The American Dream ，the “Green Light” Beyond Reach：Analysis of the Hypocrisy of American Dream from the Perspective of Marxism

葉林子

The Great Gatsby depicts the story of a young man who grew up at the bottom of American society struggling in various ways to become a rich man，a man who meets the requirements of American society and its value，but failed miserably in the battle for the love in his fantasy.When we read this book for the first time，we may focus more on the relationship between the characters and the plots of love.Many readers even have a sense of substitution for Gatsby and condemn Daisy at the level of love.Such a view may simplify the connotation of the characters，that is，Gatsby is regarded as a pure tragic character，and the tragic ending of Gatsby is attributed to Daisy's choice.In fact，Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy is essentially the pursuit of the American dream，so Daisy not only represents Gatsby's ideal love，Daisy's recognition of Gatsby is actually the recognition of his wealth，status，personal value over the years of hard working.It is an important link to test whether Gatsby's American Dream has been achieved.Therefore，the failure of Gatsby's pursuit of love is inevitable.Because the social ideology of the "American Dream" is hypocritical and deceptive，it created an ideal that the underclass and even the middle class of the 1920s could never achieve and immersed them in the pursuit of this illusion，thus creating a society that the competition is fair ostensibly and offers equal opportunities but is in fact dominated by the upper class.

According to the view of Marxism，ideology refers to the sum of emotions，appearances and ideas that represent the fundamental interests of the ruling class in a class society.Its function is to safeguard the fundamental interests of the ruling class.The characters in this paper all have distinct class attributes.Tom，Daisy and Gatsby are all representatives of capitalist aristocrats，but the wealth of the first two comes from the accumulation of their families，while the wealth of the latter is obtained under his own struggle.The Wilsons should belong to the petty bourgeoisie and have certain private property.Although Marx also mentioned groups such as the petty bourgeoisie are different from the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the discussion of class groups，Marx has pointed out that most of this group will eventually fall into the proletariat.So，like coal miners in ash valley，they are all poor people at the bottom of American society.The social status and wealth of traditional aristocrats such as Tom and Daisy is what every dreamer yearns for.But even Gatsby，who has acquired huge wealth，still can not be accepted by the upper class because his way to become rich is disgraceful.This just shows that in such a extremely divided American society，it is difficult to achieve class transition through legal channels.And people like the Wilsons and ash valley workers who make a living through hard-working and dedicated labor can not even hold their lives firmly，so there is no doubt they are so far from the American Dream.When Daisy learned about Gatsby's history and access to wealth，she was completely inclined to choose Tom.Because only combining with Tom，such a traditional，decent，stable aristocratic，can guarantee that she will always enjoy a rich and comfortable life，always live in their "American Dream" belongs to them.It was at this moment that Gatsby's American dream was completely shattered，despite he was still leaving things to luck and illusion.Because for him to have Daisy，in addition to love，is a recognition of his years of struggle and a significant symbol that announcing his realization of the American dream.The American Dream is such a hypocritical bourgeois ideology.It immerses young people in the lie that they can get a better life through fair competition，thus neglecting the inherent contradictions in bourgeois society，ignoring the truth that the upper class exploited the people of other classes，and could not find the object of class struggle.Eventually lost like Gatsby.

The hypocritical "American Dream" is the "green light" that can never be touched，and the American bourgeois society is the tragic root of this novel.The ruling class influences social reproduction by controlling ideology，and the economic interests of the ruling class are the economic interests of the whole society.Therefore，in capitalist society，ideology is actually a tool representing the best interests of the ruling class.Hypocrisy and deception are the decisive characteristics of ideology，which cover up the facts in the name of truth.This book expresses the author's criticism of American society to some extent through the tragic ending，but because of the author's class limitations，this criticism is not enough deep and thorough.In the novel，the author narrates the story from Nick's perspective，and the whole article is full of Nick's reverence and envy for Gatsby.It is actually only a pity that Gatsby had failed to realize the American dream without criticizing the dream itself.The ending only stops at the sympathy of Gatsby's disillusionment and criticizes the apathy and ugliness of the capitalist society.We should use the view of Marxism to analyze the American social features described in the book.

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