The-Necessity-of-the-Failure-of-Gatsby’s-Dream盖茨比梦想破灭的必然性.docx

The Necessity of the Failure of Gatsbys Dream盖茨比梦想破灭的必然性AcknowledgementsThis thesis originates from four years study at School of Foreign Languages at Qujing Normal University. Upon the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my great gratitude to all those who have contributed to this thesis either directly or indirectly.My greatest debt goes to my supervisor associate professor Deng for his insightful suggestions that contribute to the framework of this thesis. He spared a lot of time from his busy schedule to read the different versions of the manuscript and gave advice for improvement. To him, I owe much more than words.I am grateful to all the other teachers at School of Foreign Languages of Qujing Normal University. During the four years study, I benefited a great deal from their teaching and enlightening lectures. My gratitude also goes to my classmates and roommates. They gave me much encouragement and support. I would like to thank my family, for their spiritual and financial support.Finally, my thanks go to those who have devoted much time to reading this thesis and given me much advice, which will benefit me in my future study and work.Abstract Gatsbys dream was to try his best to enter the upper class and to win Daisys love. He tried to make himself elegant and made friends with many famous people. What is more, he bought a big house and an expensive car. When he was rich, he held parties day and night every week. The thesis introduces the background of the author, the American dream and the book. And then, this thesis writes the failure of Gatsbys dream and the related background. It presents the failure of other persons dream. Through writing this, it shows the process that the dream fails.After the introduction of the failure of dream, it analyses why Gatsbys dream fails. It includes two major aspects: the internal reasons and external reasons. The internal reasons are composed by Gatsbys characteristics, his wrong way to get and spend his money and treasure and his unrealistic dream. On the other hand, the external reasons are made up of social environment and other persons influence. Through describing the reason, it proves that the failure of Gatsbys dream is inevitable. Although Gatsby made a great effort to achieve his dream, there were many barriers preventing his dream from coming true. Above all, his dream is impossible to come true. Key words: dream; failure; necessity 摘要盖茨比的梦想是通过努力变得富裕，并且要进入上流社会，最终想要赢得黛西的爱。他努力使自己变得优雅与一些有名的人交朋友。他买了一间豪宅和豪华轿车。当他变得有钱的时候，他过着奢侈的生活，他每周都要举办一个宴会。文章首先介绍美国梦的定义，作者简介和整个故事的简介。接着介绍了美国梦，盖茨比和其他一些人梦想的破灭。通过介绍梦想破灭的过程，论文进一步分析了盖茨比梦想破灭的原因，主要是从内因和外因两方面来分析的。内因主要包括盖茨比的性格特点、获得财富和运用财富方法的错误和他的梦想的不现实性等。外因主要包括社会环境的影响和其他人的影响。通过对原因的详细分析，可以得出盖茨比梦想破灭是必然的。尽管盖茨比努力去实现他的梦想，但是有许多的困难让他的梦想不能实现。关键词：梦想；破灭；必然性ContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstractii摘要iiiContentsiv1. Introduction11.1 The brief introduction to the background11.2 The brief introduction to F. Scott. Fitzgerald11.3 The brief introduction to The Great Gatsby12. Literature review32.1 Previous studies at home32.2 Previous studies abroad43. The failure of many dreams63.1 The failure of the American Dream63.2 The failure of Gatsbys dream73.3 The failure of other characters dream74. The reasons of the failure of Gatsbys dream94.1 The internal reasons of Gatsbys dream94.1.1 Gatsbys characteristics94.1.2 Wrong way to get and spend money104.1.3 Unrealistic dream104.2 The external reasons of the failure of Gatsbys dream114.2.1 Social environment114.2.2 The influence of other people.125. Conclusion13References14141. Introduction1.1 The brief introduction to the backgroundThe novel took place after the First World War. American society presented prosperity during the 1920s as the economy soared. Meanwhile, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, avoiding millionaires bootlegging. After its republishing in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is today widely regarded as a great work of the Great American Novel, and a literary classic. World war one made peoples mind more active than ever before. They freed themselves from the traditional concepts of culture and morality and created the literary art of Modernism. Those young people were cut off from old values and yet unable to come terms with the new era. They wandered pointlessly and restlessly, while at the same time they were aware that the world was crazy and meaningless. They were called the “Lost Generation”.1.2 The brief introduction to F. Scott. Fitzgerald Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and then studied at Princeton. Stationed in Alabama, he encountered and later married Zelda Sayre. This Side of Paradise published in 1920, his first novel, was a tremendous critical and commercial success. Then Fitzgerald published The Beautiful and the Damned in 1922, The Great Gatsby in 1925, a masterpiece related with irony and disillusionment of American Dream and Tender is the Night in 1934. He was working on The Last Tycoon (1941) when he died in Hollywood in 1940. Fitzgerald was the leader of the Jazz Age and one of the best American writers of 20th century.1.3 The brief introduction to The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby was written by American author F. Scott. Fitzgerald, who is one of the members of the “lost generation” in the 1920s. It was first published on 1925. The main plot of the novel is as following. A young man named Nick Caraway, who came to New York City in spring of 1922. He was involved in the life of his new neighbor at Long Island, Jay Gatsby, a very rich man, who entertained hundreds of guests at his party. Gatsby told Nick, that he fell in love with Daisy before the First World War. At that time he was poor. However, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, a rich but boring man who was in good social position. 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.(Fitzgerald.F.S, 2009: 50) Nick said to him. Gatsby tried to persuade Daisy to leave Tom, who, on the contrary, revealed that Gatsby has earned his money from bootlegging. So they asked Daisy whom she loved. Daisy began to cry helplessly: “I did love him once-but I loved you too.”