浅析《了不起的盖茨比》中的象征-毕业论文.doc

三 江 学 院
本科生毕业设计（论文）

题 目 浅析《了不起的盖茨比》中的象征

英语 系 英语 专业
学生姓名 张* 学号 A3200901****
指导教师 白* 职称 教授
指导教师工作单位 **大学
起讫日期 2012.11-2013.6

Acknowledgments
I want to express my appreciation to the people who supported my efforts in writing this paper during the past few months.
I am greatly indebted to express my gratitude to those who have helped me and given valuable suggestion to me. Hearty thanks should also be given to my dear tutor Ms. Bai who has provided precious instruction and valuable advice. Her comments and corrections are the chief factors in my success. Without her, it would be impossible for me to complete it.
Special thanks should be extended to my beloved family and friends who constantly encourage and enlighten me in finishing my paper.

Abstract
Francis Scott Fitzgerald, a famous American novelist, is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers and considered as a member of the “lost generation”. The Great Gatsby, a masterpiece of his works, is widely considered as a classic of American literature. At that time, this novel has an important influence on the Society, which is allegorically reflected the theme of American dream during the “Roaring twenties”.
With the employment of many symbols, he successfully describes the main situation of his own age. World War one has just ended and the economy of America is riding high. Many people in The United States get lost in pursuing materialism and enjoyment and the moral values of those people are degraded. The faith in religion and culture had been reduced to the pursuit of money and the shallow dreams. On the basis of analyzing the symbols occurred in this novel, this paper will reflect that situation in America.
The main questions that the thesis studies are the symbols and the potential meanings they implied. The thesis analyzes the novel through the perspective of symbols in three levels: symbolic meaning of colors, symbolic meaning of settings and symbolic meaning of characters. Colors symbolize many different intangible things of the society in this novel; settings are reflected the particular background or theme in the story; each character represents different kinds of people and reflects the implied fate of them. Each part explores the effects of symbols in The Great Gatsby. The way of solving this question is to communicate with my teachers and collect information from the laboratory. On the basis of analyzing, this paper gets a conclusion that the American Dream cannot be accomplished in that society.
Keywords: symbols; colors; settings; characters; American dream

摘 要
弗朗西斯斯科特菲茨杰拉德，以为著名的美国的小说家，被广泛的认为是二十世纪最伟大的作家之一，也被视为“迷惘的一代”中的一员。《了不起的盖茨比》作为他最杰出的作品，被广泛的认为是美国文学的一个经典之作。在那个时代，这本小说对当时社会的影响很大。它寓言性的反映了在“咆哮的二十年代”时美国梦的主题。
它最重要的写作技巧是运用了象征的手法,象征的使用成功的描述了杰拉德那个时代的社会状态。一战后，美国经济快速增长。许多美国人沉溺于追求物质和地位的梦想中的同时，他们的道德，价值观也逐渐堕落。本篇论文在对象征分析的同时，再现美国社会当时的状况。
本篇论文主要研究的问题是，象征的使用以及它所暗含的意义。主要从三个方面分析：颜色，背景以及人物象征。在小说中颜色象征着社会中不同的无形事物，背景主要体现了小说的环境，每个人物都代表着不同的类型的人以及其中暗含的命运。每一个部分都描绘了象征在小说中所起的作用。问题的研究主要通过和老师交流以及到图书馆查资料的方式解决。在分析的基础上，得出美国梦在那个社会是不可能实现的这样一个结论。

关键词：象征；颜色；背景；人物；美国梦
Table of Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 F. Scott Fitzgerald 1
1.2 The Great Gatsby 2
2 Literature Review 3
3 Symbols in The Great Gatsby 3
3.1 Symbols in Colors 4
3.1.1 Green 5
3.1.2 White 6
3.1.3 Golden 7
3.2 The Symbols in Settings 8
3.2.1 East Egg 8
3.2.2 West Egg 8
3.3 The Symbolic Meaning of Characters 10
3.3.1 Gatsby 10
3.3.2 Daisy 11
4 Conclusion 12
References 13

