Gats’s American Dream1

盖 茨 比 的 美 国 梦Gatsby’s American DreamAbstract: FScottFitzgerald, an American author, is considered a spokesman of the “Jazz Age ”, his master piece, The Great Gatsby, vividly describes a picture that people pursued American Dream in early 20th century. Fitzgerald skillfully used his imagination to show the charm of symbols, and combined characterization in forceful style to understand the ultimate failure of American Dream. This paper analyzes characters of Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, Tom and Jordan, and their inimitable symbols, combines many different conventional symbols relating to Gatsby to understand his inevitable failure of American dream. To combine character analyses with symbolism to explore a theme will greatly improve the convincingness of the paper and reveal the theme of the paper in a vivid way. Key words: Gatsby; American Dream; characterization; symbolism摘 要： 美国作家司各特菲茨杰拉德被称为爵士时代的代言人，其代表作《了不起的盖茨比》栩栩如生的描写了二十世纪二十年代人们对美国梦的追求。

菲茨杰拉德充分发挥想象力，将象征的魅力展现的淋漓精致，对人物性格的刻画入木三分，本文通过分析盖茨比，黛西，尼克，汤姆和乔丹的人物性格及其特有的象征，结合与盖茨比有关的事物本身的象征来阐述美国梦破灭的必然性将人物性格分析与象征手法结合在一起探索一个主题，能使文章更有说服力，对主题的展现更加形象、生动关键词： 盖茨比；美国梦；人物性格；象征主义ContentsI.Introduction……………………………………..……….…….………1II.Literature Review..………………………………………………..….2III.The Introduction of American Dream……………………………...4A. Its original………………………………………………………………4 B. Its development………………………………………………………….5IV. Character Analyses and Symbolism in the Novel…………………5A. To Introduce two chief meanings of characters………………………..51. Flat characters……………………………………………………52. Round characters…………………………………………………5 B. To introduce the meaning of symbol…………………………………...5C. Three classes of symbols……………………………………………...61. Natural symbols…………………………………………………..62. Conventional symbols……………………………………………..63. Literary symbols………………………………………………….6D. Analysis the chief characters and their symbols………………………..61. Gatsby…………………………………………………………...62. Nick……………………………………………………………...8 3. Tom……………………………………………………………..10 4. Daisy…………………………………………………………....10 5. Jordan…………………………………………………………..11V. To Combine Character Analysis and Symbols to Analyze Gatsby’s American Dream……………………………………………12VI. Conclusion: The Inevitability of the Failure of the American Dream……………………………………………………..13Works Cited………………………………………………………………16Ⅰ. Introduction “First step that American fiction has taken since Henry James” ---- T. S. Eliot (The Crack Up 310)The Great Gatsby is written by an American author F. Scott. Fitzgerald, who is considered a member of the “lost generation” in the 20th century. The Great Gatsby shows us a vivid picture of the 1920s with the superficial prosperity .The fiction tells us: A young man named Nick Caraway, who came to New York City in the spring of 1922. He became involved in the life of his neighbor at Long Island, Jay Gatsby, a very rich man, who entertained hundreds of guests at his party. Gatsby revealed to Nick, that he fell in love with Nicks cousin Daisy before the World War I. At that time he was poor. However, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, a rich but boring man of high social status. Gatsby lost Daisy because he had no money, but he was still in love with her. He persuaded Nick to bring him and Daisy together again. "You cant repeat the past, "Nick said to him. Gatsby tried to convince Daisy to leave Tom, who, in turn, revealed that Gatsby has made his money from bootlegging. So they asked Daisy whom she loved. Daisy began to sob helplessly: “I did love him once-but I loved you too.” Daisy, driving Gatsbys car, hit and killed Toms mistress, Myrtle Wilson, unaware of her identity. Gatsby remained silent to protect Daisy. Tom told Myrtles husband Wilson it was Gatsby who killed his wife. Wilson murdered Gatsby and then committed suicide. Nick was left to arrange Gatsbys funeral attended only by Gatsbys father and one former guest. Nick returned to his Midwest home.F. Scott. Fitzgerald’s master piece The Great Gatsby is typical fiction of American Dream failure, F. Scott. Fitzgerald lived in Jazz Age, the fiction also reflects the life style of Jazz Age. In different books, papers, publications, thesis etc. the authors of them only talk about a kind of literature theory, why do not we try to combine different literature theories together to appreciate the novel from a new perspective? Critics of this novel talk about too many topics, such as, Symbolism, Analysis of Characters, and American Dream Failure, Relation with religion, Aesthetics, Writing skills and so on. This paper includes character analyze of Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, Tom and Jordan, and their inimitable symbols, combines many different conventional symbols relating to Gatsby to understand the inevitable failure of American dream. To combine character analyses with symbolism to explore a theme will greatly improve the convincingness of the paper. I wish it can help deepen the theme.