Gatsby#8217;s Tragic Life in The Great Gatsby 《了不起的盖茨比》中盖茨比的悲剧人生 Purpose and Significance of the Study F. Scott Fitzgerald was known as the most representative and typical writer in his time since his works are considered to be the microcosm of the ”Jazz Age”. As the most famous novel among all those works of him, the publication of The Great Gatsby has established his important position in the history of modern American Literature and has earned him a world-wide reputation. The Great Gatsby describes a tragic life of Jay Gatsby, who is dedicated his life to making his dream for power, fortune and love come true, but ends up miserably. The upper class doesn#8217;t accept him as a upstart, and Daisy Buchanan#8217;s love is only for his money even after he dies for her. His pursuit seems like to be a joke with the background of the times. It is, his dream, doomed to be evaporated. The Great Gatsby was written with the background of the ”Jazz Age”, which started after the end of the first World War to the Great Depression. At that time, the capitalist economy developed rapidly and soon reached an unprecedented prosperity with the policy. However, it was only a superficial phenomenon. Everyone#8217;s desire for money led to an empty spiritual world. Under the certain environment, people in that society of moral decay was indifferent, greedy and over indulgent in pleasure. Although The Great Gatsby is a work which depicts the social phenomenon back to the 1920s in America, it still has an important practical significance for the contemporary society. This thesis will discuss from several causes of Jay Gatsby#8217;s tragedy, compare with the real life and give appropriate proposal in order to promote social development and create a harmonious relationship among the society. Literature Review T. S. Eliot, a famous literary critic, once spoke highly of The Great Gatsby, ”It seems to be the first step that American Fiction has taken since Henry James” (1945) in a letter to Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby has always been regarded as a masterpiece which reproduces the social life in the ”Jazz Age” and provides an important reference for the related research. ”Gatsby#8217;s ideality, struggle and ending is the epitome of the life experience of the young generation in the United States.” (Li,1997) With the background that have already known, the ”Jazz Age” was a period of flashy. However, underneath this image of prosperity, there was an invisible wave of despair and depression. It was only because of the sharp insight that Fitzgerald got, that he could describe vividly a life scenario, record faithfully the history and maximize the spirit of the times. Therefore, ”In his literary creation, the depth and breadth of thinking about social and historical issues and the reflection of social and historical phenomena are more accurate and vivid than many orthodox historians.” (Cheng, 2012) ”With the consumer to indulge in pleasures, to flaunt the status and wealth, to achieve aims, this view of consumption hinders the realization of the American dream.” (Zhuang, 2004). This thesis analysis the book from the perspective of social consumption, which leads men into vices. He claims that the traditional moral concept was taken place by the American Hedonism, and the real American dream was gradually disintegrating at that period. To some extent, this is one of the reasons for the tragic life of Gatsby. Among all those researches, a great deal of scholars believed that Gatsby#8217;s personal tragedy was equivalent to the disillusionment of the American dream. For instance,”Fitzgerald created Gatsby and his myth to be an emblem of the irony and the corruption of the American dream.” (Ghasemi, Mitra, 2009). Also in China,”Gatsby#8217;s death marks the end of the ”American Dream#8217; as a means of material pursuit.” (Jiang, 2010). All these writers deem that Gatsby#8217;s chasing for money and love insinuates the quest for American Dream. Yet, can Gatsby#8217;s failure represent the disillusionment of the American dream, some researchers hold the opposite opinion. When we talk about the American dream, it means that people have to go through their own hard work, creativity and determination to prosper, not to rely on specific social classes and other people#8217;s assistance. We can sense the positive supervision in it. However, ”There is an essential difference between Gatsby#8217;s dream and the American dream. His dream is divorced from reality, even against it.” (Chen, 2009) Furthermore, Fan claimed that ”It is a greatest irony of the American dream by abandoning morality to win a moral ending.” (2007). The conclusion can be drawn as that his struggles for a disembodied fantasy which is doomed to end in naught, not to mention the lack of morality and devoid of conscience in the course of