An Analysis of the Symbols in The Great Gatsby
1 Introduction
1.1 F. Scott Fitzgerald
F.Scott Fitzgerald, a famous American novelist writer and dramatist, is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. “Fitzgerald writes this novel with sharp eyes both in people’s language and behaviors, so he is worthy of the member of the ‘lost generation.” Lehan Richard says. (Richard, 2009, P45)
Fitzgerald is known for his short stories and novels, which describe the situation of America during the 1920s. Owning to his novels, Fitzgerald is regarded as the spokesman of the Jazz Age. However, people do not accept him as a serious and ambitious novelist until he is dead. Today, lots of people believe that Fitzgerald plays a vital role in the development of modern American fiction.
In 1919, Fitzgerald started writing his first novel This Side of Paradise, which was published in 1920 and widely accepted. Though there were some flaws, it was popular and enjoyed. Flappers and Philosophers, his first collection, glittered with the image of Fitzgerald as a symbol of an American ideal in 1920s. The second collection named Tales of the Jazz Age was named after the Jazz Age, an important period of American. In 1922, his third novel The Beautiful And Damned was finished, which described the reckless merry-making life of young people.
His masterpiece The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, which was considered as the best novel of his. The Great Gatsby drew a picture of American people pursuing wealth, statute and pleasure of the jazz age. All the sad young men, his third collection of short stories, was published in 1926 and after that the fourth novel Tender Is The Night appeared in 1934, which received both praising and criticism at that time. His last collection of short stories was Taps At Reveille and his final novel The Last Tycoon, was unfinished contributing to the reason that its author died suddenly of a heart attack.
1.2 The Great Gatsby
As a person says that “The Great Gatsby is widely considered as a classic of American modern literature and it establishes the place of Fitzgerald’ in literature.” (Gu, 2009, p.35) It is not only a great story, but a right portrayal of the people’s real life during the corruption in the 1920’s. At that time, this novel has an important influence on the Society. For a long time, The Great Gatsby is accepted as “a book about roaring twenties”. The main themes in this story are concerned about the corruption of many people’s American dream, a decay of morals and values of a modern society.
The 1920s was a time of corruption. Many people in the United States as well as in many other countries got lost in pursuing materialism and enjoyment and the moral values of those people were degraded. The faith in religion and culture had been reduced to the pursuit of money and the shallow dreams. During that time, many people’s dreams were ruined by the moral decay and lots of people’s desire for money and materialism was shattered. People’s desire for money and power is vividly expressed in the novel.
The Great Gatsby enjoys its prominent position in American literature. One of the major reasons for its high reputation is the excellent style in narrative form. The plot develops by the dual narrative approach by the narrator, Nick Caraway, who is both inside and outside of the action. The novel is used a dramatic narrator rather than a first person narrator, which distinguishes it from the extremely subjective style of the author’s earlier works and ensures the particular effect of the novel. By employing the special skill, Nick plays a very important role in this story, which discloses the whole novel and connects all the characters.
T.S Eliot has ever said that it is “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”. It mainly tells us that Fitzgerald’s prose is sensitive and original in its symbols. The employment of symbols makes a great contribution to the depth and broadness of the story’s theme. In a degree, the symbols run through the whole novel. The characters, the settings and the colors are all filled with symbolic meanings and all of them are symbols. Hence, he can describe the main situation of his own age successfully.
2 Literature Review
For some critics, The Great Gatsby was regarded as a great achievement of Fitzgerald’s literary career. What it evokes not only the pursuit of the American dream and happiness, but also the reducing moral values faced with increasing materialism.
Many people believe that this novel is a masterpiece. In addition to its profound connotation, this novel, no matter from the content or design is one of the most excellent works in literature. As the famous English poet and literary critic T. S. Eliot says that “it is the first step that American novels have been taken since Henry James". (Yu, 2010, p.85)
Many critics have been focused on the symbols occurred in this novel. One of them plays great importance on the color symbols. In Wang’s article, she says that “in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald skillfully uses his imagination to show the charm of colors. Colors play an important role for characterization. They are also helpful to express the theme of the novel in a vivid way”. （Wang, 2006, p.75）The author expresses his feelings or ideas to the readers by employing many symbolic objects, which are employed to express meanings beyond what may be literally described. There are so many symbols in the novel that makes the story complete and excellent.
3 Symbols in The Great Gatsby
The definition of symbol in literature refers to any object, person, place or action that has both a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than it, such as an idea, belief or value.
“In literature, a symbol is a thing that refers or suggests more than its literal meaning. It goes beyond what the sign represents because it expresses a vast range of feelings and meanings.” (Sylvan, 2000, P25)
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbols wildly, which cleverly depicts the decay of the people’s American Dream. This thesis probes into the use of symbols in the novel. The author expresses his feelings or ideas to the readers by employing many symbolic objects, which are employed to express meanings beyond what may be literally described. There are so many symbols in the novel that make the story complete and excellent.
Li has ever said that “Fitzgerald is so creative and imaginative that he can be skillful enough to use these symbols to reveal the theme of this novel and the fate of the characters. Besides, these symbols function a lot as a means of representing figures, conveying feelings and making the theme standing out.”(Zhao, 2004, p.88)

