从了不起的盖茨比中的男性形象看美国梦的破灭毕业论文(编辑修改稿)

从了不起的盖茨比中的男性形象看美国梦的破灭毕业论文(编辑修改稿)内容摘要：

nd of his dream is the finish of The Great Gatsby. Just as Fitzgerald sees the American dream crumbling in the 1920s, American powerful optimism, vitality, and individualism bee subordinated to the amoral pursuit of wealth. . The Dramatic Narrator Nick Nick Carraway is a pragmatic man, who es from the Middle West. He has distinctive temperament and value standard. “„Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,‟ he told me, „just remember that all the people in this world haven‟t had the advantages that you‟ve had.‟” (Fitzgerald 20xx: 1) He is also a sober, intellect and reflective one and makes the objective judgment and evaluation to the major characters. His final choice reflects the author‟s moral orientation. In The Great Gatsby, he does not share the American dream. But still he is 8 striving for something, and he wants to be himself, as he sees himself, tolerant, objective and reliable. The money of the upper class is just a tiny bit of his dream together with his admiration for the rich East Eggers. Mainly, his dream consists of mental values, of a pursuit of honesty. He praise highly of himself: “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” (Fitzgerald 20xx: 80). “That‟s my Middle West „ the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark„ I see now that this has a story of the West, after all — Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in mon which made us subtly un adaptable to Eastern life.” (Fitzgerald 20xx: 235) The above sentences show that Nick realizes for the first time that though his story is set on the East Coast, the western character of his acquaintances (“some deficiency in mon”) is the source of the story‟s tensions and attitudes. He considers each character‟s behavior and value choices as a reaction to the wealthobsessed culture of New York. This perspective contributes powerfully to Nick‟s decision to leave the East Coast and return to Middle West in search of a less morally ambiguous environment. Though he gives up the opportunity to bee rich, he scrupulously abides by his moral criterion. . The Ugly Upperclass Tom Whilst Tom‟s interpretation of the American dream does involve money, it is not his prime concern as it is with many of the other characters. His dream also concentrates on power gained through the prestige that is associated with property. “His family were enormously wealth„„ but now he‟d left Chicago and e East in a fashion that rather took your breath away。 for instance, he‟d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest” (Fitzgerald 20xx: 8) His selfconfidence and utter belief in his superiority are an example of how he thinks about himself in relation to all other people, especially to the lowclass man, Wilson. He uses his social status and physical strength to dominate those around him. For example, he subtly taunts Wilson 9 while having an affair with his wife, experiences on guilt for his immoral behavior, and does not hesitate to lash out violently in order to preserve his authority over Myrtle in Chapter 2. He is so desperately an empty man that he consider himself as exterior belongings. He is trying to find his identity by looking for happiness in nice cars (it is a ridiculous yellow luxury vehicle), money and a good woman. Tom‟s dream of power and superiority leads to his moral decline by ruining his marriage with Daisy and ultimately her wishes of having a truly happy marriage. Not only does his lack of morals affect Daisy and her happiness, it also fosters the situation of Gatsby‟s and Gee‟s death. “„I told him the truth, ‟he said. „He came to the door while we were getting ready to leave, „ He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn‟t told him who owned the car.„ ‟ He broke off defiantly. „What if I did tell him? That fellow had it ing to him. He threw dust into your eyes just like he did in Daisy‟s, but he was a tough one. „ ‟.” (Fitzgerald 20xx: 239) Tom is the ultimate example of how the effect of the American dream caused the society to change their morals and exhibit action that is detrimental to society in general. 3. Fitzgerald’s American Dream “American Dream” is the most mon but important concept in America, related to the early history of this country. But time has endowed the conception with dramatically different meaning. Originally, people in America upheld a thought of American Dream to strive for a peaceful and abundant country which can offer its people the basic needs of life, nevertheless, that‟s not the case in 1920s. First thirty years of 19th century witnessed a significant and dramatic change in Western world, impacting on the whole society, bringing people with pain, alienation and puzzles. 10 Meanwhile, a newly emerged musical form derived from the slave songs and their spirituals. Due to the widely spreading and appeal, the 1920s was also called the Jazz Age. No longer representing a traditional merit of their ancestors‟ hardness and diligence, the American Dream then was deformed into greedy for money because of the World War and Great Depression, depriving mon people of their sense of security and beliefs. Influenced by such a fast changing world, Americans were more practical and material than ever. The old American Dream had long gone and Fitzgerald was one of the victims. It was during this period Fitzgerald experienced his pattern of life: from a beautiful dream to the cruel disenchantment and finally to a state of thorough failure as well as despair. . Fitzgerald’s Pursuit for Love and Wealth Similar to Gatsby in the book, Fitzgerald had been enlisted to the army during the World War One, during which one of the most major events was his meeting with a beautiful society girl Zelda Sayre. Born in a judge‟s home in Montgomery Alabama, Zelda was always in want of large sum of money and wealth, both of reach is out of Fitzgerald‟s reach at the time when both of them were deep in love with each other. Because of his humble birth and incapability of offering Zelda the life she had used to, Zelda soon left him alone. But a person like Fitzgerald was so obsessed in his love of Zelda that he did his greatest efforts to rewrite to gain her back. Fortunately, he made it. With his first novel T。