his progress. Although he regards Benjamin Franklin as a successful example, he can never reproduce the achievements. Gatsby#8217;s desire of money can be attributed to the pursuit of love, which is the most important tragedy in his life. On the one hand, Gatsby is full of hope for the future and always goes after the light. And in Guo and Han#8217;s thesis (2008), the book is analyzed from the perspective of Impressionism, which emphasizes color and light. They give a viewpoint that Daisy#8217;s appearance is accompanied by the shadow on the other hand. There is such a strong contrast between them, which makes it even hard to imagine the satisfactory result of their love. He ruins his own light of hope by pinning his dream on her under the certain circumstance. On the contrary, Liu and An (2006) hold the opinion that Gatsby#8217;s encounter is not the tragedy of love, but of the conceptual paranoia that money can achieve his dream. Sadly, his money doesn#8217;t discourage the discrimination or let Daisy change her mind. Comparing to this ruthless and selfish society, Gatsby is a misfit. He still keeps a sense of innocence deep in his heart. However, in the cold material world, innocence and romance have no shelter. And it makes it more pitiful for Gatsby dies with the hope for Daisy. Psychoanalysis is one of the most important and valuable theories in modern life. So many scholars do the research from the perspective of Psychoanalysis, including the principle of happiness. ”Gatsby regards Daisy as the embodiment of ideal and beauty, and ultimately pays his young life. This behavior fits the principle of happiness.”(Guo, 2012) From the Psychoanalysis we can achieve to the conclusion that the subconscious chases the happiness blindly, and ignores morality and law regardless of the consequences. Without the restriction of morality and law, the social order is in chaos, and finally led to the tragedy of Gatsby. ”The author is venting the pressure and the insights by writing, in order to warn the world.” (Xiong, 2011). Freud explained artistic creation process by the ways of the work of dream, and used the analytic method of the dream to decipher the deep meaning behind the text form, and analyzed the unconscious motive of the artist. Basing on Freud#8217;s theory, Xiong believes that Fitzgerald integrated his own experience into the work. As a result, it makes this book a masterpiece which shows a picture of people in the 20th Century living in an extravagant life and paying the price for it. From the above description we can know that there is no final verdict on the roots of Gatsby#8217;s tragic life. Different people holds different view. Everyone sounds reasonable with the theory they use. In order to examine The Great Gatsby in an appropriate and fair way, people still need to make depth discussion from other aspects. However, there is a conclusion we can make at the moment, ”Gatsby is as great as the writer Fitzgerald thinks of.” (2015) Methods and Procedures of the Study In order to have a good analysis of The Great Gatsby, some works, articles have been read before my starting this paper, which can be found in the library or on the Internet. What#8217;s more, since there is a film adapted from the original work, it helps me a lot with understanding the character. Then i searched for the information about the writer as well as the writing background so that the book will be analyzed clearly. This thesis consists of four parts. In the first chapter, a brief introduction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby and the theory will be given. Some studies of this area will listed in the second chapter of the literature review. The third chapter will focus on analyzing the causes of Gatsby#8217;s tragic life with the Personality Structure. In the last chapter, the significance of this study and suggestions for the future society will be offered. Conclusion There is no doubt that The Great Gatsby is one of the finest novel in the 20th Century. Combining the social background, the author put emphasis on the contradiction of relationship between Gatsby and his dream, and between the innocence and the social reality. Fitzgerald portrayed all the characters to the life. So that he revealed the real social life by showing Gatsby#8217;s struggle and failure. Up to now, a host of critics have studied this novel from different perspectives, so it is hard to tell who#8217;s right or wrong. Still, Gatsby#8217;s tragic life can be unscrambled in a distinct and detailed way. So that we can get a deeper understanding of this masterpiece and reach the valuable guidance for the development of the society. However, there still remains a problem during the process of writing. That is under the premise of deep understanding of myself, combine with social phenomenon and make a profound discussion.