从《了不起的盖茨比》看美国梦的破灭_英语论文

The Great Gatsby: the Bankruptcy of the American Dream

摘要

《了不起的盖茨比》是一部以20世纪20年代的纽约市及长岛为背景的短篇小说，由美国作者F. Scott. Fitzgerald于1925年所写，并由此确定了他在当代美国文学史上的地位。小说中描述的上层社会充满了浮华的生活和空虚感。它反映了“爵士时代”的真实情况，人们所追寻的梦想和梦想的破灭意味着美国梦的堕落和破灭。文章剖析了美国梦的产生与发展，以故事男主角盖茨比追逐梦想，却悲剧结尾的情节剖析了其“美国梦”的破灭。指出并讨论了当时美国梦破灭的必然性。男主角的“美国梦”在本文被分为了“三部曲”，就是“发财梦”、“地位梦”和“恋爱梦”。所有的努力都是围绕着男主角的这些梦想展开的。遗憾的是男主角最终却变成了美国社会和自己梦想的牺牲品，除了发财梦外，其他梦想皆化为泡影。Fitzgerald在作品中深刻反映出了社会现实，揭示了美国社会浮华背后的精神危机。

关键词: 了不起的盖茨比 美国梦 破灭

Abstract

The Great Gatsby was a short novel which created by the American writer Fitzgerald in 1925, with the New York City and Long Island of 1920s as the background. The publication of this book has established Fitzgerald's own position in the modern American literature history .The book indicated the ultimate failure of the American dream, and truly reflected the "Jazz Age". Everywhere of the upper class embodied a sense of disillusion and emptiness in this novel. The dreams that people had chased and their disillusion were the true reflection of the failure and disillusion of American Dream. In this paper, we analyze the formation and development of the American dream and the Gatsby's "American Dream". And we use the chasing dreams and the tragic fate of the final die of Gatsby as the materials, try to talk about the inevitability of this failure of the dream in the 20th century. The article divides the Gatsby's American Dream into the "trilogy" — "Dream of wealth", "Dream of fame" and "Dream of true love". All the efforts Gatsby had made were revolving around these dreams. But ultimately, except the rich dream, all his other dreams were all broken. Gatsby has become a victim of the American society and his own dreams. The social reality which was profoundly reflected in Fitzgerald's work has revealed the spiritual crisis behind the vanity of the American society.

Key Words: The Great Gatsby   American Dream   Bankruptcy

Contents

Introduction 1

1 History and origin of the American Dream 2

2 The pursuit and disillusion of Gastby’s American Dream trilogy 4

2.1 Dream of wealth 4

2.2 Dream of fame 7

2.3 Dream of true love 8

Conclusion 11

Notes  14

Biblioraphy 15

Acknowledgement 17