When the ideal runs into the reality

-------the book review of the Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a significant classic in America literature and Fitzgerald is also considered as a chronicler of the “Jazz Age”. The women characters play an important role in revealing the theme of the novel. Especially the figure Daisy and the contradictions in her has aroused my interests to think carefully about the reason why she would choose that when her ideal ran into the reality.

Daisy was once a lovely, elegant and innocent girl when she was “Daisy Fay”. Though Gatsby was a penniless lower class young man, she fell in love with him crazily and happily. While she changed and showed her darker side gradually. She noticed the importance of wealth and position, so she chose to marry to Tom Buchanan though she did not love him as much as Gatsby at that time. Besides, Daisy considered her daughter as a doll and continued playing with those guys. Even until the end, her former lover Gatsby who was wealthy and renowned then came back to her. Considering Gatsby’s illegal sources of money and his inglorious past, Daisy refused to go with Gatsby finally. What annoyed me the most is the plot that Gatsby was murdered because of the misunderstanding of Wilson while Daisy did not attend his funeral. She may have many scruples when her ideal life was disturbed by the cruel reality. Actually everyone may become confused and perplexed when we face the confliction. Also everyone has his own choice. But the point is how much we can afford when confront the result that happened after our decision.

The slang “Make friends with local tyrant” is very popular nowadays. We ought to think about the hidden reason for its popularity after we scoff at it. With the fast development of economy, more and more people are lost themselves just like the young generation after the World War Ⅰ. Their value has been or is going to be changed completely. They don’t know what exactly right is and what exactly they are supposed to do. Some students play online games in the dormitory rather than go to the classes. Some staff has become a workaholic in order to deal with the life pressure. Some married stars betrayed their families without remembering their oath. It seems that the whole society has ran out of the regular track. So it is high time that we calmed down and reflected ourselves. What exactly is our final ideal and how could we make it a reality?

Honestly speaking, nobody could live in the society without money. And obviously, almost everyone has been aware of the necessity of money. So no wonder people are struggling and fighting to get more money. But what if the life with plenty money is different from the life we used to dream of? As far as I’m thinking, it is definitely that life is more cruel that we thought and it is impossible that life goes as we designed. We can not own everything that we want to have. What we could do and what we could change is just ourselves. Our choices, our goals or our attitudes all have an impact on the final result. The change may be pretty small, but we ought to believe that the miracle will definitely show up as long as you stick to your ideal goal. So when your ideal is disturbed by the reality, don’t let your original step be disturbed as well. Just follow your heart and be yourself. And I believe that you will finally achieve your goal in the near future.

第二篇：了不起的盖茨比英文论文

摘 要

弗朗西斯·司科特·菲茨杰拉德是二十世纪美国最重要的作家之一,被推崇为“爵士时代”的编年史家和桂冠诗人。他不仅亲身经历了美国历史上“最会纵乐、最讲究炫丽”的时代的生活,而且以敏锐的目光,审视着那个时代所发生的一切。 《了不起的盖茨比》于19xx年发表,是二十世纪最优秀的小说之一。托·斯·艾略特称它是“亨利·詹姆斯以后美国小说迈出的第一步。《了不起的盖茨比》是对美国梦的实质的批评。美国文化的特征之一表现为:在强化追求物质财富的成功的同时,忽视了为追求物质财富的成功而采取合法手段的重要性。

本论文从人物分析着手，从社会、历史、以及作者自身经历和世界观等多方面探讨导致主人公盖茨比梦毁人亡的根源存在。美国梦幻灭不仅有其深刻的社会历史原因，且与盖茨比性格中的自我毁灭因素息息相关。通过分析我们可以看出盖茨比之梦的历史渊源和实质，盖茨比性格中的天直单纯和不谙世故以及以汤姆、黛西为代表的美国社会的冷酷无情和道德沦丧。这些从根本上决定了美国梦的幻灭。本文主要通过人物分析来分析作品的主题，并将二者有机地统一起来，意在较全面深刻地解读作品的内涵。

关键词：《了不起的盖茨比》；弗朗西斯·司科特·菲茨杰拉德；成功

I

Abstract

F. Scott. Fitzgerald was one of the most representative American novelists of the 1920s. He was not only a leading participant in the typically frivolous, carefree, moneymaking life of the decade but also a detached observer of it. The Great Gatsby (1925) is regarded by many critics as one of the finest twentieth- century American novels. T. S. Eliot called it “the first step the American novel has taken since Henry James.” The Great Gatsby is a general critique of the American dream. American culture is characterized by a strong emphasis on the goal of monetary success and a weak emphasis on the importance of the legitimate means for the pursuit of success.