(Fitzgerald.F.S, 2009:65)Daisy was so exciting that she drove Gatsbys car, hit and killed Toms mistress, Myrtle Wilson, they did not know her identity. Gatsby kept 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 prepare Gatsbys funeral, although he wanted to provide him with a decent funeral, nobody wanted to attend his funeral except for Gatsbys father and one former guest. Nick went back to his Midwest home, reflecting on Gatsbys dreams and the sad and cynical nature of the past. Nick realized that the rich were careless and destructive.2. Literature review2.1 Previous studies at homeLots of Chinese people were interested in The Great Gatsby, so they wrote many pieces of research paper about it and many people translated it into Chinese. Therefore, more and more scholars can understand it clearly and it does good to do further study. Especially in The Great Gatsby translated by Lin Hui, the first page gave the background knowledge and analyzed the symbolism and other aspects. Nowadays, many university students wrote many pieces of research paper on it. Zhang Fuyong (2001) discussed the greatness of Gatsby and pointed out the hero in The Great Gatsby in Yan Tai University Journal. Yang Huiying(2007) analyzed the extraordinary Gatsby under the view point of feminism in Journal of Petroleum Educational Institute of Xin Jiang. Cui Yan (2008) studied the illusion of American Dream in Journal of LiaoCheng University. Qin Xu (2008) studied the necessity leading to the tragedy of The Great Gatsby.Liu Shichuan (2008) wrote a paper named The Translation & Study Of The Great Gatsby in China. It referred to the situation about The Great Gatsby studied by many Chinese people on all sides from 1970 to now. Cheng Aiming (2000) interpreted the values of the culture in The Great Gatsby and he analyzed it deeply. Wu Jianguo(2002) who is a professor analyzed the social meaning, typical personality, symbolism, techniques of narration and exquisite language about The Great Gatsby. The study of The Great Gatsby experienced a long time in China and achieved great fruits. Hanson and Zogby (2010) reported on lots of public opinion polls that since the 1980s have explored the meaning of the concept for Americans, and their expectations for its future. According to the polls, most of American consistently reported that for their family, the American Dream is more about spiritual happiness than material goods. Most people state that working hard is the most important factor to get ahead. However, an increasing minority stated that hard work and determination does not make sure success. On the passive side, most Americans predict that making the Dream come true with fair means will become increasingly difficult for future generations. They are increasingly pessimistic about the opportunity for the working class to get ahead; on the other hand, they are increasingly optimistic about the chances available to poor people and to new immigrants to get ahead in the United States. Furthermore, most support programs make special efforts to help minorities get ahead.2.2 Previous studies abroadThe Great Gatsby is a very popular novel and it has become a permanent part of literature. There are many people studying The Great Gatsby on all sides, such as the consumerism, the tragedy love, the worship of money, love and money, the symbolism, materialism and the failure of American dream. Dalton Gross and Mary Jean Gross (2007) wrote a book named Understanding The Great Gatsby, and they analyzed it in details. They were interested in the literature and social milieu of the United States in the 1920s. In this book, the two authors wrote literary analysis and the knowledge about F.S.cott Fitzgerald, and the scandal of the 1920s and so on. Matthew J.Bruccoli (2007) wrote New Essay on The Great Gatsby, there are many essays in this book. In this book, he described the process of the public of this book. Roger Lewis commented on the money, love and aspiration in The Great Gatsby. In the chapter 4, Susan Resneck Parr made a comment on the ideal of order at the west egg. In 1936, Tansell G.Thomas, and Bryer Jackson R, They showed A study in Literary Reputation to everyone.Historian James Truslow Adams popularized the phrase “American Dream” in his 1931 book Epic of America. “The American Dream that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty, though that has doubtlessly counted heavily. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class.”(James.T.A, 1931: 36)Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963) routed the civil rights movement in the black quest for the American dream: We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. . . . when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. (Martin.L.K.J, 1963: 6)Ownby (1999) identifies four American dreams that the new consumer culture addressed. The first one was the Dream of Abundance; the second one was the Dream of Democracy of Goods; the third one was Dream of Freedom of Choice; the last one was the Dream of Novelty.Above all, most of them studied The Great Gatsby from the macroscopic aspects, but this thesis studied it from the microcosmic aspects. It studied the process and reasons of the failure of Gatsbys dream, however, most scholars studied the failure of American Dream. The thesis is more concrete than others, because it refers to the necessity of the failure of Gatsbys dream.3. The failure of many dreams3.1 The failure of the American DreamThe American dream is that one can pursue their goals in life through hard work and moral righteousness.The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”(James.T.A, 1931: 30) regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that all men were created equal and that they were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The American dream, the idea that one can get ahead with hard work and moral righteousness, no longer exists and has been replaced by a desire for money. As for the rise and fall of the American Dream, it is debatable whether Buchanan represents the American Dream, by which people obtain their wealth openly and legally, whatever their status in society, in contrast to Gatsby, for whom the acquisition of wealth has its origins in the underworld. Tom Buchanan is unfaithful; Daisy Buchanan is artificial; Gatsby himself is an enigmatic and shadowy figure. But in 1920s, as this novel The Great Gatsby published, the American economy soared. People began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. The unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed the other more noble goals. The various social climbers and ambitious speculators scramble for wealth greedily. Gatsby caught a glimpse of an entirely new world of the aristocracy. The fall of the dream was the reality that results from the initial world of limitless possibility. American Dream was more about spiritual happiness than material goods, but it disobeyed this theory. The society was full of