论文总字数：40598字

摘 要

弗·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德是被世界公认为20世纪最伟大的小说家，在世界文坛上有很高的荣誉和评价。其中《了不起的盖茨比》是菲茨杰拉德最受欢迎的作品，尤其是在电影的银屏改编都取得了巨大成功。前人关于《了不起的盖茨比》的研究不计其数，研究内容主要涉及人物塑造、主题刻画等等。而本文则另辟蹊径，以最新理论“了不起的盖茨比曲线”来探析小说主题-美国梦破灭的必然性。

作为本文的理论基础，了不起的盖茨比曲线是最新提出的理论。它最先是由加拿大经济学家迈尔斯·克拉克提出，它主要阐述：社会越不平等，个人的经济地位就越由其父母的地位决定，子女处于父辈的经济阶层的可能性就越高。

本文主要由四个部分组成。第一部分主要从作者菲茨杰拉德，美国梦，了不起的盖茨比曲线以及中国梦四个方面入手，详细地介绍论文的写作背景。而文章的第二部分则是囊括了文献综述和论文研究方法，详细地总结前人的观点以及研究成果。最为重要的是，论文主体主要对小说中人物进行出身大比拼，结合理论，探析盖茨比死亡的必然性，探寻美国梦破灭的真正原因。所以总的而言，该篇论文从“了不起的盖茨比曲线”出发，论证了盖茨比必然走向死亡，他的美国梦终究也只是“黄粱一梦”。

基于这一曲线理论，作者希望该论文能够启发学者们从新的角度研究《了不起的盖茨比》中美国梦的破灭，帮助我们深入了解小说主题，并能利用盖茨比曲线理论对未来有一个大概的预测，以此来帮助我们积极实现“中国梦”。

关键词：《了不起的盖茨比》 美国梦的破灭 了不起的盖茨比曲线 中国梦

1. Introduction

• 1. Life and literature career of F. S. Fitzgerald

F. Scott. Fitzgerald (1896—1940) was widely acclaimed as the most outstanding American novelist and essayist in twentieth century and he won a high admiration and reputation in the world literature. He was best known as the spokesman of the Jazz Age, a term he coined. He was even acclaimed as “a remarkable novelist” and “one of the best writers in this era” by Hemingway. In his whole lifetime, most novels he wrote mainly dealt with the disillusionment of the American Dream in the 1920s, a period between the end of the World War One and the beginning of the Great Depression. So he was called the chronicler of the Jazz Age too.

Fitzgerald was born in a merchant family in the American Midwest (St. Paul, Minnesota). His father was one of upper- class origin, but generally poor owing to a large numbers of commercial failures. Later he was able to attend Princeton University only with the financial aid of a wealthy aunt and the help of a football scholarship. But due to illness and neglect of academic study, he left Princeton without graduation in 1917. He then had a period of military service for 15 months. During his military training in Alabama, he could not help falling in love with Zelda Sayre, who was regarded as a beautiful but material girl but she would marry him on the condition that he must become rich. After their marriage, the couple frequently went abroad and lived extravagantly a luxurious life. To keep earning enough money, Fitzgerald wrote short stories and novels at a rapid speed. However sadly, the 1930s brought relentless decline for him with too many misfortunes; his reputation declined, his wealth fell,his health failed, and in addition, Zelda had suffered from some mental breakdowns that confined her in a sanitarium for her later life. At last, Fitzgerald was in the torture of alcoholism, loneliness and despair, and died in 1940 of a heart break.

Fitzgerald finished four novels, but left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories. His novels and short stories chronicled changing social attitudes in the 1920s , “The Jazz Age”. His first novel in 1920 reached the public with its complete modern sensibility, which gave him an immediate success. Since then he wrote many excellent works in succession: The Beautiful and the Damned (1922); The Great Gatsby (1925); Tender is the Night (1934). Among his many works, The Great Gatsby is his best work, the masterpiece.

F. Scott. Fitzgerald was a shining star in America literature. Although his life was short, it was really full of epic glory. In his whole writing career, he provided so great intellectual treasure for later generations: four classical novels and 160 short stories and articles.

1.2 Brief Introduction of the American dream

The term “the American dream” was first introduced into contemporary social analysis by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. The American dream was quickly accepted by the American public.

The American dream first arose in the Colonial period and developed in the 19^th century, which originally related to a desire for spiritual and material improvement. It emphasized an ideal country where it was the land of equality, freedom and democracy. In its original sense, the American dream was the ideal of equal opportunity and chance for all people, of advancement and improvement in society regardless of one’s origin. Steven F. Messner stated in 1997 that the American dream is referred to “a broad cultural ethos that entails a commitment to the goal of material success”(6-7).