This thesis analyzes the roots of the disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream from the historical and authorial perspectives, By exploring the origins and essential nature of Gatsby’s dream, the naivety and innocence in the personality and the cruelty of Jazz Age society epitomized by the ruthless and immoral Buchanan, the paper draws the conclusion that a combination of these elements defines Gatsby’s failure and destruction in the end. Theme discussion in this paper is basically done through history and character analysis, which aims for better understanding of those connotations of the novel.

Key words: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott. Fitzgerald, success

II

Contents

Abstract in Chinese ...................................................................................................... I Abstract ........................................................................................................................ II

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1

1.1 The Synopsis of F. Scott. Fitzgerald ................................................................. 1

1.2 Social and Historical Background of The Great Gatsby .................................. 1

2. Formation of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby ...................................... 2

2.1 The American Dream ........................................................................................ 2

2.2The American Dream of Gatsby ........................................................................ 4

3. Reasons for Gatsby’s Shattered American Dream ............................................... 6

3.1 Gatsby’s Pursuit of Pure Love .......................................................................... 6

3.2 Social Conflicts Due to Different Economic Status ......................................... 6

4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 8

References ................................................................................................................... 10

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 11

1. Introduction

1.1 The synopsis of F. Scott. Fitzgerald

F. Scott. Fitzgerald was one of the novelists of the 1920s. He was not only an active, leading participant in the typically frivolous, moneymaking life of the decade, but also a detached, profound observer of it at the same time. His own life was a mirror of the times. He led a priceless life and achieved much during the “Roaring Twenties”, drinking hard whisky, driving fast cars, and taking much delight in it.

F. Scott. Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner. Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though an intelligent child, he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding school in 1911. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enroll at Princeton in 1913. Academic troubles and apathy plagued him throughout his time at college, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in 1917, as World War I neared its end.

Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant, and was stationed at Camp Sheridan, in Montgomery, Alabama. There he met and fell in love with a wild seventeen-year-old beauty named Zelda Sayre. Zelda finally agreed to marry him, but her overpowering desire for wealth, fun, and leisure led her to delay their wedding until he could prove a success. With the publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920, Fitzgerald became a literary sensation, earning enough money and fame to convince Zelda to marry him.

1.2 Social and historical background of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby (1925) is regarded by many critics as one of the finest twentieth- century American novels. T. S. Eliot called it “the first step the American novel has taken since Henry James.” However, the immediate response to the novel was overwhelmingly negative. It was not until 1950s that The Great Gatsby became popular all over the world. It took a long time for the greatness of The Great Gatsby to emerge. The Great Gatsby is a general critique of the American dream. American culture is characterized by a strong emphasis on the goal of monetary success and a

weak emphasis on the importance of the legitimate means for the pursuit of success. By combining the traditional biographical and historical approaches, and the approach of cultural criticism, the thesis tries to re- explore the significance of the American dream. In Introduction, the thesis briefly introduces Fitzgerald’s life, works and the social, historical context in which The Great Gatsby was created. Chapter One gives a reflection of the American dream, focusing on the sacred tradition and the secular tradition which have contributed to the early formation of the American dream in terms of religion, economy and politics. Chapter Two analyzes the development of Gatsby’s American dream by dwelling on Benjamin Franklin’s and Dan Cody’ influence on James Gatz respectively, Chapter Three expounds on the withering of the American dream through the analysis of the characterization of the protagonist-Gatsby, Meyer Wolfsheim, Daisy Fay and Tom Buchanan. Gatsby and Tom represent the two major forces in American society: idealism and materialism. Gatsby becomes a victim of the new commercial culture where material success is dominating. In Conclusion, the thesis argues that The Great Gatsby is about the predicament of human beings in general, thus it is necessary for man to figure out ways to minimize the contradictions between man’s social development and the world of nature, materialistic abundance and spiritual pursuit, idealism and reality.