Ⅱ. Literature Review Different views on American Dream1.In “On the American Dream in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby”, the author Fu Xiaofan wrote: “The Great Gatsby vividly presents the doomed failure of the Lost Generation in the 1920s....By analyzing the main character-Gatsby, the author illustrates the meaning of American dream, its root and doomed failure.”(Journal of Mudanjiang Normal University 55-57). This thesis combines the American Dream in The Great Gatsby with Fitzgerald’s American Dream, and analyzes connotation of Gatsby’s American Dream to support the thesis’s viewpoint that Gatsby’s failure of American dream is inevitable.2. There are different views on the American dream, in “on the Trilogy of Dreams in Great Gatsby” (Journal of Beijing University of Chemical Technology 2006), the writer divides dreams into three parts: fortune dream, status dream and love dream. The thesis wrote: Gatsby dreams that he is able to acquire vast fortune, to step into the higher social group, to win Daisy’s heart and hence to pursue happiness. His entire efforts focused on making these dreams come true. But all his efforts end in failure even though he fulfils his first dream of money. Gatsby’s dreams of status and love inevitably crush beneath the harsh reality of life. Through analyzing these three parts of different dreams, the result is that Gatsby falls a victim to his own dreams as well as the American society.3. Some scholars believe that the failure of Gatsby’s American dream resulted from the pursuit of materialism in the Post-War American society. In “The Beginning and Collapse of ‘American Dream’”, the writer, Zheng Chenggong, wrote: “The Great Gatsby reveals the collapse of an American dream with a perfect artistic form and shows that Post-War America was reduced to a selfish and indifferent country where money excels over anything else……” (Journal of Tangshan Teachers College 2006), we can say that the failure of American dream is determined by human’s selfishness, greed, and indifference in the Post-War American society.B. Analysis of characters From The Great Gatsby: Modern American Mythology Tragedy (Li Yongxia and Fang Lan 2008), the authors combined Mythical Archetypal Criticism with characters of the fiction, Gatsby seems like Adam of Eden. In order to realize his dream, he struggled to step into the higher social group, although in the end his dream completely broke, he still gave us a large space to ponder deeply. In Ancient Greece Myth, Helen is a ravishingly beautiful woman, Daisy, in the novel, seems like Helen. In Gatsby’s world Daisy is his “American Dream”, he can sacrifice his life to win Daisy’s heart. But in the nature, she stands for a doomed dream; Daisy’s essence is an empty and meaningless unreal image, so Gatsby’s failure is inevitable. Tom Carraway seems like Satan in the Bible; selfish, cruel, treacherous, he is the real murderer of the Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and Gatsby. In a hypocritical society, industrious and kindhearted people only suffer unfortunate torture and failure; this is a tragedy for the country and its people.C．SymbolismSymbol can be divided into three parts: Natural symbols, Conventional symbols and literary symbols. (Deng Xuxin 2002). Symbolism is a movement in literature history. It advocates reflecting subtle inner world through the combination of objects and symbolic meaning of them.1. In “Symbolism in The Great Gatsby” (Journal of Guizhou University of Technology 2006), the writer wrote: in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald skillfully uses his imagination to show the charm of colors. Colors play an important role for characterization. Such as, the green light stands for Gatsby’s dream; he wants to embrace the green light---- that is a symbol of youth and love, just like Daisy. In the fiction Daisy always wears white clothes, white stands for purity, beauty and chastity; it also stands for the quality of lazy, shallow, ignorant, and useless. In fact, these are Daisy’s real essence. There are other color symbols, for example, yellow stands for fortune and death; red stands for selfishness, cruelty, and arrogance. The symbols of the color in the fiction help to express the theme.2. The other symbols. In the fiction, Gatsby stands for a hope, a hope of everybody’s dream; he is also the symbol of part of American history. Gatsby pursues his dream---Daisy, daisy is a kind of flower, this flower’s color is white, it stands for emptiness. So in the end the dream broke.D. Others ViewsWe can also understand the novel, The Great Gatsby, from the perspectives of history background, historical documents. In Understanding The Great Gatsby, (Dalton Gross and Mary Jean Gross 2008) the authors study the novel from the perspective of history background, sources and historical documents to understand the fiction. It helps us to completely understand the fiction content. III. The Introduction