《了不起的蓋茨比》中由尼克的處事態(tài)度透視當時的社會形態(tài)

1、了不起的蓋茨比中由尼克的處事態(tài)度透視當時的社會形態(tài)an analysis of the realistic world fromnicks perspective in the great gatsbyabstract: f. scott fitzgerald is regarded as one of the finest and most successful novelist in the twentieth century america. he shows us that jazz age in his works. as the masterpiece, the great gat

2、sby stands for the supreme of novels in the twentieth century. it is a tragedy about a man named gatsby. he tried to achieve the success of material possessions for pursuing his love-daisy. however, in that historical background, gatsby failed to fulfill his dream because of that disillusionment wor

3、ld. he tried to be rich, even though he took an illegal way. finally although he became wealthy in material, he was abandoned by both his love and his wealth. we can get to know the story of gatsby following the narration of nick. readers must be impressive on the figure of “nick” for his life attit

4、ude and his life way in that kind of disordered world. and nick, in some way, is a successful character in that society compared with gatsby. analysis of that world from nicks perspective is meaningful and useful.key words: jazz world; disillusionment; material possessions; morality; nicks life atti

5、tude摘要： 菲茨杰拉德被譽為20世紀最成功的小說家之一。 他在他的作品中向我們展示了那個爵士音樂的時代。他的代表作了不起的蓋茨比是20世紀小說的巔峰之作。這部小說講述了一個叫蓋茨比的悲劇故事。 為了追求他的愛人，蓋茨比努力得到財富。然而他注定失敗，在那個幻想破滅的時代。蓋茨比為了成為富人，不惜使用違法的手段。最后，盡管他富有了，但也早已被他的愛人拋棄了。至此標志蓋茨比美國夢的破滅。整個小說是在人物尼克的敘述中展開的。讀者想必也對這一人物的處事態(tài)度印象很深。與蓋茨比相比，尼克的生活應是成功的，他懂得如何在那樣的時代保全自己再適當?shù)膸椭?。對尼克的人物分析是十分必要和有用的。關鍵字： 爵士時

6、代；幻想破滅；物質(zhì)財富；道德；尼克的處事態(tài)度contenti. introduction.1 a. an introduction to the author and his writing background.1 b. an introduction to the great gatsby.2ii. the analysis of the major characters.3 a. gatsby.3 b. daisy bushman .3 c. tom buchanan.4 d. george wilson.5 e. myrtle wilson.5iii. exploring of nic

7、ks role.6 a. an eye-witness to the story of gatsby .6 b. the link between the reader and gatsby.7 c. nicks reconstruction of events.7 d. a subjective account.7 e. a vague vision.8iv. disillusion of gatsbys american dream from nicks view8v. conclusion.10works cited.10an analysis of the realistic worl

8、d from nicks perspective in the great gatsbyi. introductiona. an introduction to the author-f. scott fitzgerald and his writing backgroundf. scott fitzgerald owns double characteristic. fitzgeralds literary creation has close relationship with his personal life. he was born into a st. paul middle-cl

9、ass family; he was not luck enough to enjoy material contentment. it was primarily due to his mothers family that fitzgerald could be thought as someone who was born into a high class family. so his familys position was very ambiguous; neither “aristocrats” nor “nobodies”. his family affected his at

10、titude towards the rich. he wrote to a friend, “i have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich. it has colored entire life and works.” and that attitude is reflected in his books enormously. it comes to a conclusion from fitzgerald life and his works that we can see the truth is that he l

11、ives in such an age of disillusionment, maybe he has no choice but to yield to the social situation. however, he is reluctant to do so, he tends to fight and strive for his perseverance and his dream. and he also wants to be successful in economy while realizing the essential and importance of moral

12、ity. in some way, f. scott fitzgerald is painful because of the situation that he is absorbed in. f. scott fitzgerald wants to get out of there while he has to give in to the reality. so how can he release his indignation? he does in his literary works. and among all his works, the great gatsby is t

