Pursuit for dreams
I have heard of the famous novel The Great Gatsby for many years. However, until recently have I got the time and mood to read it. As soon as I finish reading, I find my previous unwarranted assumption of it totally wrong. This is a story about Gatsby and his pursuit for the ‘American dreams’. During the World War One, the poor soldier Gatsby fell in love with an upper class girl named Daisy. But due to the wide gap between them, Daisy decided to marry Tom, a man of her class, instead of Gatsby. Broken-hearted Gatsby then held the conviction that money was of the greatest importance. He strongly believed in the ‘American dreams’, which as we all know, advocates that one can achieve whatever he or she likes through continuous efforts. He strived for five years to become a millionaire and bought a villa near Daisy’s to attract her. He was too addicted to his fantasy to realize that Daisy was no longer the lovely girl she used to be. Eventually, he was killed because of her crime. After reading it, something reverberates in my heart. I can’t help thinking of the theme Fitzgerald trying to convey. One thing may be the lonely void of people’s spiritual world. I am deeply impressed by chapter 3, where a vivid description of a party is given.
There were beautiful girls, drunk men, and boisterous crowds there, but none of them perceived the pointless of their lives and the barren of their minds. To see this phenomenon deeper, there were two circumstances underlying it. The first is the lack of dreams. Some people, especially the people of the upper class, lived an aimless life. They wasted their time and money and took an indifferent attitude towards life. They chased for temporary ecstasy but lost their identity in eternity, namely Daisy and Tom. The second is the misleading of dreams. Some others like Gatsby, bravely pursued their dreams, yet going to a diverged way unconsciously. They might mix up the concept of a richer life and a happier life, viewing a higher social state and a peaceful fulfilled life as equality. Unfortunately, when they were busy chasing their dreams, everything changed with time. When they were anxious about the to-gets, they ignored what they had already had and lost the alert to the constant changes. The excellent use of symbolization illustrates this idea perfectly. The imagery of ‘green light’ is the most important symble which occurred three times in the novel. The green-light’s obscure in the mist indicates the dim of Gatsby’s dreams. As far as I am concerned, this story can serve as a reminder for us. To live a meaningful life, we should carefully choose some dreams to pursue. And in the process of fulfilling our dreams, we
should always be concious about what we really desire. Anyhow, only by pursuing the proper dreams can we finally get to the deep springs of happiness.
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