby would rather devote his whole life to winning her back. At this time, Daisy in reality is not important for him. Because Daisy has become the noble embodiment of the upper class in Gatsby?s dream.

Gatsby always thinks the reason why Daisy leaves him is that he is poor and has a low social position when he is young, and he totally believes that he can win Daisy back if he can gain the wealth and high social position. With this faith in his mind, Gatsby determines to win Daisy back, making her the single goal of all his dreams and the symbol of everything he desired. So he earns large wealth by efforts and then buys a

splendid house across the bay of Daisy?s and g ives parties day and night on every weekend just want to arrest her coming.

Actually, Five years later when Gatsby sees Daisy again, he feels that she is different from the Daisy he dreams of day and night. In reality, Daisy has already lost her magical power and becomes a common woman. Later, Gatsby invites Daisy to take part in his party. And after she leaves, Gatsby feels very disappointed because he thinks that Daisy can?t really understand him any longer.It seems that Gatsby is so disappointed that he will not love her any longer. But Gatsby is really a great dreamer. He just pursues every thing in his dream and because Daisy in his dream has turned into a perfect fairy, so Daisy in reality is not so important for him; he would rather believe that Daisy still loves him.

In fact, Daisy doesn?t really love anyone else. But Gatsby does not think so. He loves Daisy and he also believes that Daisy also loves him. So people think that Gatsby is a son of God. “He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about his F ather?s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.”(F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:131) From this sentence, we can know that he makes Daisy as an embodiment of his dream, without thinking what Daisy is in reality. Actually, Both Nick and Gatsby notice her special voice, and are described as “full of money” and even a “deathless song”.(F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:59) Her voice is seemed to jingle with a sound of wealth to Gatsby. For Daisy, it seems that wealth is more important than love itself. So Gatsby can?t get true love from her no matter he is poor or wealthy. This indicates that Gatsby?s dream for Daisy will be inevitable destructed.

3.3 Gatsby’s Dream for the Upper Class is Idealistic

Fitzgerald deeply feels the transformations of the values o f traditional morality and people will not admire any self-made hero longer and they only care about individual enjoyment. So in a society with spiritual emptiness and moral decadence, Gatsby with much imagination is doomed to fail.

Compared with the wealthy people, Gatsby is different in nature. He has dreams and ambitions, and tries his best to realize them. But he can not see the upper class

clearly. The upper class in Gatsby?s dream is different from the one in reality.And his dream can not be realized in this kind of upper class nowadays.

3.3.1 The Upper Class People in Gatsby’s Mind

In Gatsby?s mind, if he has money, he can get into the upper class naturally, and being an upper class member, he should be a moral person who has many virtues. So he stresses himself with the self-improvement and hard work; it can be proved easily in Gatsby?s schedule:

No wasting time

No more smoking or chewing

Bath every other day

Read one improving book or magazine per week

Save$5.00[crossed out] $3.00 per week

Be better to parents (F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:231)

Gatsby?s li st of self-improving resolves is similar with Benjamin Franklin?s rules for self-improvement on eighteenth-century. Gatsby learns to him, and decides to be a decent person like him. In Nick?s eyes, “he was a handsome young man about thirty years old and dressed very well. He spoke very politely and it is a little funny to me. Most men in his age were not so polite. He spoke as if he is carefully choosing his words.”(F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:42) He does his best to be the same hero as Benjamin Franklin, believing that he can also be successful if he sets strict demands on himself. 3.3.2 The Upper Class People in Reality

But in fact, people in that age do not believe in any hero of the American dream. They only care about themselves and enjoy themselves without considering the feelings of other people. They just like to pursue the enjoyment. And they have their philosophy of life—to “seize every day” and “enjoy every moment”. (Chen Qing, 2006:1) That can be proved easily in the novel of The Great Gatsby.

In the party of the upper class, everyone needn?t know the name of anyone else and talks friendly as if they have known each other well for a long time. People taking part in Gatsby?s part ies do n?t know him at all and even don?t see him before. They will not appreciate Gatsby who holds party for them, but making the rumors for him. In their

eyes, Gatsby is just a subordinate. Maybe, some of them do not care about who he is. They come here just because they want to enjoy themselves, and they need these big parties to prove their positions, while Gatsby also need them to raise his social position. They have mutual needs, so the parties can be held on every weekend. But nobody will remember him after they go away from his big parties. “A ll over the party, people were laughing, talking and drinking. But all the happiness seemed so empty.”(F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:40) In the society which people don?t care about others and just knowing to enjoy them. Gatsby, who does n?t really understand the true value of wealth in real life, can not live longer and his dreams can not be realized.

3.4 Destroyer of Gatsby’s Dream—Tom

3.4.1 Tom in Reality

Tom is the representative person in the upper class. In the novel, he is the direct destroyer of Gatsby?s drea m. Both Gatsby and Tom possess wealth, but they are very different. Gatsby earns his wealth by diligence and discipline and uses his wealth to realize his great dreams, while Tom do not have any large goals and lives happily on the wealth that his father has created. In the end, Tom wins and goes away with Daisy in a hurry, while Gatsby i s killed by the husband of Tom?s mistress, George Wilson. From this aspect, we can see that Tom is a vicious man in reality. Maybe it is because he is born into a wealthy family and has been spoiled. Tom is a former football player at Yale and enjoys the high status, but he is an arrogant, cruel person who does nothing important everyday, just playing with cars and racing horses. Only in this way can he win his own ego. It is obvious that he does not have any moral standards which he demands for the people around him. He is the representative person of the upper class in reality which has replaced American idealism.

