Lost in “American Dream”
I have heard of the famous novel The Great Gatsby before while until recently have I got the time and mood to read it. Sincerely speaking, it is so attractive that it just cost me one week to finish it.
The Great Gatsby is written by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night, and his most famous, The Great Gatsby. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with despair and age. In the 1920s, America was in the jazz age. Most Americans have begun to get a sense of their material benefits which were caused by World War I. They thought they were placed in one of the most brilliant eras in human history and also believed that the time will continue endlessly. The middle class expanded rapidly, personal consumption expanded, the fashion of life changed, and people's moral concept changed.
Therefore, the writers who are the representatives of “the Lost Generation” began to publish a large amount of works to express the present situation of the America society. In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby to express his attitudes towards the America society and openly criticized the distorted American Dream. Fitzgerald wrote this novel in order to express the coxcombical ethos of that era was like Gatsby, and the American dream which seemed mysterious and great in people’s heart, was not real.
The novel describes the break of American dream of Gatsby who was an upstart by selling wine in the 1920s, which indicates the American society's tragedy. On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. But this novel actually aims at criticizing the current situation of society at that time. The novel opens in West Egg, Long Island, where Nick, the narrator, has rented a house next to the mansion of Gatsby, the mysterious host of regular, extravagant parties. All this was for Daisy. Gatsby and Daisy had loved each other five years ago, but he was penniless. Gatsby was then sent overseas by the army. Daisy had given up waiting for him and married Tom. After the War, Gatsby decided to win Daisy back by buying a house in West Egg and throwing lavish parties in the hopes that she would attend. But Daisy was not the Daisy she used to be. One day, Daisy ran over Tom's mistress and killed her. In order to protect Daisy, Gatsby had taken responsibility for the accident. But Daisy and Tom had schemed to make the mistress’ husband think that it was Gatsby who killed his wife. At last Gatsby became the victim of their conspiracy. Nick struggles to arrange Gatsby's funeral, finding that while Gatsby was well connected in life, very few people are willing to attend his funeral.
Let’s take a deep look on Gatsby. The protagonist Gatsby was born into a poor family, but he had the great ambition to achieve the fortune and ideal happiness. And his lover Daisy is the symbol of youth, money and rich, the "American dream" which is based on the consistent pursuing of wealth. But he was totally wrong, he looked up to this vulgar superficial woman who would not give up her unexamined but elegant stable life for the ideal romantic dream of Gatsby. He lived in the illusion, was abandoned by Daisy and the society, eventually became the irretrievable tragedy.
Now let’s draw a conclusion. The author use Gatsby’s dream to symbolize the American Dream at that time. So his dream fallen down means the disillusionment of the American Dream. Gatsby lived in the past and made an illusionary dream of his life. His dream is illusory and unworthy and it is not the right time for him to use an inappropriate manner of self-display. When his native nature confronted with the ruthless and indifferent society, the disillusionment of the American dream is inevitable. For Gatsby, there will be no place to escape but he has to die in the end. However, the novel gives people some enlightenment in their life. It makes people believe that there will be a harvest if you work hard enough. Gatsby was influenced greatly by the dream of Franklin and Carnegie. He made a work schedule and wrote some proverbs to encourage himself. He showed a fighting spirit for young people in modern society.
As far as I am concerned, this story can also 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 conscious about what we really desire. Anyhow, only by pursuing the proper dreams can we finally get to the deep springs of happiness.
To use one of my favorites sentences of The Great Gatsby as an ending. " So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. "
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