-
四川师范大学文理学院本科毕业论文
An Analysis of
Disillusionment of American
Dream
in
The Great Gatsby
论《了不起的盖茨比》中美国梦的破灭
学生姓名
张
燕
院系名称
外国语学院
专业名称
英语（师范）
班
级
2008
级
1
班
学
号
2
指导教师
陈雪瑶（讲师）
答辩时间
2012-4-15
论《了不起的盖茨比》中美国梦的破灭
学生：张燕
指导教师：陈雪瑶
讲师
<
/p>
摘要
：
美国著名作家菲兹杰拉德被称为<
/p>
“
美国梦的代言人
”
，在他的小说中，我们难以区
分是他的生活如一部小说还是他的小说就是他的一段真
实的生活的写照，
因为他已完全
融入其中。尤其是《了不起的盖
茨比》
，文中主人公盖茨比是为追求美国梦而最终牺牲
了自己的
典例，他渴望以自己的信念和勇气来获取物质以及爱情上的收获，然而由于他
的梦想是一
种对虚幻的渴望而不是建立在现实的基础之上的追求，
最终导致了他美国梦
的破灭，文中通过时间发展及不同人物个性特征向我们阐述了这一梦想破灭的各种原
< br>因。
关键词：
美国梦；破灭；原因
An Analysis of
Disillusionment of American Dream in
The Great Gatsby
Abstract
：
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald,
is
widely
considered
as
the
literary
spokesman
of
the
“American
Dream”
. His novels include many aspects
of his unique experiences in that period
of time. It is not easy to distinguish
his novel and the real life, which has already
involved him
physically
and
mentally
in
it.
Especially
in
his
masterpiece,
The
Great
Gatsby
,
which
was
published in 1925. In the novel, the
hero revealed a typical example of those who were
eager
to
pursue
the
American
Dream
but
finally
ended
by
sacrificing
themselves.
Though
he
dreamed
of achieving material wealth and love through his
courage and hard working, all the
factors from outside world and the
indelibility of his dream led to the
disillusionment of it.
Through the
development
of the story and
characteristics of heroes,
Fitzgerald
elaborated a
vivid picture
of the disillusionment of American Dream.
Key
words:
American dream; disillusionment;
reason
Contents
Introduction ..........................
..................................................
............................. 1
Part I The Introduction of rald
.
..................................
................ 2
1.1The
Life Expericence of Fitzgerald
.
..............................................
............. 2
1.1.1 Fitzgerald’s
Background
............................
...................................... 2
1.1.2 Fitzgerald’s Marriage
..................................................
..................... 2
1.2 Literary
Works of Fitzgerald ..............................
....................................... 3
PartII American Dream and its Disillusi
onment............................................
.. 4
2.1 The American Dream
..................................................
.............................. 4
2.1.1
The Definition of American Dream
.................................................
4
2.1.2 The Essence of American Dream <
/p>
.
............................
........................ 5
2.2
Disillusionment of American Dream Reflected in the
Novel ................... 5
2.2.1
Gatsby’s American Dream
...............
................................................ 5
2.2.2 Nick Carraway’s American
Dream
..................................................
7
2.2.3 Tom, Daisy Buchanan and Jordan
Baker’s American Dream
.
......... 7
Part
III The Cause of Disillusionment of American Dream
.
...........................
9
3.1 The Jazz Age and the
Roaring Twenties .................................
.................. 9
3.2 Social
Environment and People factors ...................
................................. 9
Conclusion
.
.....
..................................................
..................................................
11
Bibliography
.
.......................................
..................................................
.............
12
Introduction
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in a not
rich family, so he wanted to earn lots of money to
become
rich
to
enjoy
high
quality
life.
The
tempo
of
his
life
slackened
as
his
life
was
shredded
by
Zelda’s
insanity
and
his
own
self
-destructive
alcoholism.
Through
years
of
emotional
and
physical
collapse
he
struggled
to
repair
his
life
by
writing
for
Hollywood-
producing at the same time a series of stories
that exposed his humiliation there.
He
became one of the greatest writers in American
literature and wrote many works in his
lifetime to manifest the life reality
of that time. He was a spokesman for the so-called
Jazz
Age.
The Great Gatsby
is regarded as his masterpiece. First
published on April 10, 1925, the
story
is set in Long Island's North Shore and New York
City during the summer of 1922. The
novel tells of Gatsby, an idealist, who
tries to recapture his lost love but in vain and
is finally
destroyed by the influence
of the wealthy people around him .The story deals
with the failure
of the American dream
as personified in the rich and beautiful woman
Daisy who belongs to
corrupt
society.
The
Great
Gatsby
evokes
a
haunting
mood
of
a
glamorous,
wild
time
that
seemingly will never come again. It is
about the loss of an ideal and the disillusionment
that
comes
with
the
failure
is
embodied
fully
in
the
personal
tragedy
of
a
young
man
(Gatsby)
whose
“incorruptible dream” is “smashed into pieces by
the relentless reality” (
Fitzgerald,
8).
