《了不起的盖茨比》中“美国梦”破灭的原因分析

摘  要: 从美国伟人富兰克林开始，美国梦就一直是美国的传统，可是在时代的变迁下，美国梦发生了很大的变化。许多评论家认为小说《了不起的盖茨比》是一部关于美国梦的经典之作。本文从社会，历史和人物性格等多方面探讨主人公盖茨比美国梦破灭的原因。盖茨比的梦毁人亡不仅有其深刻的社会历史原因，而且与其个人性格中的诸多因素也是分不开的。通过分析我们可以看出盖茨比的梦想的历史渊源与实质，盖茨比的性格中的天真单纯和不谙世故，以及美国社会的冷酷无情和道德沦丧，这些从根本上决定了盖茨比梦想的破灭。--鼎力论文发表

Introduction

   American Dream has become an increasingly significant theme in American literature of the 20th century. Lots of literary works have been published to interpret from different aspects the connotation and implication of the American Dreams, among which the books involving the disillusion and destruction of ideas in the “New Land” have drawn increasing attention from the critics. American Dream, or American myth, develops with the whole American literature. Its theme has been in existence for over 200 years, during which generations of American writers have manifested it with all kinds of forms till now. Dream is illusory and inevitable. Its ending is harsh disillusion. At the same time disillusion is the beginning of dream. And the process of American writers creating the theme is the one of seeking their own dreams.

  F.Scott Fitzgerald is the spokesman of the Jazz Age and is also one of the greatest novelists in the 20th century. His novel is famous with the theme of the disillusion of the American Dream of the self-made young men in the 20th century. This thesis intends to analyze the causes of the disillusion of the American Dream in one of his most important novel The Great Gatsby. Dedria Bryfonski wrote, “This novel examines the Jazz Age generation's search for the elusive American Dream of wealth and happiness and scrutinizes the consequences of the generation's adherence to false value.” (Dedria Bryfonski and Phylls Carmel Mendelon,1978) Jay Gatsby, the central character of the novel, is not only a representative of the Roaring Twenties in which he lives, but also comes inevitably to stand America itself.

 

1. The Profile of American Dream

  American Dream describes an attitude of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. It has a long history and could be traced back to the discovery of this land. American Dream develops with the development of American society. In different periods, it has different meanings. 

1.1 The Origin and Development of the American Dream

  For thousand of years the land of America was unknown to the outside world. about 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1942. Then the earlier America, the New Continent, was imbued with romantic flavor in people's eyes, which carried innumerable puritans and immigrants away because of a new and better life, in particular, the opportunity to own one's land. In November 1620, a ship named May Flower reached the new continent with about 100 British Pilgrims with the hope of becoming rich. In Britain, because of the “Land Circling Campaign”, many people lost their land and became beggars in the city. Most of them wanted to get away from the old world and make a new start for they were miserably poor. So they took a chance in the hope of living a better life in the New World. Another reason was that these Puritans hated the Church of England. They wanted to seek the religious freedom and came to the New World. They wanted to worship God in their own way. So they sailed to America. For those settlers who were not so religiously inclined, America was still a fairy land, a land of great possibilities.

  Human wishes and desires were expressed in Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence of 1776, where it was stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”(Jefferson Thomas,1776) The American Dream then consists of a genuine and determined belief that in America, all things are possible to all men, regardless of birth or wealth; if you work hard enough you will achieve anything. Benjamin Franklin and his Biography promoted the American Dream and developed it. He himself was regarded as a model of realizing it. However, his growth years are the capitalism of North America in the ascendant. His success is the result under given historical condition.

  But land “ran out” and so cities developed and massive variations arose in wealth, which meant that this American Dream changed from being a potential reality into being a dream, as the name implies. Almost everyone in America would like to achieve financial success. Sometimes living in a capitalistic society entices many to become too materialistic. Greed is the characteristic that many Americans then attain. This is all in pursuit of the American Dream. But for most Americans, this high status is very difficult to achieve.

