her. When the First World War broke out, Gatsby had to devote himself to the army. Daisy gave up waiting for him and got married with a rich young man Tom Buchanan. However, Daisy?s marriage was not that happy because Tom has betrayed their marriage. He had a mistress after their daughter was born. All these things inspired Gatsby?s desire to get married with Daisy. In order to win back his lost love, it took Gatsby just a few years to make a fortune through illegal business. He bought a mansion located on the opposite side of Daisy?s house with a river lying in between. Gatsby held parties every weekend, hoping that one day Daisy would come but she did not turn up even once. With the help of Nick, the cousin of Daisy, Gatsby met Daisy again five years after they broke away from each other. But now the lady in front of him was no longer the ideal lover in his dream. Instead, she became a selfish and vulgar woman. She refused to give up Tom but at the same time she did not refuse Gatsby.
One day, Daisy drove Gatsby?s car after drinking and caused an accident in which Tom?s mistress, Myrtle Wilson was killed. In order to protect Daisy, Gatsby decided to assume the responsibility. Finally Gatsby was shot by Myrtle?s husband. Only Gatsby?s poor father and Nick attended the funeral. Daisy did not feel any sadness and was on trip with Tom to Europe at that time.
2. The American Dream and its Historical Background
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals which includes freedom, the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work. The term American Dream was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America. He states, “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of
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which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” (Adams, 1931: 214) It means that everyone, no matter what class he is in, can be successful through his own efforts. This ideology is based on the principle that one should be responsible for himself and seize every opportunity to gain success with courage and through hard work.
The American dream has its own particular history background. Since Columbus found “the new continent”, the Europeans went to America for exploitation and colonialism. People in Europe got many kinds of harsh sufferings. They moved to the North American continent because they wanted to get rid of the sufferings in Europe, to be rich, and put into practice their values and philosophies of life. They wanted to escape the religious persecution and rebuild the religious belief.
Going to America gave them the aspiration of freedom, the opportunity to be rich. Besides, many unthinkable things in the Old World may turn into reality in this piece of land. From the view of Xing Yan(Xing Yan, 2004:49), “Opportunity follows one after another, and almost everyone will cause a national madness, the United States becomes a country of ?milk and honey?. Therefore, a large number of people with an American dream swarmed here.”
2.1 The Origin of the American Dream and its Development
“The American Dream arose in the colonial period and developed in the nineteenth century, based on the assumption of each person, no matter what his origin was, could succeed in changing their social positions and making their dreams come true through their own efforts, and getting new, free and better life. It is what is often referred to as ?American dream?. ” (Zhao Hongwei, 2003: 2)
The American dream is both a romantic expectation and a belief that with toil and devotion people will achieve what their desire. The American dream at its early stage was a Puritan desire for the freedom in religion and creation. However, it becomes broader in meaning along with the expansion to the American West. It includes the pursuit of happiness, the goal to be successful in
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career, love and wealth. After the Civil War, the American dream has even more concrete meanings as people strongly believe that with hard work, they can create miracles such as from poor to rich.
2.2 The essence of the American Dream
As for the American Dream, it is a belief that a better life could be achieved through hard work and strives. There are several notions behind the American Dream—equal opportunities provided for everyone; the success based on one?s own talents and efforts, and equal opportunity to achieve success.
The dream has its constant element, but is ever-changing with the people and with the times. The American dream is seen as one for a better and richer life for everyone, a dream of having opportunities in terms of one?s ability. According to Li Hongwen (黎红雯, 2002:15), “For some, the American dream is a chance to build a successful business and become a millionaire. For others, the American dream is from the log cabin to the White House. For still other people, the American dream is the ladder from the rags to the riches. ” From Li?s view, people may have their own dreams, of which some are small ambitions and others could be great ones.
For young students today, the dream might include getting higher education and devoting oneself to helping others. For the middle-aged people today, the dream may include a very high-paying job which one could retire at an early age and have a more satisfying lifestyle. “Everyone had a different idea for his or her American Dream; everyone?s American Dream may be totally different from each other; that is what makes them all individuals. The dream may differ in that some people wanted to work hard and had financial success, or others might just want to have enough food and income to survive, and make their life simple, healthy and happy. ” (邓年刚，潭素钦, 1997:15)Almost every American has his own American Dream. Almost every American including immigrants and poor people has his desire for a better life. Such a life enables him to own a big house, have much money, delicious food and luxury cars, and enjoy freedom as well. No
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matter what his origin is, he could succeed in through his own efforts. With the success, he is able to get access to higher social position and better life.
3. The American Dream Reflected in Gatsby
In the novel, Gatsby?s American dream was to win daisy?s love, and he spared no effort to do everything to regain the love of Daisy. In order to make his American Dream come true, Gatsby got money by doing illegal trade of alcohol. Also, in the pursuit of his love, he did whatever Daisy asked him to do even at the sacrifice of his precious life.
3.1 Gatsby’s Pursuit of Fortune Dream
One part of Gatsby?s dream was to get rich. Gatsby was a man who lived in the lower class, he dreamed for getting recognition, he dreamed for social status, and the true love. But to improve his social status and gain recognition, he was in bad need of money. In his youth, he harbored the innocent wish to be successful by hard work. In order to succeed, he worked tirelessly to do many things and worked out a schedule, which bears the similarity of that of Benjamin Franklin. Gatsby?s schedule displayed his imagination or illusion of his own future, through which a link between his dream and the American dream can be perceived. Gatsby dreamed of becoming a great man. Even when he was a boy, he had his aspirations. He was not content with things as they are and he just wanted to work hard to change the situation.
He forced him to get up early in the morning at 6:00 and began to study electricity at 7:15, worked from 8:30A.M. to 4:30 P.M.. “study needed inventions” (Fitzgerald,1993:176) in the evening. He also has a wonderful “general resolves”,(Fitzgerald ,1993:174) which set strict demands on himself, such as “no wasting time，no smoking, read one important book or magazine per week and save $500 per week” .(Fitzgerald, 1993: 174)
In the novel, Gatsby was born in a poor family in the Midwest Court. On the contrary, Daisy, the girl that he loved always lived a luxuriant life since she was
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