毕业论文-浅析《了不起的盖茨比》中的美国梦

本科毕业论文 中文题目： 浅析《了不起的盖茨比》中的美国梦 外文题目： An Analysis of American Dream in The Great Gatsby

院 系 英语学院 专 业 英语（翻译） 年 级 学 号 i

浅析《了不起的盖茨比》中的美国梦 摘要：《了不起的盖茨比》是美国作家弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德1925年所写的一部以20世纪20年代的纽约市及长岛为背景的短篇小说。《了不起的盖茨比》的问世，奠定了弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德在现代美国文学史上的地位。本论文讨论了美国梦与美国下层阶级之间的关系。 论文首先介绍了美国梦的基本情况，即历史回顾、历史起源和它的发展，旨在找出美国梦在20世纪20年代失败的原因。随后论文阐述了美国梦和美国下层阶级的矛盾，论述理想美国梦和物质对美国下层阶级诱惑之间的矛盾,以及理想美国梦与美国下层阶级道德观的改变之间的矛盾。

关键词：《了不起的盖茨比》；美国梦；美国下层阶级 ii

An Analysis of American Dream in The Great Gatsby Abstract The Great Gatsby is the most renowned masterpiece of F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, depicting a story that happened in New York city and Long Island during the 1920s. Due to its birth, Fitzgerald has gained his reputation in contemporary American literature history. This paper consists of two parts. The first part of the paper introduces American dream which concludes historical retrospect, historical origin and its development, aiming to trace back to the reasons that give rise to the failure of American dream. Then, the paper demonstrates the conflict between American dream and the lower classes of American society, including the conflict between American dream and the lure of material world real, and the conflict between American dream and change of moral standards of American lower class.

Key words: The Great Gatsby; American Dream；American lower class iii

Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Zuo, both for her intellectual guidance and for her warm and constant encouragement during the process of writing this thesis. With patience and prudence, she labored through drafts of this thesis and pointed out defects in my theorizing. Therefore, I owe all the merits in this thesis, if any, to her, though I am fully aware that the thesis might still contain some mistakes, for which I bear the whole responsibility. My cordial and sincere thanks go to all the teachers in the College of English, whose interesting and informative courses have benefited me a lot during my college years. The profit that I gained from their profound knowledge, remarkable expertise and intellectual ingenuity will be of everlasting significance to my future life and career. I am also very grateful to my classmates, who have given me a lot of help and courage during my stay in the University and throughout the process of writing this thesis. Last but not the least, big thanks go to my family who have shared with me my worries, frustrations, and hopefully my ultimate happiness in eventually finishing this thesis. 1

Contents

中文摘要………………………………………………………………………………………ⅰ Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………...ⅱ Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………...ⅲ Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….1

Ⅰ. The American Dream…………………………………………………………….3 A. Origin of American Dream……………………………………………….3 B. Development of American Dream………………………………………..5 Ⅱ. The Contradiction Between American Dream and the American Lower Class in the 1920s……………………………………………………………………….7 A. The Contradiction Between Ideal of American Dream and Material Temptation for American Lower Class in the 1920s………………………….8 B. The Contradiction Between American Dream and Change of Moral Standards of American Lower Class in the 1920s………………………...................…..12 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..…..15 Notes…………………………………………………………………………………18 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….19 1

An Analysis of American Dream in The Great Gatsby Introduction Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. He was the only son of an upper middle class Catholic family. While he was at Princeton university, the young Fitzgerald developed his talent in writing. When the First World War broke out, he enlisted in the army, and in a training camp in Alabama, he met and felt in love with Zelda sayre, the southern belle who became his wife and who was the model for most of the beautiful and gay heroines of his fiction. His life with her was a mixture of great happiness and great misery and pain. In 1925, Fitzgerald published his most famous novel the Great Gatsby. Before long, his wife became mentally ill. Fitzgerald declined as a writer. He worked regularly as a script—writer in Hollywood from 1937 to 1939, when he succumbed to alcoholism. He died of heart attack in 1940. His wife, Zelda, was sent to a sanitarium and died in a fire started by herself in the sanitarium. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, whose works were the samples of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. Many critics have seen Fitzgerald’s artistic achievement in terms of his ability to depict the American society, its history and its people1. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the Lost Generation of the 1920s. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and his most famous, the celebrated classic, The Great Gatsby—his masterpiece which is often taken as an account of the story of America. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with despair and age. The thesis consists of two parts. In order to tracing back to the reasons that give rise to the degradation of American Dream, the first part bases its explanation on the retrospect of American history and American Dream. Then, the second part will be primarily focused on the conflict between American Dream and the lower classes of American society, including the conflict between American Dream and reality, and