那个，了不起的，盖茨比

读《了不起的盖茨比》恰恰是因为他的作者菲茨杰拉德的传奇人生，而这本被认为是弗朗西斯·斯·菲茨杰拉德最优秀的作品到更像是他缤纷人生的一面写照。表面上这是一个失意的爱情故事，但菲茨杰拉德将盖茨比的爱情和理想赋予了更为抽象广阔的含义，使它具有了人类、民族、时代的象征意义。小说具有某种神话意味，反映了人类的某种普遍经历，更展现了美利坚的民族神话——美国梦的幻灭，同时也是对“咆哮的20年代”的完美总结，对爵士时代的深刻剖析。

小说中的盖茨比经常以神话的、诗画的形象出现，菲茨杰拉德赋予了他太阳神阿波罗的特征，这一个具有神话性质的人物，好像具有改变现实的魔力。盖茨比庞大的花园中点缀着璀璨的灯光，仿佛万花筒一般，是一个现实与魔幻交织的世界。这里俨然是人间天堂，人们不请自到，纵情欢乐，享用着源源不断的香槟美酒。盖茨比正是这一天堂的创造者。他似乎具有某一种创造能力，能使人们分享他的幻觉，觉得自身置于某种神奇境地。小说多次强调盖茨比的理念，让读者意识到盖茨比对现实的梦幻化。

然而，现实无法规避，过去也不可能找回，盖茨比的天真让他付出了生命的代价，成为他人的牺牲品。人们会为曾经的天真付出惨重的代价，认识到现实的残酷丑陋，而回到过去也只是一个梦想。

小说仿佛一个悲剧田园诗，欢乐延续整个夏季，直到青春逝去，神灵死亡。

这篇小说发表于19xx年，当时的美国应该和现在的中国的情况差不多，人们生活水平正大不断地提高，大部分农村的人们都相继涌入大城市，而人与人之间渐渐缺少了真情、友情，而只有利益。这篇用盖茨比的伟大来衬托其他人的卑鄙与自私，从文中尼克对盖茨比说“They're no good, any of them! You are better than all of them added together!”（他们都不是好人，你比他们家在一块还要伟大）我们就可以知道，在那样一个人们都为利益熏心的时代，爱情也比不那么纯粹的时代中，盖茨比这样的人竟能保持那种对纯真的柏拉图式爱情的执着追求，他仍能保持一颗很宁静的心，这也是为什么他让维拉既觉得很神秘，有不得不佩服的原因。

而从另一个角度我们可以看到，盖茨比所爱的黛西她的自私，她和汤姆结婚后的大小姐架子，奢侈，以及她丈夫的世俗.在盖茨比死掉之后，主人公突然发现原来在这个时候，没有一个人会出现在他身旁。他的朋友，几乎无一人来到他的葬礼上，他们都有自己种种的借口.可是当初呢，当来到盖茨比家聚会总是那么的积极。

梦想与现实的距离究竟有多远？就如同人心与人心的距离那么远。

人心与人心的距离是多远？它可以很近也可以很远。试看我们当今的社会，人与人之间的信任还剩下多少？80年代我们还在说学习雷锋好榜样，可惜他已经死了；90年代我们还在学习"当代保尔"张海迪，可惜如今她的国籍遭到质疑；进入21世纪，我们学习三个代表重要思想，可惜某些人只会把表戴在手上。看见有人拦车求助不能停，因为那可能是钓鱼；看见老人摔倒不能扶，因为那可能是碰瓷；看见地上有钱不能捡，因为就算不犯法那也可能是螳螂捕蝉，你看，我们的社会在让一部分人先富起来之后，价值取向也在渐渐扭曲，让富人带动穷人最后实现共同富裕的初衷在哪里？为什么整个社会都陷入了信任危机？为什么人心与人心之间的距离会如此遥远？

而“我”尽管在帮助他料理后事，但是“我”的存在也只是一种旁观的心态。并没有很多对于那些所谓忘恩负义或者过河拆桥的人的批评，“我”只是在做仿佛是应该做的事情，同时又冷漠的在观察。我相信在与盖茨比不多的接触中， “我”在逐渐形成，回归，寻找，判断，观察着自我。就好像“我”并不一定在世界中存在，而只是盖茨比的另一个存在形式。或者，从头到尾尼克就只是个观察者，并且时刻谨慎的和他观察的事物保持着最低限度的联系。这里让我产生强烈共鸣的是“观察”的概念，一方面有时候我会觉得自己就这这样在观察着自己。看着身体遵循着社会的规则行事，看着他在规则里面像弹球一样碰来碰去，有时顺畅的通过轨道，有时冲出去太远不得不靠别人捡回来；另一方面看别人的时候也有同样的感觉，不会真的融合进别人的圈子里，常常是默默的观察而已。看在不同的情况下别人是怎么做的，他为什么会这么做，怎样可以做的更好，怎样做才能变成我的风格。这样既在学习，又在犯懒，不愿意参与。始终陶醉在自己的理论和所谓“旁观者”的清醒上。