13、he master piece.f. scott fitzgerald is doomed to create a characteristic like gatsby, because in fitzgeralds life, he meets a girl named zelda in the same way as gatsby meets daisy. in some way daisy is the embodiment of zelda. at the beginning, in order to win zeldas love, fitzgerald had to write f

14、or money to meet her material need. after they did get married, he worked even harder to support their expensive or even luxurious living style. however, zelda suffered from mental frustration and had to be put in the asylum to be treated, which needed more money. his last years were spent in illnes

15、s, alcohol, and personal instability. in 1940 he died of heart-attack. in the view of american history, the 20th century is a characteristic period, which stands for an age of disillusionment and reflects a common personality of the people in that moment. entering the 20th century, america turns out

16、 to be very enormous in economy among the world. such a society offers fair opportunity to those who want to be wealthy. so many common people like gatsby try their best to become rich in material, that is why the age is called “the gilded age” however, once one obtained the material possession, one

17、 also drowned in it and could not turn back so that he/she neglected the value and importance of morality gradually and unconsciously.b. an introduction to the great gatsby published in the year 1925, the great gatsby is undoubtedly an autobiographical novel, into which fitzgerald has written much o

18、f his personal experience with the upper class. the plot of the story is very simple. gatsby, a poor youth from the midwest, falls in love with daisy, an upper class lady. but due to his poverty, daisy leaves him and is married to a rich young man, tom buchanan. in order to win his lost love again,

19、gatsby tried his best to be rich though bootlegging and other illegal activities, thus earning enough money to buy a magnificent villa. from then on, he holds luxurious parties every weekend, hoping that this will attract daisy to join. through the arrangement of nick, a cousin of daisys and the nar

20、rator of the whole story, gatsby meets daisy again in his mansion and shows her his wealth and possessions in hopes that she will come back to him. but there is one thing that is gatsby ignores the changes appearing in the woman he once loved so much. daisy has changed. as a result, daisy does cry i

21、t is not because she is moved by gatsbys loyal and constant love for her, but because the shirt that gatsby wears is so beautiful that she never sees one before. eventually, tom and gatsby have a strong confrontation. tom exposes gatsbys low origins, while gatsby tells tom about his affair and how d

22、aisy does not love him. yet gatsby seems to demand too much; he wants daisy to admit that she never loved tom, but she fails him by using evasive words. the tragedy comes when gatsby takes daisy back to new york and allows her to drive in order to calm her nerves. when they pass wilsons garage, dais

23、y swerves to avoid another car and ends up hitting mytle, toms mistress, and kills her. gatsby refused nicks advice to leave the town until the situation calms, for he wants to make sure that daisy is safe. however, he cannot ever imagine that daisy and tom plot to shift the blame on gatsby. when ge

24、orge wilson, driven mad by his wifes death, goes to seek out the killer, tom buchanan points him towards gatsby. wilson shoots gatsby before committing suicide. gatsbys funeral makes the tragedy sadder. nick organizes the funeral, but finds that few have any concern for gatsby. the guests who come t

25、o eat and drink at his parties do not even turn up. much worse, the woman he loves and tries to protect has left the town with her husband to avoid responsibility. thoroughly disgusted with life in new york, nick decided to return to the mid-west.ii. the analysis of the major charactersa. gatsbynick

26、 is perhaps the only person who really comes to understand gatsby in the end. what make gatsby “great” to nick are not just the extravagance of his lifestyle and the fascinating enigma of his wealth, but his true personality; nick slowly realizes that gatsby, in his heart of hearts, doesnt care abou

27、t wealth, or social status, or any of the other petty things that plague everyone else in his shallow world. instead, gatsby is motivated by the finest and most foolish of emotions love. from this point of view, gatsbys love for daisy is what drives him to reinvent himself, rather than greed or true

28、 ambition, and at the end of the day, this unsullied, heartfelt goal puts gatsby ahead of the rest of the madding crowd. despite the fact that he attempted to fulfill his “incorruptible dream” through distasteful, sometimes dishonest means, we still emerge from this story profoundly sympathetic to h

