Abstract

This paper is going to concentrate on the evaporation of American Dream in “The Jazz Age” through a brief analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby. It explains characteristics of “The Jazz Age” – a spiritual wasteland regardless of material wealth; it also illuminates the essence of American dream – achieving a new status in the social hierarchy of the American society. Through analyzing the clashes between the main characters’ personal romantic dreams and the relentless reality in The Great Gatsby, this paper demonstrates the bankruptcy of American dream in “The Jazz Age”. In The Great Gatsby, the evaporation of Nick’s, Gatsby’s, the Buchanans’s, and the Wilsons’s personal romantic dreams, indicate the whole disillusionment of American dream in “The Jazz Age”. Different people from different social classes strive to pursue their personal romantic dreams, but their dreams are disillusioned when encountering the harsh reality of the American society. The very reason underlying the disillusionment of their dreams is that the original meaning of American dream has lost in the 1920s, and it is reduced to the pursuit of material wealth against any barrier of social status or moral values. American society has been reduced to a spiritual wasteland where moral decadence, social aloofness, and individual powerlessness are prevalent.

Key words: American Dream, “The Jazz Age”, The Great Gatsby, evaporation

摘要

本文着重通过分析美国作家弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德的著名小说《了不起的盖茨比》中的主要人物尼克，盖茨比，汤姆夫妇，以及威尔逊夫妇各自梦想破灭的过程来阐释整个美国“爵士乐时代”美国梦的破灭。本文阐释“爵士乐时代”的特征— 物质富饶下的精神空虚，及“美国梦”的实质—对阶级社会中更高层次的社会地位的追求。尼克及汤姆夫妇—旧贵族、上流社会的代表；盖茨比—新兴上流阶层的代表；威尔逊夫妇—下层社会的代表；他们各自奋力追逐着自己的梦想，但面对残酷的社会现实，其结果都归于失败。他们各自梦想破灭的真正原因就在于“美国梦”已失去其原有的积极向上的意义，而衍生成教唆人不顾一切代价豪取物质财富的工具。通过此分析推出文章的主旨，即在喧嚣、享乐主义驰骋的二十年代，美国社会已堕落成一片荒原，纸醉金迷的生活伪装下实则隐藏着绝望、个人迷惘、道德沦丧以及整个“美国梦”的破灭。

关键词：美国梦，“爵士乐时代”，《了不起的盖茨比》，破灭