小说中，菲茨杰拉德没有对盖茨比的形象做过多具体的刻画，对他的背景交代并不详细，他和黛西的感情描写也不够充实。然而唯其如此，才使人物具有独特的性质，达到抽象的象征意义。盖茨比的爱情与梦想明显超过了个人的经历，而代表了人类梦想与现实、过去和现在、天真与经验的普遍经历。盖茨比的个人梦想象征了整个民族的理想和追求理想的艰苦历程，体现了美国人推崇个人自由、自力更生，相信个人道德的理念。尽管盖茨比的形象更具有讽刺意味，他却拥有天真、纯洁的个人品行。盖茨比的悲剧死亡象征了美国人理想无法实现的失败，《了不起的盖茨比》是关于美国梦的幻灭的小说。菲茨杰拉德在小说中说明，轻易得来的财富和日益松弛的道德标准使美国对个人自由和幸福的追求逐渐堕落。

美国人曾经通过个人的梦想赋予了这个国家意义，而在小说中，盖茨比的个人经历暗示了美国梦意义的丧失。盖茨比在黛西身上注入了她根本不具备也不配具备的完美理

想，盖茨比的梦想也因为其目标的没有价值而遭到幻灭。这就好像20世纪20年代的美国梦。

小说中的另一些人物——老贵族们虽然举止优雅，却没有心灵。东埃格人都是一些漫不经心，任意轻率的家伙。小说的结尾，布坎南夫妇嫁祸盖茨比，自己搬到远离这里的另一座住宅，在盖茨比死后甚至不肯屈尊出席葬礼。而盖茨比虽然通过非法手段获取了大量财富，却拥有一颗真诚的心。在整部小说中，盖茨比代表的是拥有梦想的暴发户，黛西就是盖茨比梦想的化身，汤姆代表利己的上流社会，乔丹是脱离不了上流社会的新时代女性的代表，汤姆的情妇代表的是爱慕虚荣的灰姑娘之梦，汤姆情妇的丈夫代表着失去理智充当刽子手的社会底层，而我，尼克只是一个壁上观的穷屌丝。故事的结局证明，盖茨比的梦想已远远超越了黛西本身，他所追求的只是一个过去的影子，或者说只是为了实现自我的满足，更积极地说是对自我实现的执着。

小说最后写道：我们继续奋力向前划，逆水行舟，不停的倒退，回到往昔。（So we beat on，boats agaisnt the current，borne back ceaselessly into the past.）我不知该如何诠释这句话，因为整本书的基调是如此悲惨与迷茫，然而我又不愿妥协在这令人窒息的结局中，难道我们奋力向前的结果就是梦想的破碎？还是说我们奋力向前的方向错误了？或者说梦想本身就太过天真？再退一步说，梦想有必要存在么？有必要坚持么？一个人能够在社会主流思想体系中保持独立而完整的自我吗？当一只玻璃杯中装满牛奶的时候，人们会说“这是牛奶”；当改装菜油的时候，人们会说“这是菜油”。只有当杯子空置时，人们才看到杯子，说“这是一只杯子”。同样，当我们心中装满成见、财富、权势的时候，就已经不是自己了；人往往热衷拥有很多，却往往难以真正的拥有自己。

《了不起的盖茨比》中的人生百态还在我的心中翻腾，雅典娜赐予人类智慧是为了让人类学会如何生活而不是互送“人参公鸡”，虽然，盖茨比最后被杀死了，但我仍不能轻易地总结道：他的人生是个悲剧。对我们许多人而言，盖茨比所拥有的社会财富，是我们常人一生都不一定能企及的梦想。或许他过早地到达人生顶峰是他死亡的诱因之一，但我们很多人都还在上坡的路上，没有会当凌绝顶，怎能一览众山小。

第二篇：了不起的盖茨比英文读后感

Perspiration Is No Match For Conspiracy

On The Great Gatsby

by WangYaHui

There is a dream,rooted deeply in every American,from the very beginning of the MayFlower,that the great great grandfathers of all Americans had been contemplating and seeking,and of all Americans that has been written in the second sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."The American Dream , is a belief that as long as the United States after a hard struggle will be able to achieve the ideal of a better life, that is, people have to work through their own hard work, courage, creativity and determination to move towards Prosperity, rather than rely on specific social classes and other assistance. This is usually on behalf of the people in the economic success or entrepreneurial spirit.