Tom is also an immoral person who just knows to ask others to be honest. In order to meet his desire, Tom has an affair with the fleshly woman Myrtle and keeps an apartment in the city for their dating. But he is not upset at all and he even opens their relationship in public. He treats Daisy badly, however, when he knows that Daisy and Gatsby are having an affair. He even becomes outraged and forced them to confront it in the room at the hotel where he irritates Gatsby to win his wife back and thus destroys

his rival?s dream s. From this aspect, we can also see that Tom actually is a man of violence, because he tells the group of people t hat Gatsby?s wealth is criminally obtained and thus he is cheating Daisy all the time. Then he forces Daisy to change the declaration that she has never loved him. To be honest, Daisy does not love Tom, she loves Tom for his wealth and will be reluctant to leave him, for he can provide her with security and the lifestyle to which she is accustomed. The victory of Tom reflects that Gatsby can not really enter into the upper class. For the upper class people like Tom, they will never take Gatsby as their friend but a subordinate.

Tom is also a careless person who will not be worried about the sufferings he causes. When problems arise, he will run to his money and safe situation, leaving it to be dealt with by others and will never take the responsibility. After the death of Tom?s mistress Myrtle, Tom tells her husband that Gatsby is the killer and then runs away with Daisy quickly until the affair finishes.

3.4.2 The Differences between Gatsby and Tom

Comparing with Tom, Gatsby is really a strange hero of the Jazz Age. Because he creates wealth by diligence and discipline but he doesn?t really understand the true value of wealth in real life, that is, “wealth makes people enjoy life”. (Chen Qing, 2006:16) He does n?t know this point, s o he still lives a simple life. “His bedroom was the simplest room of all—except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pu re dull gold.”(F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:122)He holds big parties not to enjoy himself, but to arrest his first love Da isy?s coming.“When the party is over and the guests go away, Gatsby soaks in large loneliness” (F.Scott Fitzgerald, 2004:78) and at this moment he is himself.

Tom is a representative person of the realism, while Gatsby is a representative person of the idealism. Tom is a realist who lives in reality while Gatsby is an idealist who lives in his dreams. Gatsby?s dream is out of connection with the reality, so his dream can not be realized.

Part Four Conclusion

Although Gatsby?s dream fails, his greatness still rests on his dream, which

distinguishes him from the other disillusioned people, who have lost the capacity to wonder and to dream. But as time goes by, Gatsby reveals himself to be a man who stakes everything on his dreams, unaware that his dreams are out of connection with the reality and unworthy of him.

To sum up, Gatsby?s dream is incompatible with reality. Gatsby is a great dreamer who just lives in his dreams, without considering the changes of the society. In his dream, every thing is beautiful: Daisy is a perfect fairy who can give him hopes; the upper class people are all decent ones who can cooperate with him very well. But in reality, every thing is different: his dreaming girl can not really understand Gatsby?s love for her; while the upper class people are the disillusioned ones who just make Gatsby as a subordinate. Facing the reality, Gatsby does not adjust himself to suit the society, but to pursuit his dreams which are out of connection with the reality. At last, it leads his dream to be a disillusion.

Considering ourselves, we are the students who are going to devote ourselves into the society. Some of us may have great dreams and are ambitiously hoping to realize them immediately, just like Gatsby. But we must remind ourselves every moment that we are living in reality but not in our dreams. Dream is always very beautiful while the reality is always impersonal, it can not be changed as what we want to. So we should suit ourselves with the changes of the society and make achievement step by step. If we can persist in the above principle and work hard everyday, I am sure we will succeed and then fulfill our dreams eventually.

Bibliography

[1] Cheng Qing, The Disillusionment of The American dream in The Great Gatsby and

Tender Is The Night [J]. Shanghai International Studies University, June 2006.

[2] F.Scott Fitzgerald, The great Gatsby [M], 2004

[3] Wang Weiping, Wang ping, The Great Gatsby—The reflection of the illusory nature

of the American dream [J]. Journal of Grangxi University Wuzhou Brabch, 2004 [4] 籍晓红．菲茨杰拉德的“美国梦”主题—了不起的盖茨比和夜色温柔之比较

[J],晋东南师范专科学校学报，2002

[5] 菲茨杰拉德（著），巫宁坤（译）．了不起的盖茨比[M]，漓江出版社，2003

[6] 张伯香，龙江．美国经典小说赏析[J]，武汉大学出版社，2005.8

[7] 郑成功．美国梦的开始与破灭—解读菲茨杰拉德的了不起的盖茨比[J], 唐山

师范学院学报, 2006

[8] 郑婷, 李红霞, 贾丽丽．“美国梦”的一曲挽歌—评了不起的盖茨比[J], 淮

南职业技术学院学报, 2007