born, so it was her habit to live a life with high quality. To Daisy, it was hard to imagine how she could stand a difficult life without money. But Gatsby was just a poor soldier. If he had not pretended to be a man with great wealth to win Daisy?s love, Daisy would not have fallen in love with him at all five years ago. In Gatsby?s view, he believed money could buy him love and happiness. With such thought in mind, he did everything in order to make money. In just a few years, through illegal trade of alcohol and other dishonest businesses, he made a fortune. A poor young man turned into someone with wealth. Gatsby?s success in fortune was great. To show off his wealth, Gatsby built a house in the old aristocratic style. In the huge and brilliant house, Gatsby would hold fabulous parties at the weekend, which people of status would be happy to attend. They admired his property and wanted to be friends of him.
It may seem as if Gatsby had made his fortune dream come true. However, he never succeeded in a real sense through his own hard work, courage, or his strong resolution. He just became rich by conducting illegal businesses, which defied the essence of the American dream.
3.2 Gatsby’s Pursuit of Love Dream
Another part of Gatsby?s dream is his dream of love. When he was a soldier in the Army, he fell in love with a rich girl Daisy. But he understood that he was not able to marry such a girl from a wealthy family and of higher social status. Daisy married Tom who had money and status though she did not love the man at all. Gatsby never stopped his love for Daisy; instead, he could not help recalling her, his first love.
The most significant to Gatsby was to repeat the past with Daisy day and night and to get the lost pure love. As soon as he had money, Gatsby started to be in chase of his love to repeat the past. To fulfill his love dream, the first thing he did was to buy a luxurious house in front of Daisy?s house across the bay. Then he held parties every weekend night to draw Daisy?s attention. He believed that Daisy may come over to his mansion one day. However, Daisy never turned up. So Gatsby asked Nick to invite Daisy to his house for a tea. At last he had a
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chance to express his love to Daisy and got Daisy back from Tom.
In the novel, his love to Daisy is true and pure. When he saw Daisy again, he was even speechless. After Gatsby reappeared with his wealth and his loyal love for her, she seemed to be touched and tried to resume her relationship with him, without any guilt to her husband. For Daisy, what she really wanted was not a romantic lover with no status, but a man who could give her a comfortable life and a respected social standing.
Gatsby did not change his mind of marrying Daisy even when he became an adult. Daisy was the first and the only woman whom he loved in his life. His love for Daisy kept him away from other women and “he would never so much as look at a friend?s wife.”(Fitzgerald, 1993:47) That?s the reason why “no girls would swoon backward on Gatsby at his parties.” (Fitzgerald, 1993:33) Gatsby had been so devoted to her. He loved her so much that he was simply blind of her essential defect—Daisy gave more concern to status and luxury life..
Gatsby?s dream of love was closely associated with his dream of money. He believed that the money could help him get everything, but he did not regard the pursuit of money as the ultimate goal. The reason that he was after money was just for his love dream. The dream of being rich and the dream of winning the love of Daisy are integrated. The former is a means and the latter is his ultimate goal, without which the former may never become true. Without money Gatsby and Daisy could never have the opportunity to rekindle old dreams. With a lot of money, Gatsby would be more confident in his pursuit of his love dream.
4. Disillusion of Gatsby’s American Dream
Jay Gatsby, the embodiment of the American dream，was doomed to fail because the American political ideals contradicted the actual existing social system．In the novel, Fitzgerald described and contrasted the difference between East and West Egg, showed the separation between the upper class and the lower class, Gatsby spent his whole life making money and winning status so that he
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could win Daisy back. That?s what motivated him to move to West Egg, and made money by any means. After that, he held extravagant parties every weekend, did what Daisy asked him to. Gatsby?s success in fortune was great. So was his strong will for love and to achieve his life goal. He finally became the upper class?s deputy. No matter how wonderful his parties were, he could not change his poor family background.
Gatsby did not know clearly what kind of girl Daisy was. What Daisy wanted was not love but a guarantee of comfort and wealth in life. Owing to his unrealistic dream, Gatsby ended up with tragedy. As for Gatsby?s death, it may seem that he deserved the punishment for what he did. Yet he sacrificed himself for Daisy who did not even turn up at his funeral. And the saddest thing was that Daisy, did not feel any regret or sorrow for Gatsby?s death, she went traveling with his husband Tom. There was nothing left for Gatsby. All the things he got have gone with his death, including his wealth and love. “Daisy goes together with her husband to another city happily while Gatsby is murdered mistakenly, improves that all his great characterize means nothing. In other words, Gatsby?s final American Dream, which is to win Daisy, is totally a failure.” (杨慧群, 2002:3)The shattering of his dream of love is a reflection of the breaking of American dream. Owing to his unrealistic dream, Gatsby ended up with tragedy.
Living in that age, Gatsby had in his mind the value orientation. He thought the American dream embodied the personal success or self-fulfillment for those hard-working people. His idea of success was measured by money, which was misleading. In his view, success was the glamour brought about by huge wealth. The American dream in his time was somewhat hollow for people were mainly after money. In this sense, Gatsby?s dream, just as the American dream, is just an illusion
4.1 Gatsby’s American Dream and His Illegal Activities
American dream is essentially a spirit to inspire people to make progress and it has a positive meaning. In 1920s, after the World War I, the American dream were decadent, corrupt, and the original hard work, frugality, temperance and
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other values were weak. America society came into the stage of monopoly capitalism. The American society developed rapidly with its economy booming. As Americans became money worshippers, they became greedy. Money was the only goal which they were striving for. So 1920s was a time without any belief, a time for lost generation, and a time of tragedies.
“America was going on the greatest, gaudiest spree in history and there was going to be plenty to tell about it. The whole golden boom was in the air—its splendid generosities, its outrageous corruptions and the tortuous death struggle of the old America in prohibition. In such a debauched social context, what the traditional American dream advocated to strive for success through hard work turned out to be futile. Gatsby was greatly influenced by the instruction of the traditional dream.”(陈卓, 2009:143) Yet, no matter how hard he worked to gain material success, Gatsby gained wealth through dishonest conduct. He involved himself in the illegal trade of wine, through which he made his fortune. In this sense, he did not follow the doctrines of American dream. He made his way into a world where nothing is more important than money, where moral integrity is sacrificed.
Fitzgerald presented before his readers the disillusion of American dream, which is seen as the synonym for money. With money as an important ingredient of the dream, it is quite natural that people may become greedy and crazy for money. The novel—The Great Gatsby may seem to be shallow with much description of parties and jazz in 1920s. However, by probing into the novel, it can be seen that the story is a social commentary on the corruption and the disillusive effect of materialism on various people. Gatsby is a typical example who turned from rug into riches with corrupted morality. But money was not his final goal. His final goal was to win the love of Daisy with his wealth.
4. 2 Gatsby’s American Dream and the Social Environment
The darkness and emptiness of the capitalist society account for the shattering of Gatsby?s American dream. When Gatsby was serving in the army,
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