ABSTRACT:Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was a famous American writer in the 1920s. Honored as “the spokesman of the Jazz Age” and “Poet Laureate”, he is also a typical writer of the “lost generation”.
Of his major works, The Great Gatsby is his representative work and regarded by many critics as one of the finest 20th American novels. T.S Eliot called it “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”. It is also considered a seminal work on the disillusion of the American Dream which is a firmly held belief that everyone has the opportunity to achieve his goals and become rich if he can work hard enough. The book mainly tells a poor man named Gatsby from the Midwest who pursues monetary success by illegal means in order to win back his lover, Daisy who is the wife of a rich man called Tom. However, in the end, instead of get his lover back, Gatsby loses his life for Daisy. By telling the story of Gatsby’s tragedy, Fitzgerald vividly revealed the essence of the American Dream.
This paper tries to analyze the roots of the disillusion of Gatsby’s dream by examining the essence of Gatsby’s dream, the potential destructiveness in Gatsby’s characters and the social-historical backgrounds leading to Gatsby’s tragedy and is composed of five parts.
The introduction part summaries the life of Fitzgerald, his works and the social background of the time when The Great Gatsby was created. The first chapter gives an introduction of the American Dream. The second chapter discusses the influences of the American Dream on Gatsby---the influences of Benjamin Franklin and Dan Cody. The third chapter deals with the theme, that is, the inevitability of the disillusion of Gatsby’s dream, by analyzing the characters in the book. The conclusion part summarizes the inevitability and the reasons that cause the disillusion of Gatsby’s American Dream.
Key Words: Fitzgerald; Gatsby; the American Dream; disillusion.
中文摘要:弗朗西斯·司各特·菲茨杰拉德（1896－1940）是20世纪20年代美国著名的作家，素有“爵士时代”的代言人和桂冠诗人的称号，也是美国“迷惘的一代”中声望较高的一位。
《了不起盖茨比》是其代表作，发表于1925年，是20世纪最优秀的小说之一，是一部反映美国梦破灭的作品。美国梦是众多美国人普遍的信念：在美国，只要努力就能获得财富。美国梦的宗旨是对幸福的追求，但这种追求很快转变成对财富的追求，最后演变成了贪婪。这部作品讲述的是来自美国中西部穷孩子盖茨比为了赢得他的恋人黛西，并重建他们理想的爱情，不惜靠非法手段获得财富和地位，但最终非但没有得到爱人反而葬送了自己的性命。在作品中，菲茨杰拉德通过描写主人公一生的悲剧揭示了“美国梦“的实质
本论文试图通过人物分析的手法，从社会、历史等方面来探讨盖茨比美国梦破灭的必然性及其原因。菲茨杰拉德曾这样总结那个时代的特点：一切神明都统统死光，所有战争都已经统统打完，所有信念都已经统统完蛋。爵士乐时代的人蔑视一切传统的价值观念，反叛老一辈人所遵从的道德风范。本文共分为五个部分。
第一章简要介绍菲茨杰拉德的生平、作品以及《了不起的盖茨比》的创作背景。第二章介绍了“美国梦“的产生和发展。第三章探讨了“美国梦’对盖茨比的影响。论述本杰明·富兰克林和丹·科迪对盖茨比造成的影响，揭示盖茨比美国梦的发展演变过程。第四章通过对作品中部分人物剖析来论述盖茨比的美国梦注定要破灭这一主题。最后结论部分总结了盖茨比梦想破灭的必然性。
关键词：菲茨杰拉德，盖茨比，美国梦，破灭
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