Symbolism in The Great Gatsby

　　Gatsby is a poor young man from the Midwest of America who dreamed to get into the upper class and enjoy a decent life by his own efforts,which is often the theme of Fitzgerald’s own life and most of his works.The First World War broke out and the US declared to join the war.James Gates changes his name as Jay Gatsby and becomes a second lieutenant in the army.When he is stationed in a defending troop in Kentucky,he met with Daisy Fay who is the most beautiful girl he has ever met in his life and fell in love with her.In his opinion,Daisy represents perfection and happiness and is the symbol of youth,money and position,being the embodiment of all the dreams he has been pursuing.However,when he comes back from the war with military accomplishments,Daisy has got married with a rich and noble man from Chicago,Tom Buchanan.After the war,Tom and Daisy buy an expensive large house on Long Island and live a luxurious life,and Tom has a lover secretly.Gatsby thinks simply that he lost the beloved girl just because of the shortage of money and believes that only when he has more money than Tom,can he get back the lost love and dream.With the deep love for Daisy and the sacrificial spirit for love,he starts to work hard,and even makes illegal deals,and finally accumulates a large amount of money.The rich Gatsby buys a large house so close to Daisy’s house that he can see the green light from Daisy’s window.

　　Francis Scott Fitzgerald(Anderson,W.R.The Fitzgerald Revival,1940-1974.Dissertation:University of South Carolina,1974.)is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in America of the 20th century and is considered a member of the“Lost Generation”About one hundred short stories and four long novels including This side of Paradise,The Beautiful and the Damned,Tender is the Night and The Great Gatsby which have been published during his whole writing.Beyond that he left an uncompleted novel,The Last Tycoon before he died.Fitzgerald’s novels have been regarded as a sign for the‘Jazz Age’and he is called“spokesman in the Jazz Age”.Not only Fitzgerald’s novels work on different levels,but also give us memorable characters and events,as well as referring to the issues of American wealth and spirituality”.

　　As one of the classics in American literature,The Great Gatsby reveals the moral inanity and shame under the booming of the Jazz Age.When the book was published in 1925,it was widely accepted in American literature because Fitzgerald criticized the thought of ultra-individualism in the contemporary American society.

　　The Great Gatsby shows a subject of how the American dream influences the American characters:each of them has their own wish for their life of future,but their wish is only around wealth.To enjoy happiness from money is the main part of their life.Fitzgerald unites his experiences with his nation’s experiences and reflects the time features through the novel.Fitzgerald proposes the rise and fall of Gatsby,cleverly choosing a first-person narrator,Nick Caraway’s point of view.The Great Gatsby has been the first progress made in the American novel.It has become a sign of the American literature.

　　The famous Professor Wu Kunning first translated The Great Gatsby into Chinese in 1983.Since then,more and more Chinese scholars began discussing this novel,analyzing its symbolic colors,its subject and its forms of art.What Bloom(Bloom,ed.with intro.F.Scott Fitzgerald:Comprehensive Research and Study Guide.New York:Chelsea House Publishers,2000.)has said,“In fact,The Great Gatsby is a recall and summarize of the process development of the American dream practical and historical point of views.”Also some analyses Gatsby’s tragedy.Li Gongzhao(2000)argues that the Gatsby is a romantic dreamer of the past,who dedicated his life to realize his dream.Pan Shaozhong(1993)claims that“Gatsby’s dream is also all American dreams.”

　　From all researchers about Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel“The Great Gatsby”all over the word,we can conclude that The Great Gatsby is a great novel that different people can have different point of views.But we can see that these researchers mostly concentrate on the American dream,the Symbolic Colors and the language.Nevertheless,a few researchers have studied the image of Gatsby.In the following,I’ll analyses the different images of Gatsby and find out the roots of Gatsby’s tragedy.

