The Disillusion of the American Dream from Gatsby in The Great Gatsby

劉素芳

【Abstract】The novel The Great Gatsby was written by F?Scott?Fitzgerald. This paper is divided into four parts. Part one is a brief introduction to the novel and its background. Part two is an analysis of the main characters-Daisy, Gatsby and the narrator Nick, especially the function of Nick. Part three is an analysis of the disillusion of the American Dream from Gatsby. The last part is the educational enlightenment reflected in The Great Gatsby.

【Key words】Gatsby; Disillusion; American Dream

1. Introduction

The Great Gatsby is written by American author F?Scott?Fitzgerald. His novel The Great Gatsby lays strong foundation for his later writing creation. The novel was published in the 1920s, which was a special time in American history. After the WWⅠ, America experienced rapidly economy flourishing and abundant materials. However, the thought, the sense of value and the faith all collapsed. As Fitzgerald said, this is a miracle age, an artistic age, and a noisy, muddle and dazed social historical background, which was the best illustration for the “Roaring Twenty Ages”. He also called this time as “Jazz Age”. People are afraid of failure instead of death, while wealth becomes the only criterion to measure success.

2. The Analysis of the Main Characters

2.1 The hero in the novel

Gatsby was born in a poor family in the Middle West. During the time of serving in the army, Gatsby fell in love with Daisy. He did not have enough money to afford Daisy a luxurious life, and later on Daisy got married with the rich and influential man. Gatsby believed that it was money that made her leave him, so he determined to be rich. After several years hardships, Gatsby became wealthy and successful by illegal means. However, during the process of chasing for fortune and status, Gatsby lost his original dream. From then on, he had already gone a road of no return. So his ending is doomed to be a tragedy.

2.2 The heroine Daisy

Daisy is an important figure in the novel. She wears white clothes and looks like a pure angel that many people wished. But she is flirtatious, dissolute, supremacy, selfish and crucial like a demo. She is the symbol of the “American Dream”, and the typical representation of the “Jazz Age” and the “Gilded Age”. It is the double image makes Gatsby get lost and immerse in his dream. Daisy was born in a wealthy family in Southern America. Her family background and surroundings have a stimulate function to her angel appearance and devil soul.

2.3 An introduction to Nick

The teller Nick is the rational voice of the writer. Nick is from Chicago, whose family is fairly good and is a distant brother of Daisy. He is a good narrator of their love. In fact, the thoughts and feelings he expresses are just the writer himself about his life and love and the Jazz Age. At the end of the story, Nick shouts out loudly that Gatsby is great, nobody is better than him. In the whole story, Nick keeps a cold and reasonable mind; he witnesses the disillusion of Gatsbys American Dream and hosts his funeral.

Nick is an advocate of the morals in the novel. The boundary between right and wrong is from moral. The novel describes in the first person, however, Fitzgerald is not the narrator of the novel.

3. The Disillusion of the American Dream

3.1What is the American Dream

The words “American Dream” has appeared for many years and influenced a lot of people. The Declaration of Independence claims that all men are created equally, and have the same right to pursue a happy life. But in feudal Europe, because of the rank idea, this was unbelievable for average people. In a word, the essence of the American Dream in that time was getting material success, but this success had its moral foundation. The American Dream had become synonymous with the pursuit of pure material enjoyment.

4. The Significance Reflected in The Great Gatsby

The novel is under such a love story, which not only exposes the tragic love but reflects the social background at that time in America. Gatsbys tragic life reflects the American society has no place for this struggling star. Second, there is subtle distance between dream and reality. The most important one is the love tragedy of this novel lying in it profoundly criticizes the decline and the disillusion of the American Dream, condemns the human hypocrisy and moral decline of the American higher class, and praises the people on the pursuit of the ideal and the spirit of dedication.

Taking a whole view of the todays world, everyone has his or her dream. No matter what it is, we all should struggle for it in a reasonable and correct way and put ourselves in a correct position. The novel has great influence on a lot of people no matter what time it is. As time goes on, our dream will also step forward.

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