of American DreamA. Its originalThe American Dream is based on the ideology that each one, no matter what his origins are, can be successful through his own efforts and cultivating his qualities. This ideology is based itself on the American ideal that each person is responsible for himself. The American Dream also presents an outlook and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires.The American Dream in its widest significance is older than the United States. The earliest and most general meaning of the North American continent suggested fresh starts and infinite possibilities. Men in Europe felt strong yearning to the West. They wanted to get away from the old continent, to get rich, to carry their faiths or philosophies to what they called the New World. This search for freedom and happiness actually goes back to the very beginning of American civilization, to the time of the first settlers. The first settlers were all religious emigrants who were driven to the New World by persecution. To these people, American represented a new life of freedom, holding a promise of spiritual and material happiness, so that they would be free from all of the repressive hierarchies of the Old World, free from the systems of control by kings, priests and great landowners. For those settlers who were not so religiously willing, America was still a fairyland, a land of great possibilities. And so the first thirteen colonies came into being, amidst the religious and materialistic hopes of the first settlers. The American Dream of freedom and progress kept pace with religious and spiritual goals.When the Eastern Seaboard including the thirteen colonies became overcrowded, the settlers began to move Westwards. The opening of the Middle and Western States increased the sense of hope and faith. And this looking forward beyond the immediate present, this belief in the future, has become a national characteristic that may partly explain the speed of American advancement in so many areas of activities. The democratic system, first voiced in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, may be trace to this basic attitude of hope and confidence. In Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence of 1776, it stated: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, which among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So during the 18th and the 19th centuries, when American was mainly an agricultural society, the dream was transformed into self-reliance or self-confidence. Since success was seen in a proper position in society, people tried to realize their ideals as much as possible because realization was seen as an important condition for a proper social status.B. Its DevelopmentThe American Dream, however, originally relates to a desire for spiritual and material improvement. What happened was that, from one point of view, the material aspect of the dream was too easily and too quickly achieved, with the result that it soon outpaced and even destroyed the early spiritual life or purpose. So that when Fitzgerald produced Gatsby, “modeled no doubt on the writer’s own faith in life, he seemed to have created a character who represented an early American in whom the Dream was still very much alive” (Henry Dan Piper, F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Critical Portrait New York, 1965). From another point of view, the American Dream has totally failed to bring any kind of fulfillment, whether spiritual or material. For all the progress and prosperity, for all the declaration of democratic principles, these are still poverty, discrimination and exploitation. And as for the values and morality, there are also hypocrisy, corruption and suppression. In a way The Great Gatsby is also a comment on this condition.IV. Character Analysis and symbols in the Novela) The introduction of two kinds of character1. Flat charactersFlat characters, often vivid in outline, are striking and interesting two-dimensional characters that like cardboard cutouts holding up signs saying “jealous lover,” “cruel landlord,” “kind mother,” and so forth. They lack the depth and complexity of living humans (figures with simple personalities). (Deng Xuxin 46)2. Round charactersRound characters, however, are three-dimensional, having the depths and complexities of real life. Round characters are complex and undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise the reader. (Deng Xuxin 47-46)B．