　　Written in 1925,The Great Gatsby is one of the best known literary documents of this period.Many scholars have studied Fitzgerald’s works from different perspectives,for example the personal background,the characteristics and the subject.Over the past years the research on The Great Gatsby in the word has went through a long and excruciating process.Lots of researchers have proposed different conclusions from different fields and wrote critical essays.Many of them studied the American dream in The Great Gatsby.Bewley Marius(Barnet,Sylvan,et al.Literature for Composition,5th Edition.New York:Longman,2000.)claims that the failure of Gatsby who seeks the American dream madly and explores the changes that happens in the American society,indicating obstructions which cannot be get across on the way to Gatsby’s aspire of success.Meanwhile,Color Symbolism is very popular during the 1920s,and some of them studied the Symbolic Colors in The Great Gatsby to find out the dreams and thoughts of characters.Of course some studied The Great Gatsby from the matter of style of freshness.“The Great Gatsby seems to be so different from what has otherwise engaged the passions of other writers in form and content.”(Bloom,Harold,ed.With intro.F.Scott Fitzgerald:Modern Critical Yews.New York:Chelsea House.1985.)T.S.Eliot,a most influential critic of English,praised the novel was“the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James.”The famous critic H.L.Mencken declared this novel“to be no more than a glorified anecdote.”

　　3.1.1 Greedy of Wealth

　　In 1920 the 18th amendment to the Constitution established Prohibition in the US.The American society was characteristic of economic prosperity.Young people believed that they were able to change their lives through hard work.However,in accord with what the political dimension of New Historicism advocates,it is reasonable to interpret that in The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald observed and described the society from a different angle from dominating social condition.He presented readers with mysterious bootlegging business during the Prohibition era,the spiritual disorientation behind the mask of economic prosperity and young people's tragedy of disillusionment of American Dream.

　　3.1.2 Hypocrisy of Humanity

　　Moral values at Gatsby’s time have been lost.Most people think money means everything,so that they pursue money blindly.They can sell their souls so as to get money.Money is more practical compared with the God.They lose traditional virtues such as honesty and goodness.On the contrary,money and reputation become the goals and motivation to accomplish tasks.Some of them become very cunning and brutal.For example,Daisy would not marry a man who is poor and has no social status in The Great Gatsby.Only by having money and houses can Gatsby gain confidence to love Daisy.However,there is a great difference between Gatsby and Daisy:he earns money just because they deem that he can achieve his goals with money in the time.Compared with Daisy,Gatsby is a honest and virtuous person.In general,he cannot survive in a dog-eat-dog world and his life is destined to a tragedy.

　　3.1.3 Improvement of Living Standards

　　In The Great Gatsby,a group of wealthy young people lives in luxurious mansions near New York,and phones，cars and railways are widespread.From extravagant scenes in the novel,readers are able to sense the rapid development of economy and technology.People’s lives all seem to have received certain impact from the war.They would rather talk about trivial things in life than reckon upon the war.The sickness of wars is obvious and popular among the public.There is little indication of government throughout the novel.Even after the car crash,Mr.Wilson，the family of the victim does not choose to believe in the governmental agencies and wait for the police to conduct investigation but to believe in taking revenge by himself.From these,readers can make sense of the credit crisis of the government among the public in the Jazz Age.

　　3.1.4 Strength of Welfare System

　　Corruption in The Great Gatsby as well as in the Jazz Age was not limited to economic sector.It also prevailed through sports,politics,justices,and even spirit and morality.Even confronted with Tom’s continuous interrogation,Gatsby could still purposefully pick upper-class slang terms as a badge of his assumed status to secure his social role.Gatsby had been long possessing the illusory quest,even after he had been extremely wealthy,that the egocentric and materialistic Daisy would be willing to exchange her unhappy marriage for life of love in spite of her cynicism and claim to sophistication and for this woman he would pay everything,even his life.Tom had been cheating on Daisy while Daisy had known about his infidelity and was still willing to maintain their marriage,only being afraid to lose the reliable financial support for her luxurious life.They still moved on with their life after Daisy accidentally killed Tom’s mistress.

　　3.2.1 People’s Deep Desire

　　Tom is such a man of property.He believes that the privilege is as unalterable principles of things,in order to defend his privileges,he can use all means,including frame.In his view,everything he does is reasonable,Gatsby is not good,he does not have what sorry Tom place,what is the guilt of not to mention.Tom is in the privilege class,his views on behalf of his subordinate group point of view.Therefore,against Gatsby,against Gatsby Tom is not alone,but the whole society.So Gatsby was he trying to relentless social groups into the rejection of it,not only the dream shattered,but not to protect life.

