《大学的理想》读书报告

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在众多书目中选择《大学的理想》( The Idea of a University)是因为我们刚刚迈进大学的校门，我们中的每个在踏入大学校园之前，在心里都会有关于自己大学的理想学习、生活方式的憧憬，对大学教育的认识，除了之前十几年的应试教育目标所培养的认识，学生结合自身与社会所得到的更为深刻的思考还尚为缺失。所以，读之前觉得或许这本书可以让我们对大学的意义有一个深刻一些的感悟。但是，读完后，才发现，这本书所给予我的不仅是我之前所预期得到的体会，更让我对一种教育思想---自由教育 有了认识，或许这种思想表面乍一看对一个大一的学生来说其思想深度有些难懂，但是仔细品读思考，还是能从中获得珍贵的可以为自己所用的东西。

纽曼是19世纪自由教育的伟大倡导者。他所著的《大学的理想》是西方高等教育史上较早系统综合、全面地论述大学教育的基本理论问题的名著。纽曼的知识观重在强调通才教育、自由教育、绅士教育、精英教育,注重心智训练、理性思维方式的培养,而排斥专业教育、职业教育和知识的工具价值。

这篇报告中的主要论述是围绕“自由教育”展开的。他的“自由教育”在书中的阐述，我认为，可以归纳概括为四类：大学的概念、大学的目的、大学的教育、大学的学习。

1、大学的概念

纽曼从词源学的角度认为，大学是讲授普遍知识的场所。他主张大学应平等、完整地传授各种知识。这就意味着，大学的目标：首先是理性的而非道德的。大学的目的是理智训练，发展人的理性；其次是知识的传播与推广而非知识的进步。他说：“如果它的目标是科学或哲学的发现，我不明白为什么一所大学要有学生；如果是宗教训练，我不明白它为什么是文学和科学的中心”，这也就说，大学是传播普遍知识的地方，既是知识的集中地，也是讲授知识的中心。“大学讲授普遍知识”是大学的本质所在。大学具有特殊性，具有相对独立性， 它不应屈就于任何事物，包括教会。在纽曼看来，巴黎大学作为一所真正意义上的大学的关 键就在于它容纳了并教授了所有的普遍知识。他的学生来自世界各地，没有国家、种族、阶层等的区别。这就是纽曼理想的大学。纽曼认为人的本质就是人的理性，大学教育就是培养人的理性，重视人的因素。 而这些概念，是我在上大学之前还沉浸在高考中甚至是读这本书之前所从未接触到的思想而不能定义、理解的。

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也正是因为以上目标跟理想，纽曼认为大学教育应为自由教育而设。他所说的自由教育是“心智、理智和反思的操作活动”，以心智训练、性格修养和理智发展为目标。自由教育的具体体现是集智慧、勇敢、宽容、修养等于一身的绅士。为知识本身的目的而追求知识，是进行这一教育的重要 途径。从大学为讲授普遍知识的场所出发，纽曼坚持大学不同于学术机构，更反对大学进行职业教育。

在《大学的理想》第五篇中，他说：“当知识越来越具体、细化的时候，知识就不称其为知识了”。而在此环境下培养出来的人也将被机械化，目光也就会变得短浅，这与纽曼提倡的完全的人皆然相背离，也就实现不了其教育的目的。

为了实现这种教育目的，除了必须坚持为知识而知识的原则外，他主张学生“应真实主 动地进入知识领域，拥抱它，掌握它”。他的理想大学中的大学生，不仅要主动、积极、开放、交互式地进行学习，还要用普遍联系的观点去掌握知识。他主张在新旧知识之间建立联系，通过分析、分类、对照、协调、匹配、整合等手段，是新旧知识真正内化为学生整个知识体系的有机组成部分，真正实现学生的才智增长。由于学生不可能攻读每一门向他开放的学科，为了实现大学应提供普遍的与完整的知识的教学目标，他主张使大学成为“教育场所”而不是“教学场所”，也即让学生生活在“代表整个知识领域的人之间”，强调学生在一种洋溢着普遍知识的益智团体范围内进行自我教育。

作为一个对教育史几乎一无所知的教育学专业学生，在接触到纽曼对大学的概念自由教育之后，首先，撇去纽曼的教育思想不说，他的勇气就是值得我敬佩的。而在这坚持的勇气之后所支撑他的也必须就是那个时代背景下所需的、正确的教育思想。就是自由教育。