2. Formation of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

2.1 The American Dream

The American Dream as a special product of the American civilizations, begins to take shape at the starting point of the American civilization when the first European Puritan settlers came to the new world in the early seventeenth century. Therefore, some of the American Puritan religious and moral concepts have gone into the making of the following three essential qualities of the American Dream.

First, the American Dream adopts a positive attitude towards material success and considers it as all important expression of self-fulfillment. That explains the reason why material success is what one most likely first thinks of when it comes to

the topic of the American Dream.

Secondly, the American Dream is also known to support the idea that the chance to achieve material success will falls onto the person who has high moral standards. Accordingly, spiritual development is necessary for material success in the logic of the American Dream. This idea of appreciating spiritual development equally stems from American Puritan religious belief.

Finally, Optimism is another remarkable characteristic of the American Dream. We can see this quality from Gatsby; he never loses his faith and confidence in his ability to attain his life goal from the moment when he kisses Daisy first time five years ago until the last days of his life.

The American Dream is the dream of a land in which life should be richer and better for everyone, providing them with opportunities according to their abilities or achievements. It encourages people to work through efforts, courage, creativity and determination to move towards prosperity, rather than rely on any other forces. In one time, it did help some people to fight for success. But as time flew, the American dream went to the other side. So in this case, the essay aims to discuss the disillusion of the so-called American Dream, also the theme of The Great Gatsby, with the analysis of the tragedy of its main character——Gatsby.

This part intends to make an study of how the American Dream gets enriched and developed with the advancement of the nation.

First, the American Dream is an ideal that expresses human hopes and wishes for a democratic, liberal society, where man’s basic demand for survival, self-fulfillment and social recognition can be ensured. It is supposed that in such a society, no man is despised due to his origin and every one shall equally have the opportunity to achieve his due success and happiness if he works hard toward a goal. Secondly, carrying forward the Puritan tradition, the American Dream goes on to healthily grow up in American capitalist democratic soil. And it successfully pushes the advancement of the nation and becomes a reality in many fortunate self-made men cases in the early age of America. Among these people, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln are the most famous representatives.

They all come from poor origins and win the unanimous reverence of the nation. Their successful legendary careers proclaim to the world that every one can achieve success in America if he has confidence, aspiration, determination, and virtues, regardless of his origin.

Consequently, with its worthwhile role in the progress of the nation and individuals, the American Dream gradually becomes an unwavering belief in the mind of the whole nation.

2.2 The American Dream of Gatsby

In the last chapter of the novel, Gatsby’s father proudly showed Gatsby’s schedule and general resolves written in 1906 on the last fly-leaf of the “ragged” copy book called Hopalong Cassidy (Fitzgerald, 1992: 110) to Nick. It tells how deeply young Gatsby has absorbed the ideas of Benjamin Franklin through his autobiography into his ambition to be successful, believing that a man can be what he want to be by hard working.

Horatio Alger (1834-1899), writer of the book Hopalon Cassidy, is another person who had large influence on young James in forming his early belief. Alger has probably been the most widely read of all American writers. “His novels tend to follow the same pattern: a boy works his way up from poverty to respectability through hard work, thrift and good luck.” (Matterson, 1990: 65) To Alger, everything is determined by the efforts and the character of the individuals. Gatsby actually starts by struggling for advancement in the Alger method.

So, Gatsby’s Dream, as some critics have pointed out, has been an illusion that he could never has fulfilled.

The development of Gatsby’s dream is the history of his involvement with a social class, the American rich. At the beginning, he planed to be rich and successful in imitation of the way of Benjamin Franklin and Horatio Alger. But he failed in the end. Then he met Dan Cody, who becomes Gatsby’s image of the wealthy and successful man, from that time, Gatsby developed his new own social style and learned his way of acquisition of wealth.

As well as image for himself, however, Gatsby needs an image of something

beyond him to which he can aspire, and this final stage of his imaginative development is completed when he meets Daisy and falls in love with her, When he kissed her at the first time, he has “wed forever his ineffable vision to her perishable breath” and “the incarnation was completed.” (Fitzgerald, 1992: 71) And ever since then she becomes the center of his dream. For him, Daisy is not only as a woman but also as the symbol of a way of life. Her life and everything about her is another world to him.