  The transformation of American Dream has a lot to do with the wars in history. After the Civil War, the country developed more quickly and the United States became an industrial country as well as an agricultural one. The American Dream is loaded with more connotation of pursuing money. There was a moral deterioration. What people were enthusiastic about was how to get more money. They believed that in this free land, everyone enjoyed the equal opportunity, and if they worked hard, they would become a millionaire from a poor guy even without a pair of shoes.

  In modern times, the American Dream has become even more corrupted due to the influence of the materialism and secularism. After the two world wars, people become more disillusioned because of the loss of faith caused by the two world wars. Without God's help, human beings seem to be manipulated by their desire for material possession.

1.2 A Look into Gatsby's American Dream

  Jay Gatsby, influenced deeply by Franklin, believes the equality in America. He is enchanted by the prosperous scene in the Jazz Age and is lured by the American Dream.

1.2.1 Implication of Gatsby's Dream

 Cooperman wrote, “The nature of Gatsby's dream is itself, actually, a definition of his pathetic tragedy, for this dream, far from being opposed to the more brutal and less imaginative materialism represented by the Buchanans, is fashioned according to the precepts of the materialism itself. It is the ideal of the Hollywood “silver screen” and fashion-magazine; it is the ideal of surface without substance”. (Stanley Cooperman,1965)

   From the end of the novel we can trace the origins of Gatsby's dream and look back to the fragments of his life.

  In the last chapter of the novel, Gatsby's father proudly showed Nick Gatsby's schedule and general resolves written in 1906 on the last fly-leaf of the “ragged” copy book called Hopalong Cassidy. This schedule is an echo of typical Benjamin Franklin resolves concerning thrifty,health and the goal of advancement. It tells how thoroughly young Gatz has absorbed the ideas of  Benjamin Franklin into his ambition to be a success, believing that a man can be what he makes himself to be by hard working and sincere devotion. Young Gatz was optimistic, ambitious, worldly, and happily pursuing fame, fortune and power. He, like Franklin, saw the United States as a land of opportunities, of going after life, liberty, and of chasing a secular dream, instead of saving his soul. And from his schedules and resolves we can see that he is determined to be a useful man, strict with himself in various aspects. He worked hard to improve himself by following the most prominent self-made in American history. There is no doubt that James Gatz is an upward young man with much approved values in his mind. One is entitled to say that Gatsby might have become another self-made man, just like what his father commented when coming to attend his funeral, “If he'd of lived, he'd of been a great man...He'd of helped build up the country”.(Fitzgerald Scott,1993).

  At that time, Gatsby's American Dream is simply to be somebody who is rich, successful and happy through his own endeavor.

1.2.2 Changes of Gatsby's Dream

  Gatsby had a plan to make himself rich, but no clear mental picture of what wealth and success would be like, until he met Dan Cody. Then something began to change. As the yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world to young Gatz, Cody, the western tycoon, soon became Gatsby's image of the wealthy and successful man. He changed his name to Jay Gatsby in an attempt to embrace this new conception. He received his singularly appropriate education and learned his way of acquisition of wealth. And in the next five years, Gatsby earned a large fortune, not through his hard-working or sincere devotion but through illegal bootlegging and other clandestine activities. To some extent, the essence of Gatsby's American Dream has changed.

  Young Gatsby loved a beautiful girl ─ Daisy. In his mind, Daisy represented all that he had longed for all his life. At that time, Gatsby's dream for wealth was alienated into a desire for Daisy' love. After he was rich enough, his American Dream was just winning Daisy back.

 

2. Causes of the disillusion of Gatsby's American Dream

  The story of The Great Gatsby is a good illusion to symbolize the failure of the American Dream. The dream of being rich and winning Daisy back is the main idea of the story. But the novel ends up with Gatsby's death. The declining of the dream is well pictured.