However, in the World War One, the American dream suffered from disillusion and collapse among the new generation. The industrialization sped up and led to an economic boom that gave a more capitalistic and materialistic values and attitudes. People speculated and gambled on the stock market, who eagerly got rich overnight and attempted to be millionaires quickly, although they illegally made money like Gatsby by selling alcohol. As a result, there had emerged a state of material well-being but a real spiritual pursuit.

Someone who manages to achieve his or her version of the American dream may be said to be “living the dream,” and everyone has a special interpretation of what the American dream could be. Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby also has his own American dream.

1.3 The Great Gatsby Curve

“The Great Gatsby Curve” is proposed by the Canadian economist, Miles Corak. It illustrated the connection between concentration of wealth in one generation and the ability of those in the next generation to move up the economic ladder compared to their parents.... The curve showed that children from poor families were less likely to improve their economic status as adults in countries where income inequality was higher- meaning wealth was concentrated in fewer hands- around the time those children were growing up (Wikipedia “The Great Gatsby Curve”).

Please see the following Chart (The White House Blog, What is the Great Gatsby Curve?):

This chart illustrates the relationship between family background and the children’s future social statues in some important countries in the world. The vertical axis shows how much parental income predicts a child’s future income: the higher the number, the more likely a child of poor parents stays poor in the future. The horizontal axis shows the distribution of income across the population in the parents’ generation. Actually in these countries (marked in orange) of the chart, income is not concentrated in the hands of the few, and a child’s prospects are less than determined by parental income. However, those countries (marked in red), income tends to be more concentrated at the top, and a child’s prospects are more determined by parental income. In addition, the points cluster around an upward sloping line, indicating the relationship between economic inequality and economic mobility. As you can see in the chart, when you have more inequality in the parents’ generation, you will have less mobility in the future generations.

What is more, some professionals predict that inequality in USA will increase over that last thirty years. Rising inequality implies that it will be harder for children to climb the economic ladder. According to this curve, Nobel Prize winner in Economics and Professor of Princeton, Paul R. Krugman in 2008 even made a prediction that the intergenerational mobility will be less in 2035 than now. At that time, someone’s future economic status will be greatly decided by his parents’ class status, to a large extent. Chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan B. Krueger in 2012 talked about the curve of America and especially cared about the rise and consequences of inequality in the United States.

Therefore, President Obama has advanced a number of policies to give greater opportunity for the middle class and those people striving to join the middle class. For example, he thinks that education is critical to economic mobility. So he proposes that every school would make sure that every children, regardless of their family backgrounds, can start school ready to learn. At the same time, he advises that USA should give more investment in infrastructure construction and manufacturing, which offers American workers a path to the middle class. As to Obama’s actions, our country actually should take its lessons from USA.

In conclusion, the Great Gatsby Curve is about inequality and economic mobility, and shows how harder for children from poor families to move up the economic ladder compared to other “rich children”.

1.4 Xi Jinping’s interpretation of “Chinese dream”

The Chinese dream is a new term within Chinese socialist thought and gives a description of a set of ideals in the People’s Republic of China. It is used, discussed and learned everywhere by journalists, government officials, and activists to describe the role of the individual in Chinese society.

In 2013, the “Chinese dream”, put forth by the Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, was to build a moderately prosperous society, realize national rejuvenation and people’s happiness. Xi Jinping himself has also described the dream as “national rejuvenation, improvement od people’s livelihoods, prosperity, construction of a better society and military strengthening.(Wikipedia “Chinese Dream”) ” He has stated that young people should “dare to dream, work assiduously to fulfill the dreams and contribute to the revitalization of nation.(1-3)” According to the party’s theoretical journal Qiushi, the Chinese dream is about Chinese prosperity, collective effort, socialism and national glory (1-2).

Author Helen H. Wang was the first one to connect the Chinese dream with the American dream. In her book The Chinese Dream, Wang stated: “The Chinese Dream, taking its title from the American dream, alluding to an easily identifiable concept... ” “The new (Chinese) middle class.” he wrote, “which barely existed a decade age, will reach the size of more than two Americans in a decade or two.”(203)

To make “Chinese Dream” come true, this thesis tends to state, we should learn from American dream, increase the intergeneration mobility and reduce social inequality. Now we everyone try our best to realize our dreams: sustainable development, national renewal, economic and political reform, and individual dream.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Historical literature review of The Great Gatsby

2.1.1 The Great Gatsby

F. Scott. Fitzgerald, one of the American writers of “Lost Generation”, was named as the “crown writer in Jazz Age”. As his important masterpiece, The Great Gatsby has aroused keen public response since its very publication in 1925.