As a matter of fact, Gatsby fails to get marry with her. Gatsby learns a lot from the fact that he loses her just simply because “he had no comfortable family standing behind him”, that he must have “the same status” as herself and enough money to give her “a sense of security” (Fitzgerald, 1992: 95) in order to win her back. So during the followed years since their parting, Gatsby works even harder to accumulate wealth through every possible means without the least sense of guilt.

As analyzed above, Gatsby’s dream is multileveled. Lockridge writes that Gatsby’s dream has three “basic and related parts: the desire for money, the desire to repeat the past, and the desire for incarnation of “unutterable visions ”in the material earth.”

In The Great Gatsby, it is clear that Fitzgerald is critical of the American dream itself, seeing it as “an illusion of liberty and openness，but which has always been historically ineffectual. It was invalidated by its crude association with materialism.” (Matterson, 1990: 33) This is strongly represented in the career of Gatsby, who as known is the true co-heiress of the American dream. The confusion of the romantic ideal with the mere making of money is a first conflict in the dream. And the gap between the intensity of Gatsby’s devotion and the “cause” to which he is devoted is not to be neglected. And above all, as an embodiment of the American dreams Gatsby’s dream is fatally in conflict with the rigid reality.

The conflict of Gatsby’s dream with the reality is obviously presented in his well-imagined autobiography. He cuts off the real past of himself and invents for himself a completely new identity to meet the value of America popular culture. In support of his new identity, Gatsby adopts what he believes are the true mannerisms

and surrounds himself with what he believes are the right props. However, Gatsby’s mannerisms and props often fail. The world he created is so fragile that it can not bear the slightest test of the reality.

3. Reasons for Gatsby’s shattered American Dream

3.1 Gatsby’s pursuit of pure love

To Gatsby, Daisy is his true love and represents perfection. She has the aura of charm, wealth, grace and aristocracy that he longed. In reality, however, Daisy falls far short of Gatsby’s ideal. She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, hypocritical. She is careless person who smashes thing up and then retreats behind her money. She allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle ever though she herself was driving the car. Finally, rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, Daisy is love with money, easy, and material luxury. She seems to love Gatsby, but not of sustained loyalty or care.

From the above, we know the real Daisy. But Gatsby did not know her clearly. This is the main reason why Gatsby’s dream cannot come true. When Gatsby fell in love with Daisy, “he knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby-nothing.” “In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire between.” After the war, Gatsby got rich, but Daisy got married. He only got several times to be with her and know her. The green light where his lost lover lived is dim and far away. He never knew what his dream and his hope really were.

3.2 Social conflicts due to different economic status

Gatsby lives in the West Egg, where is inhabited by the new rich, Gatsby being the representative. The East Egg is gathered by the “old rich”, Tom and Daisy being the representatives. The new rich are composed of businessmen, speculators, and industrialists. The old rich are mainly aristocratic families. Gatsby’s great party is of main characteristics of the new rich. They are evidenced in their overall cynicism and empty pursuit of happiness. The Jazz music is the main tune of their life. Their desires

for pleasure and money surpassed all other goals. In order to accumulate enough money, Gatsby does not care to do illegal business. During the course of the confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, Tom disgrace Gatsby and takes the advantages of Gatsby’s illegal activities.

On the contrary, Tom and Daisy is the represent of the old rich. They have the characteristics of the aristocratic taste, grace, elegance, and subtlety. They are careless and inconsiderate bullies who are used to money’s ability to relieve their minds. When Gatsby does not come back, Daisy has a nervous despair and the pressure from the outside world. Then she makes the decision to marry Tom because Tom satisfies her with the force of money. What’s more, Tom gives Daisy a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So she doesn’t know what to do with the time.

Their marriage is just on the basis of material abundance. And her life is dull and meaningless.