其次，由自由教育我想到了“自由知识”。刚来到大学的那阵子，我曾迷茫过：大学究竟能给我什么？在这四年里，我究竟能得到什么？或者应该去学些什么？当自己的专业跟自己的想象不太符合时，该何去何从？不过现在我体会到，或者说我认为：大学，需要给我们的不再是每次考试都得高分，不再是不断地向我们输灌教材上的东西，而是教会我们去自觉，去自我学习，自我成长，锻炼我们快速适应社会变化的能力，让我们去跟上时代的步伐，让我们??然而要做到这一点，学好几本教材显然是不够的，我们要去扩大我们的知识面，去充分利用图书馆资源，学好想学的，需要学的，不能局限于本专业。正如纽曼有说：“知

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识不仅仅是达到知识以外某种东西的途径，或是某些技能的基础，而且知识自身就是我们所追求和探索的目的”，我们为什么获取知识，因为任何知识就是对知识即目的的回报。知识之所以高贵，之所以值得追求，不是因为知识所带来的结果，而是知识自身含有一种哲学的或科学的胚芽，能够生长孕育新的知识，绵绵不绝无穷尽。这种知识就是自由的知识，接受自由知识的教育即接受自由教育。

2、大学的目的

作为红衣主教兼任大学校长的纽曼，其思想主要还是源于神学思想。因此，大致可把其对于大学的目的分为三种，但这三种都离不开自由教育：

第一，超自然的宗教目的。纽曼作为天主教人士，认为宗教是知识的一部分，而且是很重要的一部分，所以大学里必须讲授宗教神学。他坚持教会的权利至高无上。所以这个超自然的宗教目的，自然就成为了他的大学的长期目标。 在《大学的理想》第九篇中，纽曼提出：“若大学里不传授 天主教神学，就谈不上在传授普遍知识。但尽管神职人员一直人数众多，仍不足以成立天主教大学，因为神学只能作为知识的一个分支， 只能作为我所说的哲学的一个重要组成部分来加以传授”。

在此，纽曼虽然过分强调了宗教在大学教育中的作用以及神学在整个知识体系中的作用，但也可以看出他的大学自治的思想。

在这一点上，我想，我学到了两点：一是让我们知道了，在教育内容转变的时候，新与旧的慢慢融合过度会更温和顺利。二是，虽然纽曼这样做的原因并非如此，但是我们一样可以从一件事情上寻找能为自己所用的点。

第二，近期的智力训练的目的。纽曼认为大学的近期目标就是训练学生的智力。在自由教育的思想下，必须通过培养完善的智力来获取知识，通过智力对各种各样的知识进行联系、综合、分析，运用知识进行思考。纽曼认为知识是精神的一种状态或条件，学生必须以掌握各种知识为近期目标。然而知识又是如此之丰富，人生命有限，唯一的解决方法就是加强智力训练和培养。在《大学的理想》第七篇中，纽曼提出：“自由教育尽管并非专业教育，但它却具有真实和充分的实用性。”虽然，“好”是一回事， “实用”是另外一回事，但实用的并不见得总是好的，但好的却必定是实用的。好并不仅仅是好，好可以再生出好的东西，这就是好的事 物的属性之一。好是多产的，它不仅仅有益于判断力，而且也有

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益于鉴赏力；不仅能吸引我们，而且能感染自身。

我想，如果理智是我们身上极为美好的组成部分，而且理智的培养又相当好的话，那么理智就不仅仅其自生是美的、完善的、令人钦佩的和高贵的。而且从真实且高雅 的意义上讲，是对拥有者本人及其周围人都是有用的；不是在低层的、机械的、商业的意义上来讲是有用的，而且它的有用表现在它能向四周传播好的东西，或者作为一种幸事、一种才华、一种能力，或是一种财富。首先是对其拥有者有用，然后通过他，对世界有用。如果自由教育是好的，那么它肯定也是实用的。

但是，纽曼的“掌握各种知识为近期目标”“大学的近期目标就是训练学生的智力”我并不是那么认同，也许是因为过于绝对化理想化，也许是因为相隔年代、地域遥远，有些东西就不适用于今天了。就拿我们如今的大学教育学习来说，我们是分专业专攻某一领域而非做到也不易做到掌握各种知识；而且我认为，大学是培养综合能力的地方而非培养智力，况且智力的最佳培养期也不在大学，当然，在我们学习的过程中智力自然而然会增长，但是我认为这只是附带的提高，不能作为教育的目的。

