The_Disillusionment_of_the_American_Dream–The_Social_Significance_of_The_Great_Gatsby_毕业论文.doc

毕 业 论 文毕业论文题目：The Disillusionment of the American DreamThe Social Significance of The Great Gatsby 学生姓名： 学 号： 院（系）： 专 业： 英语班 级： 指导教师姓名： 起止时间： 10Declaration of Academic IntegrityI promise that the thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any institutes of higher learning and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except when due reference is made in the text of the thesis. I understand that to do so would mean that I had committed plagiarism, and that it is my responsibility to be aware of the Universitys regulations on plagiarism and their importance.Signed: Date: The Disillusionment of the American DreamThe Social Significance of The Great GatsbyAbstract: The 1920s was a decade when the outline of contemporary America clearly formed. World War I created a new generation, the Lost Generation and a new time, the Jazz Agea time of profound cultural and social changes. American people had to make a choice between traditional values and new standards adopted by young people. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as a time of decayed social and moral values. Cynicism, greed, and pursuit of pleasure became the symbols of this period. They changed the nature of the original American Dream and finally ruined it. The intention of this study is to explore the social significance reflected in the disillusionment of the American Dream through the comparison between the characters and events in the novel and the social reality and the diachronic analysis of the American dream.Key words: social significance; the disillusionment of American Dream; the Jazz Age美国梦的破灭试析了不起的盖茨比所反映的社会意义摘要：二十世纪二十年代是当代美国社会初具雏形的年代。第一次世界大战造就了新的一代人迷惘的一代，爵士乐时代也由此拉开序幕。在这一时期，美国经历了深刻的文化与社会变革，美国人也必须在传统价值观和广为年轻人接受的新价值观之间做出选择。在了不起的盖茨比中，菲茨杰拉德刻画了这个以玩世不恭、贪图享乐为标志，社会和道德价值腐化堕落，美国梦的本质发生蜕变并最终破灭的年代。本文将小说中的人物和事件与社会现实进行比较，对美国梦做了历时性的分析，从而揭示小说所反映的社会意义美国梦的破灭。关键词：社会意义；美国梦的破灭；爵士乐时代Contents1 Introduction12 A Panorama of American Society in The Great Gatsby22.1 Materialism22.2 Immorality32.3 Inequality43 The Fall of the American Dream Reflected in The Great Gatsby63.1 The definition of the American Dream63.2 The evolution of the American Dream73.3 The disillusionment of the American Dream74 Conclusion9References10Acknowledgements11 The Disillusionment of the American DreamThe Social Significance of The Great Gatsby1 IntroductionThe Great Gatsby, a novel written by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in 1925, is a highly specific portrait of American society during the Roaring Twenties. The central character is Jay Gatsby, who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsbys neighbor in West Egg. After a reunion arranged by Nick, Gatsby and his love Daisy reestablish their connection and begin an affair. After a short time, Daisys husband Tom, though he himself is involved in an extramarital affair with Myrtle Wilson, is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful to him. Later, Gatsbys car has struck and killed Myrtle. Nick learns from Gatsby that it is Daisy who is driving the car when the accident happens, but Gatsby will take the blame. Myrtles husband George soon finds Gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead. Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsbys life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. The above is a brief summary of the novel. Though it tells us a story taking place over only a few months in a small area in the vicinity of Long Island, The Great Gatsby is a panorama of the entire American society in the Jazz Age, and a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole. On the surface it is a thwarted love between a man and a woman, but actually it is a story of the distorted American Dream disillusioned in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess, in which lies this novels social significance. 2 A Panorama of American Society in the Jazz AgeNo one can finish reading The Great Gatsby without being impressed by the opulent parties with wild jazz music that Gatsby throws every Saturday night. The novel is an epitome of the whole American society, showing us a vivid picture of the Jazz Age. The Jazz Age, referring to the period after the end of World War I, through the Roaring Twenties, ending with the onset of the Great Depression, is a time of profound cultural and social changes. American people are torn between traditional values and new standards adopted by young people.