The United States has long been known as a “melting pot”. The Long Island can be called a small “melting pot”. The East Egg is an area belongs to the old rich the West Egg is an area of newly rich people . Though the East Egg and the West Egg both are rich people, they have different social status. The East Egg enjoys a higher social status. As being the aristocracy, they treat with contempt to the new riches. They like to dominate others. When Nick goes to visit Buchanans, he portrays Tom: “He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always learning aggressively forward.” (Fitzgerald, 1925: 7) Tom’s voice, “a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was contempt in it, even toward people he liked.” (Bryfonski, 1978: 237) His actions are aggressive and dominant.

The West Egg wants a life of garishness, ostentation, and the flash manners while East Egg embraces breeding, aristocracy, taste, and leisure. The enormous mansion, the throngs of people, the piles of food and a corps of caterers and the lights,

all tell an extravagant life. About the East, “it was sharply different from phase to phase toward its close, in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.” (Bryfonski, 1978:235)

In Chapter 8, Tom and Gatsby quarrel for wining Daisy at the Plaza Hotel, it’s can be considered as the fight between “the established rich” and “the newly rich”.And Gatsby’s failure is doomed from the very beginning, for he is all alien in such cruelty society. At the beginning of the novel, there is an interesting description of the places where the main characters live, the East Egg and the West Egg．(Fitzgerald, 1992:5) Obviously, the home of Gatsby in West Egg and the Buchanans，in the East are not only indicative of the distinction of their wealth but also imply to the differences of their moral ethics, simple virtue of the West and corruption and sophistication of the East．

4. Conclusion

Today the general consensus of Fitzgerald is that he is the most representative novelist of the 1920s in the United States. His own life was a mirror of the times. His works, The Great Gatsby in particular, are all epitome of “The Jazz Age”. The Great Gatsby, for it cannot survive the rigid reality. Secondly, in Gatsby’s Gatsby is undoubtedly a great novel that can arouse a huge feeling of the reader for it is not simply all unfulfilled romance of a man named Jay Gatsby. It is also a story of wonder, power and devotion, and dreams and history, which appeals not only to Americans but to all human, a novel with so many issues worth approaching.

In this thesis the focus is on development of American dream and Gatsby’s dream. Through an interpretive analysis of the main characters and the social context of the American twenties, we have three discoveries of the roots of Gatsby’s destruction. First, Gatsby’s dreams contain the same limitations and contradictory aspects as the American dream idealism we see his self-destructive potentials: he naively believes that material acquisition can help him achieve everything and that the past can be repeated. And finally, in contrast with Gatsby, there are the selfish and

immoral Buchanans, representatives of the corrupted American society, and Gatsby’s innocence and naivety is no match to their malice.

Gatsby’s dream failed, and his tragedy is doomed from the very beginning. Through the unfolding of a doomed romance of a fervent dreamer in the dreamless wasteland of American twenties, Fitzgerald simultaneously unfolds the inevitable fate of the American values. However, in a basic sense, The Great Gatsby is as much a eulogy of what Gatsby’s power of dream stands for as an attack on the bankrupt of the American twenties.

References

[1] Anderson, Richard. Gatsby’s Long Shadow: Influence and Endurance[M]. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985.

[2] Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby[M]. Penguin Books Ltd (UK)，2007.

[3] Storm, Laura Ann. The Great Gatsby: From Novel Into Opera [M]. New York: Charles Scribner’s Son, 2004.

[4] Unger, Leonard. American Writer II: A Collection of Literary Biographies [J]. New York: Scribner, 1972(3):3-5.

[5] 王先霈,胡亚敏主编.文学批评导引[M]. 高等教育出版社, 2005.

[6] 吴建国著. 菲茨杰拉德研究[M]. 上海外语教育出版社, 2002.

[7] 王卫平, 王萍. 《了不起的盖茨比》—“美国梦”幻灭的写照(英文)[J]. 广西大学梧州分校学报. 2004(04):25-28.

Acknowledgements

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my supervisor, for her constant encouragement and guidance.

As a senior, because of lacking of experiences, so there are some limitations in my paper. During my paper writing process, I get the kindly care and patience instruction from my teacher. She has been available at all times with a helpful advice and a helping hand throughout my whole writing process of the thesis. She has provide me with instructive guidance in modifying the topic, in preparing the material pertinent to the topic and in writing the thesis, and has paid great patience in reading and revising the entire manuscript. Without her generous help, I could not even complete the thesis, let alone present it with the present form.

Last my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.