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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.
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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 ma
n “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
3.1
Gatsby
’
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 i
s the
“golden girl”
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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 <
/p>
girl
”
—
D
aisy,
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
”
,
(
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
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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.
3.2.1
Daisy 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”. (
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
s
ees many super stars that can only be
seen
on
TV,
which
makes
her
very
interested
and
excited.
“Perhaps
you
k
now
that
lady
”
, (
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 many celebri
ties, I like
that man
—
what
was
his name?”
.( Fitzgerald, 2004:141)
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“
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 living
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
doesn’t
care
about
her
and
ha
s
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.”(
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
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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
she 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
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