An Analysis of the Ecological Destruction in The Great Gatsby and Its Inspirations for the Construction of Harmonious Society_英语论文

摘要

《了不起的盖茨比》是20世纪美国作家弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德（1896-1940）的经典著作，也是反映美国绚丽“爵士时代”的代表作品。它讲述一个无权无势的穷小子在消费至上，物欲横流的时代苦苦挣扎，通过不正当手段成功致富后，企图与旧爱重拾旧情，最终葬送生命的悲剧故事，生动形象的表达了作者对上流社会奢侈堕落生活的讽刺以及对被拜金主义笼罩下，世人道德感低下和人与人之间关系的冷漠与脆弱的批判，反映了美国社会转型过渡期下，人们思想上的迷茫、无知和价值观生态层面上崩塌。此外，小说中所描述的20世纪20年代社会消费行为和消费特点具有普遍性和历史性，对现代社会如何健康、可持续的发展提供了宝贵的借鉴意义。本文将从消费主义的角度分析《了不起的盖茨比》，从自然和社会两个方面分析小说中反映人与自然、人与社会及人与本身之间的不和谐的生态破坏现象，对其进行解读和评析，并与构建和谐社会的时代热门话题相结合，总结从中得到有关构建和谐社会的启示。

关键词： 《了不起的盖茨比》  消费主义  生态破坏  和谐社会

Abstract

The Great Gatsby is a classic work of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940), a 20th century American author, and also a representative work of gorgeous Jazz Age in America. It tells a tragic story that a powerless man Gatsby, struggling with the superficial shadow of consumerism and luxury of his age, makes his own fortune through improper means, intends to get back together with his former lover Daisy and eventually costs his own life, which vividly expresses writer’s irony towards the degeneration of the upper class, criticism of people’s low moral sense as well as the indifferent and delicate interpersonal relationship under the control of money worship and better mirrors that people of that era were confused and ignorant, suffering ecological destruction in value. Besides, social consumption behaviour and consumption features of 1920s described in the book are universal and historic, which have a valuable reference to help modern society move towards a healthy and sustainable direction. This paper is written to study the ecologic destruction in The Great Gatsby from the perspective of consumerism. To be specific, it will be studied in natural and social aspects to further analyze and make comments on inharmonious ecological destruction phenomenon between the relationship of human and nature, human and society as well as human and itself. What’s more, it will also be associated with contemporary hot topic about the construction of harmonious society summing up the inspirations conductive to the enlightenment of harmonious society.

Key words: The Great Gatsby  Consumerism  Harmonious Society

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  A Brief Introduction to Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald 1

1.2  A Brief Introduction to The Great Gatsby 2

1.3  Purpose of the Thesis 3

1.4  Structure of the Thesis 3

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1  Previous Studies of The Great Gatsby 4

2.1.1 Previous Studies of The Great Gatsby Abroad 4

2.1.2 Previous Studies of The Great Gatsby at Home 6

2.2  Previous Studies of Consumerism 9

2.2.1 Previous Studies of Consumerism Abroad 9

2.2.2 Previous Studies of Consumerism At Home 10

2.3  Summary 12

Chapter Three  Analysis in The Great Gatsby from the perspective 

of Consumerism and Its Inspirations for the Construction of

Harmonious Society 13

3.1  Introduction 13

3.2  Analysis of Natural Ecological Destruction 13

3.3  Analysis of Social Ecological Destruction 16

3.3.1 The Loss of Morality among the Upper class 17

3.3.2 The prevalence of Money Worship: A Distortion of Values 17

3.3.3 The Failure in Seeking Social Identity 20

3.4  Inspirations for the Construction of Harmonious Society 23

3.5  Summary 24

Chapter Four  Conclusion 25

4.1  Major findings 25

4.2  Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study 25

Bibliography

Acknowledgements