3、大学的教育

纽曼在大学的教育观中最为突出的就是主张教学和科研相分离。 这与上文所说的纽曼的大学的概念中的“大学不是学术机构”的思想一脉相承。纽曼认为研究所才是知识创新的重要地方，而大学里多数是未受智力训练的学生，主要是准备接受普遍知识的学习，因此两者的功能是不同的。大学应更关注学生。教师的职责是与学生相联系，把知识传授给学生，重点在传授。而发现与教学是绝对不同的两项工作，如果把精力放在知识的发现上，则必然会使教学功能下降。既然学校的主要目的是培养学生那么就应该注重教学，而不是发现。

既然以学生为中心，那么在教学中就要采取因材施教的方法。 根据不同学生的不同特点和需要进行教学是教师的必备技能。那么在教学过程中还要重视师生互动，既然以智力训练为目的，就必须使学生能够积极主动地学，作为参与者进入角色，而不是单纯的作为听众。 另外，教师必须重视教学准备，目的在于引导学生能够循序渐进的获取知识，能够发展理性。从纽曼的教育教学观不难看出，他已经把教师作为一个专业来看待，对其有一定的标准和要求，不是任何人

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都可以胜任的。

也是读到这里，我第一次对大学教育有了高尚的认识，却也是第一次对大学有些失落甚至是疑问，疑问身边，疑问过去。放眼我们的生活，我们的经历，我们现在的社会有多少人还能坚持“为知识本身的目的而追求知识”的？我不得不承认，我身边的同学的学习（有时我自己也如此）以及我所经历的大部分教育阶段，尤其在中学阶段，我们的教育太功利化了，我们的学习太功利化了。

在初中，从初一开始学校为学生制定的“培养目标”就直指中考；在高中，从高一开始学校也致力于为学生三年后的高考做准备。无须去了解学生学到了什么，只要学生三年后知道踩点拿分给学校提高升学率就行了。同样的，我们学生自己，好多人也是以功利的思想去 学习的。哪一科关系到毕业问题，关系到奖学金，关系到升学，就只去埋头苦练，考试的时候知道依葫芦画瓢就行。事实上，高中的我，也确实如此。

那么是不是说，在大学里就不存在功利性的学习了呢？确实不能这么说。记得我们心理学老师就对我们说过：“我觉得你们有些同学学习太功利性了。要上的课就学，不上的课的书就不看了。可是你能保证以后你用不着吗？你能保证你考研或是考博，有或是你参加工作的时候用不着吗？”诚然，刚上大一的我们，还是有很多人这样的。要上的课就去学，不上的课就不学。甚至于，对于《军事理论》这样的开卷考试的科目，许多同学竟也不去学了。只学“重要的”两三门课。可是，即使是开卷考试，听课和不听课的效果自然是不同的。恰如心理老师说的：“很多事，你也许觉得没必要，但做了和没做是完全两回事，效果肯定是不同的。” “考试不过是手段，不是目的，这一点应始终牢记在心。”的确，考试不过是一种形式，学没学到东西，关键还得看自己。所以，我们应该在学习上少一些功利性，学到知识，提高自我素质才是最重要的。

4、大学的学习

纽曼主张大学的学习首先进行智力训练，认为智力培养和训练是在大学和学院中进行的，而它的表现和发挥作用是在以后的生活中。一个人要不断积极主动地学习掌握知识，发展理性，就必须发挥自己的主观能动性。从这个角度出发，学生最好是采用问答式学习，包括师生讨论。一方面教师不断的引导、启发学生，另一方面学生自己主动地思考。重视学生的自学。但同时与老师的指点结合起来。

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我很认同的一点是，纽曼指出学生不能盲目的自学而排斥其他学习方法，而是应该在老师的指导下把自学和学习巧妙结合，才能更好的发展自己。其次，学生学习必须循序渐进，踏踏实实，“罗马不是一天造就的”。同时，纽曼也强调学习的过程必须相互协作、共同奋斗，形成一个互相帮助、互相关心的环境。因为真理的发现总是集体的行为， 需要几代人的努力才能完成，仅仅靠个人力量是永远无法达到的。这一点，团结互助共同完成目标是我们无论在中学、大学的学习还是生活中都无数次实践以及获利的。有些真理，不会随时间、国度而异，跨越时间空间，纽曼给我们的启迪依然熠熠发光。