Yet, the dream has already became a nightmare,that in the money-orienting, power-persuing minds springing up since the Industry Revolution,Americans have fallen in,not only the way of life through which Americans rifling for more luxurious enjoyment, but the morality of heart that they persued prosperity with all costs of which they were oblivious.

Luckly,we had people who saw the reality much more clearly than the blind masses,while those were considered Critics of sorts.They pointed out that many versions of the dream equate prosperity with happiness, and that happiness may not always be that simple. These critics suggest that the American Dream may always remain tantalizingly out of reach for some Americans, making it more like a cruel joke than a genuine dream. Fitzgerald was one of them who went the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James, because he depicted the extolled grandest and most boisterous, reckless and merry-making scene(T．S．Elliot).

It was five years that Fitzgerald foreseen the latent fatal cancer of Capitalism of American. The Great Gatsby soon came into being,in which first half is comedy,second half is tragidy.In the third--person view,Nike, who learns that his next-door neighbor, who throws lavish parties hosting hundreds of people, is the wealthy, mysterious Jay Gatsby.And the key charactor ,Gatsby, had fallen in love with Daisy in 1917 as an Army Lieutenant stationed near Daisy's hometown, Louisville. After the war, Gatsby came east and bought his mansion near Daisy and Tom, where he hosts parties hoping she will visit.Befor then Gatsby was a man of integrity and honor,who received great respect form the society to his wealth and power.While after his death,he was merely remembered,forgottern in the flew of time and lust. These

parties were fashionable, but pointless. It was only a show-off of Gatsby’s riches and material success. The crowds hardly knew their host; many came and went without invitation. The music, the laughter and the faces, all blurred as one confused mass, showed the purposelessness and the loneliness of the party-goers beneath their marks of relaxation and joviality. All this was typical of “the Jazz Age”, when many people lost belief in American dream and indulge themselves in drinking and dancing. The great expectations which the first settlement of the American continent brings vanish, and so despair and doom set in.In his blue gardens, men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars….On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.

“Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New

York----every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.” (Chapter 3, 52)

The exavagent life, the noisy people constitute Gatsby’s parties. However, the depiction of the fashionable and meaningless parties served to highlight Gatsby’s tragedy by contrasting the grandeur of his party with his violent death, with the frustration of his dream. Gatsby’s funeral was rather deserted and cheerless compared with his parties. It’s a record of human coldness. Nick had invited some people to come to Gatsby’s funeral. These people were all Gatsby’s so-called friends. They found a lot of excuses for their absence because they knew clearly that Gatsby was no longer useful for them. Gatsby’s generous parties had not brought him even one friend. What’s more, Daisy, once Gatsby’s lover, the real killer, “hadn’t sent a message or a flower”.(Chapter 9, 233)The sharp contrast between the exavagence of the parties and the coldness of the funeral revealed the hypocritical relationship among people and the moral degradation of the Jazz Age.

Gatsby, though his wealth came from his criminal activities,was the typical symbol of American dream in that time,and the whole-hearted dedication of Gatsby and his sincere belief in what he did made him heroic, and this submerged the unpleasant details so that they did not seem important in the final outcome,as has the American dreammer who were so stubborn to believe perspirition would bring what they want.

The real killer who murderred Gatsby was the society,in which people could become rich overnight by non-moral means.A poor beautiful girl could marry a wealthy boy who may not be handsome for the purpose of being rich,and a young man could find a job in which he would do nothing but be paid.While Gatsby, the true heir to the American dream,was killed by Conspiracy of his lover Daisy ,who was actually

stimulated by the vanity fair, and lived in luxury at the cost of Gatsby, to whom without mercy. The cruel reality smashed Gatsby’s dream. Fitzgerald’s comment on the failure of Gatsby’s dream was also a statement on the failure of American dream. The contrast of the dream and the reality significantly indicated a moving away from faith and hope in a world where material interests had driven out sentimentality and faith. What is more, dream, even if it persists, is utterly helpless and defenseless against a material society. It can only be defeated. Gatsby was an example. Owing to his unrealistic dream, Gatsby’s fate turned out to be a tragedy. Because he was not conscious of his unrealistic dream of love and he did not correctly handle contradictions between ideal and reality, Gatsby sunk into this kind of unreal dream so deeply that he can’t wake up. And the final result of Gatsby was surely miserable.

The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s finest novel. “sensitive and symbolic treatment of themes of contemporary life related with irony and pathos to the legendry of the American dream.” ——《The Oxford Companion to American Literature》

The sharp contrast between dream and reality not only explains Gatsby’s failure at the end, it also explains the meaninglessness of that age. In a word, these contrasts provide the readers with a panorama of 1920s. And in the contrast, the theme of the novel ----the disillusion of the American dream ----is strengthened. In the mean time,the loss of the American dream reflects the corruption of people’s morality.