On the American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

張愛晶

【Abstract】F. Scott Fitzgerald is an American author of novels and short stories. He is considered a member of the “Lost Generation” of the 1920s, and he is best known for the paradigmatic writings of the American Jazz Age. His masterpiece The Great Gatsby, one of the greatest literary works set in this period, was published in 1925. Since 1776, the American dream has been popular among all classes of the American society, that anyone, regardless of his background, could reach a better and fuller life with his persistence and effort. However, in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the origins and the breakdown of the American dream, showing that it may not be suitable for everyone, because of its unreliability on the “feel good” assumptions. The thesis tries to find out the falling process of the American dream and its causes in The Great Gatsby.

【Key words】The Great Gatsby; American dream; falling process; unreliability

1. Introduction

F. Scott Fitzgerald was called the “spokesman of Jazz Age”. He was born in an unsuccessful upper class family and was once educated at Princeton University. His first novel, entitled This Side of the Paradise, was published in 1920 and became an instant success. Then, he got married with Zelda Sayre, daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. In 1925, The Great Gatsby, which is viewed as Fitzgeralds masterpiece, came out when he was in Europe. “The novel gives a vivid picture of the mammonist, hedonistic world of the Jazz Age, capturing both the frantic gaiety and the underlying sadness. It is a scathing criticism of the moral crisis of the time, a testimony to the evaporation of the American Dream…”

The Great Gatsby tells a story of a man named Gatsby. He was a poor ordinary boy, but he fell love with the “golden girl”——Daisy. He wanted to marry her, so he joined in the army to win reputation and get into the upper class. However, he came back from the battle field, only to find that Daisy had married to a noble man, Tom. He then knew the importance of money, and began to make it by selling alcohol illegally. When he becomes wealthy, he hold lots of opulent parties, inviting various social celebrities, to attract Daisy. He thinks that Daisy is still innocent and beautiful, and assumes that she loves him as much as he does. Unfortunately, Tom finds his wifes affair with Gatsby soon and reveals that Gatsby is a bootlegger. Later, when Daisy drove Gatsbys car and knocked Toms woman to death, Gatsby is killed with a gun by the womans husband.

American dream was quite popular in the Jazz Age, since it entails the pursuit of materialism all over the American society, but in fact, it is never sound enough to hold on. And with the financial crisis breaking out in 1929, the American people are gradually awaked from the untenable dream. Basically, there are three reasons of its unreliability implied in The Great Gatsby.

2. Three reasons of the unreliability of American dream in The Great Gatsby

To begin with, the American dream holds that everyone would be a member of the upper class only if he made efforts. It is too subjective and absolute, however. Effort is not enough, as we all know today, to achieve success. And effort cannot always lead to success. There are varieties of objective factors that also play important roles in mans success, such as heredity, opportunities, surrounding environment, mental state, education and so on. As in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby once tried to fulfill his personal ambition with legitimate ways like serving the army but he failed, therefore he began selling alcohol, regardless of the Prohibition, and it became an instant success! In fact, it was ruthlessness and violation that provided extreme pleasure and perfect protection at that time.

Secondly, the assumption that everyone could succeed when he tries his best implies that if a man does not succeed, he must be a sluggard or idiot who makes no effort for himself. On such basis, an individual has no personal value, as long as he fails at last, despite of the worthy process of his growth and his respectable qualities. And wealth is the sole criterion measuring whether or not a man is successful. It is more widely accepted by American people and included in their values than the Puritan morals. That is why Gatsby, representative of most people from lower class, chooses to smuggle alcohol to earn money. Unfortunately, even if he has made a lot of money, he feels so empty that the green light from Daisys mansion is his mental mainstay. He yearns for the selfless pure love and gets lost in it. He turns blind eye to Daisys betrayal and vanity, even though he can remain sober-minded while the others are absorbed in revelries.

In addition, the American society was not so open and fair as the dream described. As a matter of fact, no community or nation can guarantee that it can provide absolutely equal opportunity for all, let alone that in the Jazz Age. The narrator, Nick Carraway, tells about the differences between the West Egg where the old money lives and the East Egg where Gatsby, a nouveau riche lives. Although the social celebrities come to Gatsbys parties and enjoy themselves with Gatsbys money, they do not appreciate and are suspicious of him. Some says he was a murderer, and another thinks he is a German nobility. They reject to accept him as a part of them, especially when Gatsby dies, they all refuse to attend his funeral, considering that he is an alcohol smugger. The effort Gatsby made is broken like fragile glasses, which infers that however hard-working he is, a man from lower class can hardly be recognized by the upper class.

3. Conclusion

F. Scott Fitzgerald was honored as one of the Poet Laureate, and he has become identified with the extravagant living of the Jazz Age. However, he and his wife lived a luxurious life after their marriage, making it a serious problem for the familys economic condition, therefore Fitzgerald is forced to work hard. His addition to drinking gave him a reputation as irresponsible as well. Besides, his wife, Zelda died in the fire of her mental hospital. Their failure, to some extent, symbolizes the falling of American dream.

References:

[1]吳翔林.Selected Readings in English and American Literature[M].北京:中國對外翻譯出版公司,2005:469.

[2]Francis Scott Fitzgerald.The Great Gatsby.Hertfordshire:Wordsworth Editions Ltd,1992.