读一本书，读一本纽曼的《大学的理想》，没有小说的情节动人，但是却让一个思维只停留在自己一方小天地里的忽略淡化整个集体的学生些许懂得：从一个高的角度去看问题是一件激动的事情，当你真正读书接近那些看似高尚无法企及的思想时发现它们原来与你并不那般遥远你也能读懂时，你对自己会有一种前所未有的幸福的认同感。

去读纽曼的《大学的理想》吧，在你了解这本西方高等教育史上较早系统综合、全面地论述大学教育的基本理论问题的名著之外，你会发现一个不一样的自己，理智、冷静、怀想未来。

参考文献：

《大学的理想》（节本），由徐辉、顾建新、何曙荣翻译,浙江教育出版社20xx年12月出版的版本

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第二篇：读书报告

读 书 报 告

专业班级 学生姓名 指导教师

The Greatest Men

All of us hold dreams and America,seems is the country can makes our dreams come true.America is full of uncountable dreams.They are all achievable,touchable. Not to mention in the 20th century,Roaring Twenties,this magical era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other criminal activity.Stocks reached record peaks and Wall street boomed in a steady golden roar.The buildings were higher.Parties were bigger.The shows were broader and ban on alcohol had backfired,making the liquor cheaper.Everything there were luring the young and ambitious.That?s when this story happened.

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald,an American author of novels and short stories who was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota,whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby (his most famous), and Tender Is the Night. 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 age and despair.And this story “The Great Gatsby” was inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore and began planning the novel in 1923, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new,something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." and finally first published in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and became a part of American high school curricula and numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades. Today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel". In 1998 the Modern Library editorial board voted it the 20th century's best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period.

Among these,what I want to mention specially is that when this book was published,Fitzgerald is just 28 years old.Furthermore,his first novel's success made him famous and let him marry the woman he loved.But later he descended into drinking.After he published 2 novels This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned,2 Short story collections Flappers and Philosophers and Tales of the Jazz Age,he became the darling of the era.For after the first world war,American economy came to a unprecedented prosperity.The new culture and new time needed new hero.Fitzgerald is just the man who is needed.His handsome,fearless,gorgeous was exactly what the young wanted and he was also the literary symbol needed by the social.As we all known,in that century,most major countries women finally won the right to vote.For these young women,they were just liberated from the old concept,and enjoyed in the

material life and in their eyes Fitzgerald?s wife Zelda was very enviable.

Fitzgerald lived a luxurious life.Even so,he has his ambition:to write a novel can describe the time.He can lived by writing short novels,but just like today,an author can?t be approved without an outstanding novel.In1922,when he was 26 years old,he moved form New York to the Long Island.He had planned to write without hullabaloo,but he obviously can?t get used to this coziness for he is lively and extravagant,so again he went on the previous days.Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive and exciting, and like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich. However,for Fitzgerald,those days is not completely useless.Those sensuous days and nights became the background of The Great Gatsby. Today there are a number of theories as to which mansion was the inspiration for the book. One possibility is Land's End, a notable Gold Coast Mansion where Fitzgerald may have attended a party.Many of the events in Fitzgerald's early life are reflected throughout The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald was a young man from Minnesota, and like Nick, he was educated at an Ivy League school (in Nick's case, Yale.)Fitzgerald belongs to the author that his books is based on his real experiences.So maybe we can say,without those showy,ostentatious in Long Island,we can not have The Great Gatsby this classic work,or it may became a totally different work.The parties,the luxurious life of the rich that described in the novel also would not exist.

In 1924,in order to find another quieter place to write and reduce their increasing expenses,Fitzgerald and his wife moved again.They left Long Island,went to the Riviera located in the south of French.In this beautiful place,he (rarely) determined to devote himself in the writing.However,his wife,Zelda,got tired of the days without her husband?s company,she didn?t know how to spend those boring time.While Fitzgerald absorbed writing The Great Gatsby. Zelda became infatuated with a dashing young French pilot, Edouard Jozan.She spent afternoons swimming at the beach and evenings dancing at the casinos with Jozan. After six weeks, Zelda asked for a divorce.In that hot summer.