To introduce the meaning of symbolIn literature, a symbol is a thing that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention or accidental resemblance; especially, a visible sign of something invisible (for example, the lion is a symbol of courage and the cross is a symbol of Christianity) (Deng Xuxin155)C. Three classes of symbols1. Natural symbolsNatural symbols present things not for themselves, but for the idea people commonly associate with them: a star for hope, a cloud for despair, night for death, a sunrise for a new beginning, rain usually for fertility or the renewal of life, a forest often for mental darkness or chaos, a mountain for stability, a valley for a place of security. (Deng Xuxin157)2. Conventional symbolsConventional symbols present things for the meanings people within a particular group have agreed to give them: a national flag for the ideas of home or patriotism associated with it or a Christian cross for the association it evokes in people familiar with the appropriate religion. (Deng Xuxin157)3. Literary symbolsLiterary symbols sometimes build upon natural or conventional symbols, adding meanings appropriate primarily with the work at hand, but sometimes they also create meanings within a work for things that have no natural or conventional meaning outside it, as Melville does with his white whale, for instance. (Deng Xuxin157)D. Analyze the chief characters and their symbols 1. GatsbyFitzgerald’s life seems that of Gatsby. Gatsby as the hero in the book is a multi-faced symbol. In the first place Gatsby is the symbol of Fitzgerald, the author himself. There are many similarities between them. They seems like each other very much in different aspects.Fitzgerald is born in a large city, St. Paul, Minnesota, from an upper middle-class family. It is also the cradle for Gatsby in the story. Gatsby’s family is not clearly described in the novel. No one knows his real family background. Fitzgerald propels the novel forward through the early chapters by covering Gatsby’s background and the source of his wealth in mystery. It is primarily due to his mother’s family that Fitzgerald could be viewed as someone whose family’s position is rather ambiguous, neither “noblemen” nor “nobodies”. They inhabit in a kind of social twilight –zone. From his early youth, Gatsby hates poverty and longs for wealth and sophistication. He even drops out of St.Olaf College after only two weeks because he can not bear the janitorial job with which he pays his tuition. Comparably Fitzgerald also drops out of university and join the army. The romance between Gatsby and Daisy is much of the copy or revision of that between Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. Gatsby meets Daisy as a young military officer in Louisville before leaving to fight in the First World War. He immediately falls in love with Daisy’s aura of luxury, grace, and charm. But he is refused in the beginning because of his poverty. Both Fitzgerald and Gatsby lose their lovers due to the lack of money. Gatsby manages to get rich by any means in order to win Daisy back; Fitzgerald manages to establish himself as a promising writer with the success of This Side of Paradise and in the end wins back Zelda. Both of them reestablish their relationships with their lovers when they are rich. Fitzgerald deeply feels the cost of his love which he employs to ruin Gatsby in the story. Fitzgerald knows well that money is a crucial element in American culture, and shapes the success and the failure of his work and of his life as well. His luxurious marriage life needs money to support and he becomes the victim of the money. No wonder Gatsby is designed to be a worshipper of materialism, meanwhile, a victim of it. Fitzgerald’s father, Edward Fitzgerald is a Southern Gentleman. He is neither a corporation manager nor a successful broker, and he remains a shadowy figure in Fitzgerald’s life. This may have been reflected in Gatsby’s totally denying his father in the novel. Gatsby does not mention anything about his father. Gatsby’s father does not appear until the end of the story, after Gatsby’s death. “It was Gatsby’s father, a serious old man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap luster against the warm September day.” (Fitzgerald, 2003: 223) Gatsby wants to hide his family background as well as his father. This is the secret kept by Gatsby in his life.In the second place, Gatsby is the embodiment of the son of God. Nick finally describes the comparison between Gatsby and Jesus Christ to brighten Gatsby’s creation of his own identity. Though the parallel between Gatsby and Jesus is not an important theme in The Great Gatsby, it is nonetheless a suggestive comparison. Gatsby transforms himself into the ideal that he imagines for himself as a youngster and remains committed to that ideal, to the fulfillment of his dream, despite the obstructions that society presents. Fitzgerald incessantly relates Gatsby with godly things. Talking to Nick, Gatsby begins with “I’ll tell you God’s truth,” as if he were God. His godlike impression is reinforced by Nick’s calling him “the host”. As a host, Gatsby supports his guests as God supports or endures us. Nick narrates Gatsby’s party in the beginning of chapter IV: “On Sunday Morning while church bells rang in the villages along shore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house and twinkled joyful on his lawn.。