Gatsby’s
failure
to
realize
his
ideal
symbolizes
the
disillusionment
of
his
American
Dream. Also, Gatsby’s intensity of
dream represents
a state of commitment
which takes him
in
search
of
his
personal
grail;
Gatsby’s
failure
magnifies
to
a
great
extent
the
end
of
the
American
Dream.
1
Part I The Introduction of rald
1.1The Life Expericence of
Fitzgerald
Francis
Scott
Key
Fitzgerald
is
one
of
the
most
outstanding
American
authors
in
the
twenties, and
The Great
Gatsby
is his best work.
1.1.1 Fitzgerald’s
Background
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald
was
born
in
1896
into
a
St,
Paul
middle-
class
family.
After
an
unsuccessful
undergraduate career at Princeton, he entered the
Army as a second Lieutenant
and while
in training camp he met the beautiful girl who was
to become his wife. He married
Zelda
Sayre as his literary career got off to a meteoric
start in 1920. Through the 1920s when
money seemed plentiful and postwar
morality encouraged a reckless pursuit of
happiness, he
and Zelda traveled in
Europe and New York, acting out the glamorous
life-style he wrote of
in his most
popular magazine fiction. He was a spokesman for
the so-called Jazz Age, setting
a
personal as well as literary example for a
generation whose first commandment was: Do
what you will. The speed of his life
slackened as his life was shredded by Zelda’s
insanity
and his own self-destructive
alcoholism. He fell from favor as a writer when
the indulgent
decade of his triumph
went down under the impact of a worldwide
Depression in the 1930s.
1.1.2 Fitzgerald’s
Marriage
It is absolutely the tough
teenage years and marriage life that made
Fitzgerald experience
the difficulties
and frustrations of the life. So we should
discover some reflections of the story
from the author’s life.
2
The relationship between
Fitzgerald and Zelda went so dramatic that even
himself once
said, “ Sometimes I don’t
know whether Zelda and I are real or whether we
are characters in
one of my
novels”
（
Fitzgerald, 1
）
.
Zelda
was
the
daughter
of
a
judge
in
Montgomery,
Alabama,
a
beautiful
society
girl.
Though she told Fitzgerald that
she loved him so much, but her too
expensive life left him
unable to
support her. They have experienced breaking up but
finally got engaged again with
the
support of Fitzgerald’s succ
ess. It was
also at this time that Fitzgerald wrote many of
his
short
stories
which
helped
to
pay
for
their
extravagant
lifestyle.
But
when
the
misfortune
came, in 1930s
when Zelda became increasingly troubled by mental
illness. Their life became
harder. It
was his marriage and his onerous life of making
money to support her that affected
his
writing
tremendously.
Fitzgerald
was
tormented
virtually
all
his
life
by
the
fact
that
he
could not
concentrate on his working and the improvement of
his art in general.
1.2 Literary Works of Fitzgerald
The Roaring
Twenties was a period of literary creativity, and
works of several notable
authors
appeared during the period. Such as Earnest
Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque and
F.
Scott Fitzgerald, Etc. Literary works
in that period of time mirror people’s
experiences and
attitude of the1920s.
We could see it from the following examples:
All Quiet on the Western
Front
by Erich Maria
Remarque recounts the horrors of WWI and also the
deep detachment
from German civilian
life felt by many men returning from the front.
This
Side
of
Paradise
by
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald
portrays
the
lives
and
morality
of
post-
World
War
I
youth.
The
Sun
Also
Rises
by
Ernest
Hemingway
is
about
a
group
of
expatriate Americans in
Europe during the 1920s. All in all writers and
their works in those
years were haunted
with complicated sensations which have shown us
all the difficulties and
frustrations
in their life.
3
Part
Ⅱ
American Dream and its Disillusionment
2.1 The American Dream
Before we take a look to
the causes and effects of the disillusionment of
American dream,
let’s first try to
understand the definition and content of American
Dream.
2.1.1
The Definition of American Dream
In
different
social
and
historical
backgrounds,
the
concepts
of
American
Dream
are
different, and for
different people, they have different
understandings of American Dream and
the ways to pursue their American Dream
are also various. The definition of the so-called
American Dream can be distinguished in
broad sense and narrow sense. For the former,
American Dream is the equality, freedom
and democracy in the land of the United States.
The later one means, everyone in
America ,if only work hard and never give up, he
could
achieve his dream and could live
a better life in this piece of land, that is to
say, people
should make their efforts
,such as diligence, courage and determination to
realize dreams
rather than depend on
the help from others.
This
term that American Dream was first used by James
Truslow Adams in his book
The
Epic of America
which was
written in 1931. He states,
“The
American Dream is that dream of
a land
in which life should be better and richer and
fuller for everyone, with opportunity for
each according to ability or
achievement. It is a difficult dream for the
European upper classes
to interpret
adequately, and too many of us have grown weary
and mistrustful of it. It is not a
dream of motor cars and high wages
merely, but a dream of social order in which each
man
and each woman shall be able to
attain to the fullest stature of which they are
innately capable,
and be recognized by
others for what they are, regardless of the
fortuitous circumstances of
birth or
position.”
This ideology is based
itself on the principle that one should be
responsible
for oneself, and taking
every opportunity to gain success by courage and
hard working.
4