2.1 Background of the 1920s

  The Great Gatsby is a novel about the American society in a particular period of the 1920s. It embodies the period of tremendous economic, cultural, and social change in America. Fitzgerald names that period “the Jazz Age”. There were many factors that made the 1920s different from the period both preceding and following it:the most important reason for this change and dislocation was undoubtedly American involvement in the First World War,the first major foreign conflict in which the United States had participated. Though it involved in the First World War,there was no fighting on American soil. As Europe cried over the astronomical price of millions of death and of a total frustration to the economy,the United States was enjoying its unprecedented prosperity. The United States emerged as an economic beneficiary,a creditor rather than a debtor nation,a land of technological leadership. America was determined to concentrate on economic growth,technological development and commercial expansion. In the 1920s,America experienced the periodic economic thriving years and became the richest country in the world. The whole society penetrated the atmosphere of wealth and prosperity. Therefore,the following ten years after the war were a time of carefree prosperity,personal freedom and the pursuit of pleasure. During that period, a social revolution was going on. Old moral codes were breaking down. A revolution took place in people's attitudes towards moral and sex,which seemed to be encouraged by the popularity of the Freudian psychology by 1920. The pursuit for material fulfillment and sensual enjoyment became the dominance of young people's life while they remained spiritually bankrupt.

2.1.1 Social Conflict

   The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 when the war had a profound impact on that period. The First World War had left all European belligerents weary and numbed spiritually. However, the unscathed America had a rapid economic development. People began receiving higher wages for the economic boom and the consumption consciousness was intensified. The morality was corrupted. Materialism spread rapidly throughout the country and people became more greedy and self-obsessed. The American Dream changed into the dream of money, and wealth turned to be the symbol of success. Yet the gap between the rich and the poor was still obvious.

   During that time,the conflict between realism and romanticism was inevitable. And the conflict between the rich and the poor is the main conflict. The same as the contrast of their homes,Tom and Gatsby are opposite characters who represent contrary but historically related aspects of America. Gatsby is known to be the spiritual aspect or the soul while Tom is strongly related to the body.

  In the 1920s, many changes in spiritual and values took place, which took a serious impact on the younger generation. A social revolution took place in people's attitudes and old moral codes were breaking down. The pursuit for material fulfillment and sensual enjoyment became the main part of young people's life while they remained spiritually bankrupt. They were indulged in the parties, balls and everything luxurious. They spent large money on them, and they even attend parties where they didn't know the host. Fitzgerald described the typical life in 1920s, “The parties were bigger...the pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser...”(D. D. Raphael,1981)

   When the First World War began, young people were encouraged to join the war. Seeing that the real nature of war was no more than a game of slaughtering, they were hard to accept the doctrine instilled by the old generation. Fitzgerald describes the young generation in the Jazz Age as “a generation grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought and all faith in man shaken.”(Fitzgerald Scott,1993).

   During that period, the enforcement of the Prohibition led to nation-wide bootlegging and illegal business and crimes spread all over the country. Many people took the chance to make large profits, like Dan Cody and Gatsby.

   Young generation then still believed that everything is possible in America and “the equal opportunity”, but not sticking to their hard-working.

2.1.2 Relationship between Two Classes

   In the novel, the conflict between Tom and Gatsby also represented the conflict  between two classes—the old rich and the new rich. The new rich were composed of industrialists, speculators, and businessmen, all of whom were from poor families. The old rich were mainly aristocratic families.

   The new rich were evidenced in their overarching cynicism, greed and empty pursuit of pleasure. Their desires for money and pleasure surpassed all other goals. For earning enough money, they tried their best. On the contrary, the old rich, represented by Tom and Daisy, had the characteristics of the aristocratic grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance. During the confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, Tom took the advantages of Gatsby's illegal business and disgraces him:

  “Who are you, anyhow?” broken out Tom, “you are one of that bunch that hangs around with

  Meyer Wolfshiem – that much I happen to know. I've made a little investigation into your

  affairs – and I'll carry it further tomorrow.”

  ........

  “What about it?” said Gatsby politely, “I guess your friend Walter Chase wasn't too proud

  to come in on it”(Fitzgerald Scott,1993).

  Though they were both rich people, they had different social status. The old rich enjoyed a higher social status. They liked to dominate others and they looked down upon the new rich. Though they attended parties held by Gatsby and enjoyed a good time, they didn't accept Gatsby as a member of them.

   Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.

  A thrill passed over all of us. The three Mr. Mumbles bent forward and

  listened eagerly.

  “I don’t think it’s so much that,” argued Lucille skeptically, “it’s more that he

  was a German spy during the war.”

  .......

  “Oh, no,” said the first girl, “it couldn’t be that, because he was in the

  American army during the war.” As our credulity switched back to her

  she leaned forward with enthusiasm. “You look at him sometimes when he

  thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he killed a man.”(Fitzgerald Scott,1993).

   From the dialogue above, we can find that in the opinion of the upper-class, Gatsby's experience is just a joke to them.

2.1.3 Cultural Conflicts 

   At the beginning of the novel, there is a description of the places where the main characters live, the East Egg and the West Egg. The West Egg stands for the aspect of value of powerful optimism, vitality, and individualism while East Egg for the aspect of reflection sobriety, and even cruel. As a typical character, Gatsby's experience proves it. Young Gatsby was born from a poor family, he ran off from his family and worked hard in Cody's yacht. At that time, he won nothing, even after his getting many medals in the war. Then he lost the girl he loves. He tried to win her back and he was full of vitality. Compared with him, Tom was sober. During his first talk with Gatsby, he showed his aristocratic politeness. But when Gatsby said he knows Daisy, Tom just said “that so?” And as Nick described, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made...” (Fitzgerald Scott,1993).

2.2 Deficiency of the Hero’s Character

   Gatsby, as the central character in The Great Gatsby, is a sort of mythic hero and a romantic dreamer. He devoted his life to the realization of his dream but met with complete failure in the end. 

2.2.1 Naivety and Innocence in Gatsby's Character

   The disillusion of Gatsby' dream is not only because of the historical and social reasons, but also for Gatsby's naivety and innocence. He thought that just through changing name and creating himself a new experience, he could be a new guy instead of the old one. And he would direct his life by the dream and believe that “the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing.” He believed equal opportunity in America and ignored the conflict between the American ideals and the actual social condition. The truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. Equality in America is just a dream, and cannot be a truth. As Fitzgerald once said, America's great promise is that something is going to happen but it never does. America is the moon that never rose.

  Gatsby simply thought that he could do everything, even repeat the past. He was enchanted in his past, the days he loved with Daisy. He thought he could control his love and make it revive as it used to be. But love is a mutual behavior which cannot be decided by just one part.

2.2.2 Naive Belief in the Power of Money

  Bertrand Russell writes, “America, the pioneer of Western progress, is thought by many to display the worship of money in its most perfect form.”(Bertrand Russell, 2000) And influenced by Benjamin Franklin, Gatsby worshiped money so much that he believed the power of money would provide him all that he wants. He thought that if he had enough money, he could be a member of the upper-class. However, he neglected that he did not have a family with real wealth like aristocrats, his parents were “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” (Fitzgerald Scott, 1993) Though his parties were busy, they treated him as a joker. They won't give the new rich as Gatsby a chance to join to them really. And when Gatsby confronted with Tom, money lost its power. Gatsby “had broken up like glass against Tom”. The fact that material wealth is, for Tom, what a toy is to a brutal and spoiled child; while for Gatsby material wealth is what a holy vision is to a religious mystic. Gatsby felt powerless for the economic system.

   The most overt irony in the disillusion of Gatsby's dream is his belief that he can buy his dream, and he can win back the girl he loves

   “She's got an indiscreet voice,” I remarked. “It's full of – I hesitated.”

  “Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly.

  “That was it. I'd never understood it before. It was full of money – that was the

  inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbal's song of

  it... High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl...” (Fitzgerald Scott, 1993)

From the dialogue above, we can find that though he knew that the girl he loves was a golden girl, he still wanted to win her back. He thought that his money would bring him happiness with Daisy, as it had brought him material objects as he wished. However, until his death, he did not realize that Daisy would never leave Tom, her aristocratic husband. For that he could never be equal to Tom and Daisy, and they had different class status. No matter how much money he may own, he was still nobody from nowhere.