Actually Zelda already had flighty affairs with some young boys when she was young. A newspaper article about one of her dance performances quoted her as saying that she cared only about "boys and swimming."She is “that” girl,hard to please and can?t get on well.After Zelda asked for divorce,Fitzgerald was so shocked that he stopped his work. Fitzgerald at first demanded to confront Jozan(like Tom did in the book),but instead dealt with Zelda's demand by locking her in their house, until she abandoned her request for divorce. Jozan did not know she'd asked for a divorce. He left the Riviera later that year, and the Fitzgerald never saw him again.When Zelda finally can thought carefully(like Daisy did),she had to stay with Fitzgerald,but just like Fitzgerald wrote in his notebook "That September 1924, I knew something had happened that could never be repaired."However,for Fitzgerald,this pain,misery,suffering,may influenced how he built “Daisy”this character or to say it properly,the shock he suffered during his writing,became another “nutriment” that helped him to become a novelist.

The novel's events are filtered through the consciousness of its narrator, Nick Carraway,a Yale graduate and World

War I veteran from the Midwest takes a job in New York as a bond salesman on the summer of 1922,who is both a part of and separate from the world he describes,within and without of the whole story. He rents a small house on Long Island, in the (fictional) village of West Egg, a wealthy but unfashionable area populated by the new rich, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to have established social connections and who are prone to garish displays of wealth,and Nick is next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who holds extravagant parties but does not participate in them. Nick drives around the bay to East Egg for dinner at the home of his cousin, Daisy Fay Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's. They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, an attractive, cynical young golfer begins a romantic relationship. She reveals to Nick that Tom has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the "valley of ashes":an industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle to an apartment they keep for their affair. At the apartment, a vulgar and bizarre party takes place. It ends with Tom breaking Myrtle's nose after she annoys him by saying Daisy's name several times.

As the summer progresses, Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties. Nick encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, an aloof and surprisingly young man who recognizes Nick from their same division in the war. Through Jordan, Nick later learns that Gatsby knew Daisy from a romantic encounter in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights staring at the Green Light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion, hoping to one day rekindle their lost romance. Gatsby's extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are an attempt to impress Daisy in the hope that she will one day appear again at Gatsby's doorstep. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. They begin an affair and, after a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Daisy speaks to Gatsby with such undisguised intimacy that Tom realizes she is in love with Gatsby. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is outraged by his wife's infidelity. He forces the group to drive into New York City and confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, asserting that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand. In addition to that, he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal whose fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that Gatsby cannot hurt him.

When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes on their way home, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Tom's mistress, Myrtle. Nick later learns from Gatsby that Daisy, not Gatsby himself, was driving the car at the time of the accident but Gatsby intends to take the blame anyway. Myrtle's husband, George, falsely concludes that the driver of the yellow car is the secret lover he recently began suspecting she has, and sets out on foot to locate its owner. After finding out the yellow car is Gatsby's, he arrives at Gatsby's mansion where he fatally shoots

both Gatsby and then himself. Nick stages an unsettlingly small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest, disillusioned with the Eastern lifestyle.

The title of this book is “The Great Gatsby.”However,what makes Gatsby Great indeed?

For some people they may think what makes Gatsby great is his love for Daisy that he can sustained for almost 5 years and finally died for this.However,I think it is not.

Why we always talked about American dream and Jazz Age when we talked about this novel?

The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims 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.”However all of these beautiful words were based on the one word “equal”.And for Jazz Age,as I talked earlier,this book was written in the 1923,before the Great Depression,the golden period of America economy to make a spurt of progress.However,with the development of society,the gap between rich and poor is growing,it is getting more and more difficult for those poor to be rich.When personal struggle can?t lead to the life of the “old money”,the American Dream is just disillusioned and became a huge sarcasm.Many young people lived in the age of the 20th ,they are just can experience the good material conditions,the prosperity of that age,but in the same time,they are deeply despaired and lost.The rich in the material and the poor in the mental makes the young generation want to oppose all the traditional concepts.So they engaged in decadent activities,spent money like water.Under this environment,Fitzgerald portrayed Gatsby as “He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father?s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.”His Dream can?t explain the youth in that age any more.