3.1 Symbols in Colors
Color symbol refers to the use of color as a representation or a symbol in various literatures. In the often case, it is something that is usually specific to a particular culture or society. There is a great diversity in the employment of colors and their connections of cultures. As a matter of fact, the same color may represent different ideas within the same background.
Color is very important to writers who can express their ideas and feelings through the way of using it. In some degree, each kind of color has its potential meaning. For example, green, usually means hope or things that are good; red, usually means passionate and warm in China, but in the western world, it is frequently of symbolizing anger or aggression. Therefore, it is important to learn to understand it in the particular background and in more than one way. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald is a capable artist and his emotions and feelings are conveyed through colors.

3.1.1 Green
Green usually represents hope, spring and beauty. However, a person says that “green also brings some illusionary meaning, which means disillusion of a beautiful dream.” (Wang, 2005, p.64)
Green reappears several times in this story, and in The Great Gatsby, the most important image is the green light, which deeply symbolizes the hope, belief and faith of Gatsby’s. Seen from the novel, the green light runs through the whole life of Gatsby’s. Even when he died in the final, Gatsby still keeps his dream in heart. Daisy, in some degree, represents his great dream and it just like the green light which is symbolized the American hope.
In the novel, the green light appears a few times during the development of the plot: It first occurs in Chapter 1. “Involuntarily I glanced seaward and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” (Fitzgerald, 2009, p20) It is clearly that “a single green light” is his “American dream”. Each time it occurs, it will play a very important role in the process of modeling the protagonist Gatsby’s character. As a significant object in this novel, it appears at the end of the dock of the Daisy’s house, “If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay.” said Gatsby. “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.” (Fitzgerald, 2009, p83) “Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.” And “Now it was again a green light on a dock.” (Fitzgerald, 2009, p84)
No matter when he sees the light, his inner love for Daisy will be raised. There is always a hope in his heart that he can get Daisy in the future. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us” (Fitzgerald, 2009, p164)But the green light usually remains an unattainable object for Gatsby, because there is an impassable gulf in the real word between him and Daisy. Every time Gatsby stretches out his arms to embrace the things he wants or the things he has long been keeping in his dream, he will embrace nothing. So the action of his is always seemed crazy. In the story, it says that the green light is minute and far away, which means Gatsby’s longing for Daisy is doomed to be so unreachable that it will easily fade away some day.
The light is faint and almost invisible. In some degree, it represents that Gatsby’s dream is hard to touch and realize. However, the green light shines all night long. It may have two meanings: the first one is that it symbolizes Gatsby’s longing for Daisy will be never quenchable. The second meaning is just like many others’ dream, which will be never reached.
At the end of the fiction, Nick recalled that “the Gatsby’s surprise when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter---tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning---So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (Fitzgerald, 2009, p164)
What implied is that Gatsby will do everything to get Daisy, no matter they are legal or not. Gatsby believes nothing can prevent them from being together. It is Gatsby’s pursuit and hope. In Gatsby’s whole life, he always believes that he chooses a right way and all the things will be the same as before. Gatsby fails. And from the failure of Gatsb