The Great Gatsby presented realistic image of the American life in the 1920s. In this period, American economy was booming and the values of people have been changed greatly: money, opulence and exuberance became the order of the day. In addition, seeming, it is just a love tragedy, in which the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby wishes to be rich and tries to win back his wartime lover- Daisy, but lastly he fails. However, through a close analysis from its contents and theme, it reveals that Gatsby is doomed to failure and his American Dream is broken in the real world.

On the one hand, in its first publication of 1925, the sales of The Great Gatsby was very disappointing, which was its unpopularity at first. The work fundamentally and harshly criticized the American society, not on its etiquette but the basic life attitude. Fitzgerald’s criticism was harsher than what Henry James thought on American poverty (203, 204). The famous literary critic, H.L. Mencken still held a conservative comment on The Great Gatsby that this novel only told so simple a story that it could not cause people’s resonate (200). Even some critics only said that this fiction put up with “a delicate subject” or “frankly, the fiction was unimpressive and unworthy of re-reading so that it could not exert far-reaching effect” (78). Maybe these reviews could be understandable at that time.

On the other hand, Fitzgerald himself grew increasingly confident of its quality and told his friend Maxwell Perkins that The Great Gatsby was more or less seriously ‘about the best American novel ever written’(185). In addition, according to Matthew J. Bruccoli, a leading Fitzgerald scholar, there were seventeen new editions or reprints of The Great Gatsby between 1941 and 1949 (170). And T. S. Eliot, a famous poet, excellent dramatist and important literary critic, once told Fitzgerald that he had read The Great Gatsby for three times and considered it “the first step forward American fiction had taken since Henry James” (149, 78).

2.1.2 Criticism about theme and characters

Much later, it was translated into Chinese some years ago. Since then more and more scholars paid much attention to this great work. Scholars deeply analyzed the great work from a few perspectives mainly including the disillusionment of the American dream (thematic analysis) and characterization.

Quite a few scholars showed great interest in the thematic analysis. Zhuang Yan explored the failure of the American dream from the perspective of the sociology of consumption(56-60). In the 1920s, hedonism and consumerism became increasingly popular, which presented three barriers to the success of the American dream: people’s spiritual emptiness and lack of the motivation to succeed; the oppression from other classes; the absence of social equality and fairness. In addition, Yang Cuiping specially discussed its theme from Gatsby’s death (31-33). He found the internally and externally the root cause to death is Gatsby’s disillusion with the American dream. Yu Xiuhong made a comparative analysis of Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and Dicke in Tender is the Night and concluded the inevitability of Gatsby’s tragedy (18-19).

Some scholars focused on the characters’ analysis, especially the hero, Jay Gatsby. Liu Yingjing and An Qiuping thought that Gatsby’s innocence and conscience were pushed aside by the upper society (12-16). Wu Wen questioned Gatsby’s greatness. He said that, whether in his business, his life or love, Gatsby always kept indulging in fantasies all day long. Although he was only a flash in the pan, Gatsby illegally got money (23-25). Zhang Chengguo concluded that Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy and his ideal love led to his tragedy. However he did not study in depth the relevant causes; as a result, his interpretation seemed too superficial (7).

As to the heroine, Daisy in The Great Gatsby, some scholars also studied her characters from a few perspectives. Luo Xiaoyan believed that, from a feminist perspective, Daisy was the victim of Gatsby’s American dream rather than the perpetrator (15-16). It was very unique that she clearly stated, Nick obviously owned his misunderstanding and misogyny for women by the textual analysis. So Nick’s patriarchal narrative discourse is dismantled and Fitzgerald’s feminist value and discomfort with women in the 1920s negatively affected the characterization of women, also including poor Daisy. However, Chen Xihua wrote that Daisy was frivolous, mentally poor, shadow and superficial; she was so selfish, irresponsible with her material image (38-40).

2.2 Methods and Significance of the Study

This thesis will have a penetrative study on the disillusionment of the American dream in The Great Gatsby by the latest theory. At least, now at home and abroad, there is no relative study from this perspective. What is more, other study methods, such as documentation, comparative method and analytic induction, will applied into paper writing.

3. A Loser’s Disillusionment of the American Dream Interpreted through “The Great Gatsby Curve”

This chapter introduces in detail Gatsby’s disillusionment of American dream and analyzes its inevitability of tragedy through “The Great Gatsby Curve”.

3.1 Family background of the main characters

In The Great Gatsby，there are the four main characters: Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan and Nick Carraway. However they are all from different classes and a variety of social backgrounds, so they will or must have different futures.

3.1.1 Jay Gatsby

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