　　3.2.2 People’s Venality

　　After the accident Gatsby talked to Nick by Daisy’s words,we know Gatsby to overseas service,Daisy began to pursue the new joy:“in the twilight universe,Daisy began to move again with the season;suddenly she was again every day and five or six men set a five or six date,to the dawn was tired to sleep,evening dress with the beads and chiffon withered orchids tied together,lost in her bed on the floor.Throughout this period she heart’s desire to make a decision.She wanted her life now,immediately-and the decision must be made by a near power to make-love,money,the real thing.”

　　3.2.3 Self-reinforcing Mentality

　　Daisy’s preference for wealth far more than the pursuit of love,in order to protect them,she could make a new start,never caught in emotional distress and obligation.Her lack of at least sincere,all her feelings have been into cold money.In fact,Daisy already with the upper social,without exception,with the group common social attributes and corrupts nature.They have nothing to do this kind of people all day long,adventurous,arty,to follow the fashion,but in actuality they vulgarity,selfish.They go to Gatsby’s banquet,nothing came of the bustling,lively and extraordinary,however Gatsby’s funeral,former guests did not show up,but someone said“he had got what he deserved”.Nick who know everything narrator,pierce to the heart of the matter that these people hypocrisy and relentless:they are an asshole;they’re a bunch of together,than Gatsby.

　　3.2.4 Fighting for Dignity

　　The dream built by Gatsby in his whole life is just a beautiful skeleton,and it is also called the tragedy of Gatsby.The reason leading to the tragedy of Gatsby is that the lofty spirit which Gatsby admires in the upper class disappears.After the“American dream”disappears,the tragedy of Gatsby turns into the tragedy of everyone.

　　3.3.1 Inflation of Economic Bubble

　　After World War I,people ushered in the roaring twenties,which was an age of the superimposition of one period of time upon the other-the modem upon the ancient.It was an era in which old beliefs and customs died hard,while new thoughts and mores were emerging in multitude.The twenties had two characteristics.One is the boom of economy.In this prosperous time,many speculators became millionaires overnight.They were good examples that brought millions of Americans the illusion of future life.The deep-rooted American dream had unprecedented attraction than ever.Another distinct characteristic of the twenties was the decline of spirit and the decay of morality.The new fashion represented by the Jazz music blasted the traditional culture.The unconventional dress and behavior became the vogue and the hedonism became the end of the life.The young generation pursued material life as well as spiritual life and they regarded wealth as the symbol of their success.What was brought by the pursuit of material was nothing but the decline of spirit and the moral degeneration.As the laureate of the 1920s and a sober bystander,Fitzgerald himself was a case in point to the illustration of the disillusionment of the American dream.

　　3.3.2 Rapid Development of Economy

　　From the last chapter of The Great Gatsby,it is learned that Gatsby once sent a photograph of his grand West Egg mansion to his father,exhibiting his enviable fortune.Previous chapters also described that Gatsby kept holding lavish parties in search of his old sweetheart,Daisy.Before judging Gatsby's behavior from any possible angle,there is no denying that readers are unlikely not to be impressed by his tremendous wealth and his extravagant life.

　　In conclusion,Gatsby lives in a society with definite class differentiation.He is the son of poor peasants and is fed up with torment of poverty and oppression from the rich,so that he is bent on squeezing into the upper class.To some extent,the society leads to his dream.It is also the society that does not accept him so as to destroy his dream.Gatsby is destined to fail if he challenges the rich.No matter how rich he is finally,he is just an overnight millionaire in the eyes of the rich.The rich like Tom who has the higher social position envy and fear the overnight millionaire.They prevent Gatsby from obtaining benefits and realize their purposes even by murdering.These are different aspects of symbolizing meaning reflected in the thesis,which will lead to the tragedy of Gatsby.The inner symbolism is that Gatsby’s dream is too ideal to get away from the reality and cannot be achieved.In short,the tragedy of Gatsby with the unrealistic dream at the time is definitely inevitable.

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