   Of course, to some extent, Gatsby also took the power brought by money: turning his life in West Egg into endless parties. But even after Gatsby's death, nobody came to his burial.

   A little before three the Lutheran minister arrived from Flushing, and I began to

  look involuntarily out the windows for other cars. So did Gatsby’s father. And as the

time passed and the servants came in and stood waiting in the hall, his eyes began to

blink anxiously, and he spoke of the rain in a worried, uncertain way. The minister

glanced several times at his watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half

an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came. (Fitzgerald Scott, 1993)

2.2.3 Dreaming of Pure Love

  Gatsby is a steady and romantic hero and also he is great, because he understands what love is by pursuing for pure love in such a corrupted society.

  When Gatsby met Daisy originally, they were lack of social balance. Gatsby was born in a poor family, while Daisy was born in an aristocratic family. The relationship between the two classes is the opposite relation of production. Daisy, as a typical woman of the upper-class, is selfish, stupid and golden. Five years ago, she loved Gatsby with the reason that she believed Gatsby was the son of some wealthy family like herself and then she chose Tom because he could provide her a luxurious life that she wanted. She did not love Tom, so when Gatsby came back with a large fortune, she seemed to be moved and resumes her relationship with Gatsby. However, after Tom told her the roots of Gatsby's money, she showed her nature immediately

   It passed, and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything,

defending his name against accusations that had not been made. But with

every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave

that up ,and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away,

trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily,

undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.

  ......

  Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had

  had, were definitely gone.  (Fitzgerald Scott,1993)

  Daisy wouldn't leave her husband and her social status for a bootlegging person. To Gatsby, Daisy was the first and the only girl that he loved. He started his struggling career to win her heart, even his dream of wealth and “going head” became part of it. Gatsby did not realize the truth that Daisy was not the right girl she desires for, and what she really wanted was not love but a man who can not only give her the security of life but was as irresponsible and careless as herself. 

  As has been mentioned in the introduction, the 1920s was a period known as the prevailing of hedonism and of people's spiritual hollowness. It was evident that to a large majority of people,the relationship between men and women was no faithfulness.

  The most important reason which causes the disillusion of Gatsby's love dream is that he not only believes in love but also loves a woman too far from his ideal who he believes to be. It is precisely recognized that men with emotion and ideals like Gatsby are ultimately destroyed in the wasteland of modern America.

2.2.4 Gatsby's False American Value

  Culture can be simply defined as a set of shared ideas, or the customs, beliefs and knowledge that characterize a way of life. Grown in the American culture, Gatsby is deeply influenced by American values :individualism, self-reliance, material wealth and hard work. Americans believe that individuals should take care of themselves and learn to rely on themselves. It means that they must get both financial and emotional independence. In a society which material possession is highly valued, material wealth is widely accepted as a measure of social status. It is quite natural for Gatsby to have the strong desire to go from rags to riches. Then he changed his name and realized his dream of material wealth.

3. Conclusion

  American Dream describes an attitude of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. Developing with the history, in different period, the contents of the American Dream are also different. At the beginning, the American Dream represented the search for freedom and happiness, but now, it has become an illusion of young generation.

  The Great Gatsby, a significant novel in the history, describes the failure of the American dream, and shows the conflict between American political ideals and the actual social conditions. American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, however, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes can not be overcome.

  Gatsby, as a hero in the Jazz Age, is romantic and brave. For the girl he loves, he has the motive to be successful. He devotes all his life to achieving his American Dream and wining his love back. However, at the same time, he is naive and innocent. He cannot realize what the American society really is. He thinks money can provide him everything he wants but ignore the sharp gap between two social classes. He worships the effect of money blind. He dreams pure love but neglects weather the girl is really worthy. 

  As Fitzgerald wrote in his early adult life, “I saw the impossible, the implausible, often the 'impossible', come true.”(Ann Massa, 1982) The ending of American Dream in roaring twenties is disillusionment inevitability.

this article is from lunwenwx