In order to achieve his dream(some people understand this as Daisy),Gatsby tried ever since he was born in a poor family—his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people,he persisted in setting strict demands on himself.He spent his youth with Dan Cody to learn everything he needed,he changed his name from Jimmy Gatz to Jay Gatsby,he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent,and to this conception he was faithful to the end.Then he met Daisy when he just want to take her at first,but he eventually fell in love with her. “I can?t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her,old sport.I even hoped for a while that she?d throw me over,but she didn?t,because she was in love with me too.”But he certainly taken her under false pretences,he let Daisy believed that he was fully able to take care of her.As a matter of fact,he had no such facilities—he had no comfortable family standing behind him,and he was liable at the whim of an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world.Then he went abroad,when he came back,he found that Daisy already got married.In order to achieve his dream,to repeat the past,he chose to became partner with the cheater Meyer Wolfshiem,and earned money by liquor dealing which is forbade.When he finally became the new rich within few years,he bought the house at the West Egg so that Daisy would be just across the bay and he had big parties every night just expected Daisy to wander into one of his parties

some night. After he got the money,which is not earned by keeping pegging to reach success.He tried to be a different man,a gentleman.He always use “old sport”to show that he has been in the Oxford,he carried the picture of Oxford and the metal that written with “Major Jay Gatsby,For Valour Extraordinary.”

After Gatsby died,one of the few guests—his father brought his SCHEDULE and GENERAL RESOLVES.From these we can see that he was frugal,strict with himself,studied hard,took exercises everyday.All those were the traditional struggle requirements needed in the American Dream.They fully demonstrated a positive outlook on life,which is just opposite to his actions after he grown up.In order to gain power,fortune,position and Daisy?s love,he betrayed himself.

In Gatsby?s eyes,Daisy is not only a woman,but also a symbol of the “Old Money”,a link between Gatsby and the upper society.Gatsby himself also knew what kind of woman Daisy is. “ ?She?s got an indiscreet voice,?I remarked. ?It?s full of—?I hesitated.

?Her voice is full of money,?he said suddenly.”

Even so,Gatsby also always accommodated himself to Daisy.As for Gatsby,he can only got the entire life with Daisy within.

However,the reality is callous.No matter how rich he is,he can?t have the privilege that held by the property-owning classes.The sumptuous parities—although they indeed attracted all kinds of celebrities,but those people just thought it as a place for fun.They seeking every chance to show their scorn.The lawn and drive had been crowded with the faces of them,they guessed at Gatsby?s corruption,spread his rumors when they are having pleasure freely in Gatsby?s.Hence one can see that Gatsby was not only pushed aside by Tom,but also the entire upper class.Until he was shot died at his yard,there were only three guests went to his funeral.Nobody thanked his hospitality.What he got was only nothing.

“I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn?t believe it would come,and perhaps he no longer cared.If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world,paid high piece for living too long with a single dream.He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaved and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass,A new world,material without being real,where poor ghosts,breathing dreams like air,drifted fortuitously about...like that ashen,fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous tress.”

When I finally got into this chapter, what makes me sob is not only Daisy?s careless,Gatsby?s tragedy,but the feeling that we are so powerless,we can?t change our fate,can?t resist the reality.I finally understood,what makes Gatsby “Great”is not his Love for Daisy,but his different,he can still believe in “future”in that age.

Gatsby IS different.He is so different from those “Old Money”.He can always concealing his incorruptible dream,he always creating something,surpassing himself.But the Old Moneys,they were arrogant,careless,no gratitude,no

passion.

?They?re a rotten crowd? I shouted across the lawn. ?You?re worth the whole damn bunch put together.?This is the only compliment that Nick gave Gatsby.Also is what I want to describe Gatsby. “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures,then there was something gorgeous about him,some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquake ten thousand miles away.This responsiveness had nothing to do withe that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the ?creative temperament?- it was an extraordinary gift for hope,a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”

“Gatsby believed in the green light,the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.It eluded us then,but that?s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster,stretch out our arms farther...And one fine morning—

So we beat on,boats against the current,borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

This last sentence finally became Fitzgerald and his wife?s the epitaph.Fitzgerald used his whole life to explain the Jazz Age.Both he and Gatsby are the GREATEST men.