The Echo of Jazz Age

摘 要：The Great Gatsby is a masterpiece written by the famous American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. It is a great success both in content and writing skills. The 1920s was a decade known as Jazz Age in American history. The Great Gatsby is actually the echo of Jazz Age. It reflects the social reality, and reveals the pursuit of material and the disillusion of American dream of that age through depicting Gatsbys tragedy. This paper describes Gatsbys wonderful American dreams: dream of getting rich and dream of love, and analyzes the process of the disillusion of Gatsbys American dream. And this paper reveals the essence of American dream and the social reality of Jazz Age.

关键词：Jazz Age; American dream; disillusion

中图分类号：H31 文献标识码：A

文章编号：1009-0118（2012）05-0279-02

1.The Background of Jazz Age

In American history, Jazz Age ranged from the ending of the world warⅠ(1918) to the Great Depression (1929). After the world war, America entered a temporary and unprecedented prosperous age. It was a flashy age, an age full of spree. It was also an age that young Americans felt perplexed and lost.

Fitzgerald was a 1920s person. He was considered as the literary spokesman of Jazz Age. He also wildly took part in the pursuit of material wealth and gaudy spree, so his novels could uncover the social reality profoundly. His novels became the most representative of Jazz Age, because they registered a sense of purposelessness, decadence and cultural emptiness, and captured both an excitement about the new things and an anxiety about the historical loss. “Fitzgeralds fiction tells the story so well that it has virtually become its literary emblem”. (Toming, 239)

2.Brief Introduction of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is an important novel of F. Scott. Fitzgerald. This novel primarily establishes his stable place in American literature. It is a great success both in content and writing skills, and receives favorable comments from famous critics. T. S. Eliot, who is never a hasty or extravagant critic, praised the novel as “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”.

Fitzgerald was born in middle—class family, but he was fascinated by the leisure class of the Eastern coast. Living to imitate their life made him sometimes feel uncivilized. This was similar to the case with his narrator in The Great Gatsby. He was a novelist who best captured the fashion, the wealth, the changing sexual habits, the charm, the deceit and the confusion in the social life of 1920s.The story of Gatsby embodies the tone of Jazz Age.

3.Gatsbys American Dream and The Disillusion

Gatsbys American dream goes through a process of evolution with his growth, and he pursues his dream unswervingly all his life. His American dream originates from when he was a child. He had an energetic schedule in his childhood, and also had a wonderful “general revolves”. It proved that he was dreaming to better himself all the time in order to get rich some day. Afterwards, when he met Daisy and found that he loved Daisy very much, Daisy became the embodiment of his dream. So Gatsbys first dream is to get rich, and his second dream is dream of love.

3.1 Disillusion of the Monetary Dream

Gatsby pursues his wonderful dream persistently all his temporary life, but in the end, his dream shatters completely. At first it is the disillusion of his monetary dream. Gatsby always dreams of getting rich. Finally he has a lot of money definitely and often holds lavish parties. However, no matter how wealthy he is and no matter how extravagant his parties are, he never changes his background of the lower class. The upper class always despises him, attacks him and excludes him. Although many of the upper class participate in his parties and enjoy themselves there, they take advantage of any opportunity to spread gossips about him to show their contempt, and they never accept him as a member of them. After his death, no one comes to his funeral. His funeral is miserable and doomed. The sharp contrast between his pathetic funeral and his extravagant parties indicates the disillusion of his monetary dream.

3.2 Disillusion of the Dream of Love

Then it is the disillusion of his dream of love. Gatsby loves Daisy all the time. Five years later he meets Daisy again. Daisy seems to love him again, because at that time he is wealthy and famous and Gatsby has a ground mansion. So she intends to restore their relation. But when she is forced to make a choice between Gatsby and Tom, she wavers, and she is in a great conflict. When Tom tells her that Gatsby gets rich out of bootlegger, she knows that what the future would be like if she chooses Gatsby, so she stands by her husband side naturally. After she drives Gatsbys car carelessly and kills Myrtle, who is Toms mistress and Wilsons wife. She and her husband make a scheme that shifts the responsibility to Gatsby. In the end Gatsby is shot dead by Wilson, while Daisy and Tom escape from the place. Her love for Gatsby has dispersed. So his death and Daisys departure leave his dream of love disillusioned. His love dies with his body and soul.

4.Conclusion

Jazz Age is a fertile soil that breeds American dream. It is an economically prosperous age in American history. At that time people only pursue material wealth but neglect the wealth of spirit. Gatsbys life is an epitome of American dream. His life embodies the American dream well. He believes money can buy love and happiness, so he dreams of getting rich and regaining his love. In the end, he fails to realize his unattainable dream because of different reasons, even he sacrifices his life.

The disillusion of Gatsbys American dream shows us that it could only lead to failure and dissatisfaction if one equates wealth to dream. Gatsbys story is a mirror and it reflects an image of American history of Jazz Age. The Great Gatsby reflects Jazz Age so well and clearly, so it is the echo of Jazz Age.

参考文献：

\[1\]Chang Yaoxin.A Survey of American Literature \[M\].The Second Edition，Tianjin:Nankai University Press，2003.

\[2\]Fitzgerald, F. Scott.The Great Gatsby.Great Britain:Penguin Books，1986.

\[3\]High,peter.An Outline of American Literature.New York:Longman Group Limited，2001.

\[4\]Toming.A History of American Literature.Beijing:Yilin Press，2002.