29、im; he may have been a fool at times, but hes a fool for love. even though hes a self-created image built out of nothing, gatsbys emotional honesty, eternal optimism, and simplicity of heart ironically single him out as the only real person in a crowd of fakes as nick says, gatsby is “better than th

30、e whole damn bunch put together.”b. daisy bushman partially based on fitzgeralds wife, field, daisy is a beautiful young woman from louisville, kentucky. she is nicks cousin and the object of gatsbys love. as a young debutante in louisville, daisy was extremely popular among the military officers st

31、ationed near her home, including jay gatsby. gatsby lied about his background to daisy, claiming to be from a wealthy family in order to persuade her that he was worthy of her. eventually, gatsby won daisys heart, and they made love before gatsby left to fight in the war. daisy promised to wait for

32、gatsby, but in 1919 she chose instead to marry tom buchanan, a young man from a solid, aristocratic family who could promise her a wealthy lifestyle and who had the support of her parents.after 1919, gatsby dedicated himself to winning daisy back, making her the single goal of all of his dreams and

33、the main motivation behind his acquisition of immense wealth through criminal activity. to gatsby, daisy represents the paragon of perfectionshe has the advantages of charm, wealth, sophistication, grace, and aristocracy that he longed for as a child in north dakota and that first attracted him to h

34、er. in reality, however, daisy is not the short of gatsbys ideals at all. she is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. nick characterizes her as a careless person who smashes things up and then retreats behind her money. daisy proves her real nature when she chooses

35、tom over gatsby in chapter 7, then allows gatsby to take the blame for killing myrtle wilson even though she herself was driving the car. finally, rather than attended gatsbys funeral, daisy and tom moved away, leaving no forwarding address.like zelda fitzgerald, daisy is in love with money, ease, a

36、nd material luxury. she is capable of affection for example she seems genuinely fond of nick and occasionally seems to love gatsby sincerely), but not of sustained loyalty or care. she is indifferent even to her own infant daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought when she i

37、s introduced in chapter 7. in fitzgeralds conception of america in the 1920s, daisy represents the amoral values of the aristocratic east egg set.c. tom buchanantom buchanan is daisys husband, an extremely wealthy man, a bad man, and an athlete. hes selfish and does what he needs to get what he want

38、s. most of all, he seeks control of his life and control of others. when tom figures out that daisy loves gatsby, he forces a confrontation. he is then able to use daisys momentary hesitation to regain love of his wife. master of the situation once more, “he wont annoy you,” he tells her. “i think h

39、e realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over.” with that note of condescension, it is clear to all that tom has the upper hand. although gatsby maintains hope beyond this scene, we all know its over. but the quality of tom thats most likely to stick with you is the fact that hes a dang

40、er. while we never see him get violent with his wife, there are hints of his unbridled physicality when daisy reveals a bruise on her finger that, although accidental, was caused by tom (or the “brute” as she calls him). although he might not be physically abusive to his wife, tom certainly causes h

41、er some emotional damage. there is, of course, his series of affairs, but he hurts daisy in other ways, too. when daisy tells us about her daughter being born, she casually adds that “tom was god knows where.” he is neither attentive nor sensitive towards his wife especially in contrast to gatsby. b

42、ut, of course, toms violent streak really comes across when we see him break myrtles nose with the “short, deft movement” of his open hand. the curt language fitzgerald uses here makes it clear that such violence means little to tom. d. george wilsonpoor george. and, seeing as hes one of the few cha

43、racters without big flaws, it seems he doesnt really deserve it. from what we can tell, wilson is hard-working and not cheating on his wife. hes in a marriage with a woman who does not love him, but also cant respect him because of his poverty. despite all of this, wilson still blames himself for hi

44、s wifes death. the conversations between him and michaelis are simply agonizing to hear; george is clearly in terrible emotional pain. not only has his wife been killed, but he also found out just before her death that shed been having an affair. this “george feels guilty” theory gains some credibil

45、ity when he commits suicide after shooting gatsby. the other thing to note about wilson is that hes the only character who talks about god. he tells myrtle that she “cant fool god”, that “god sees everything.” again, he means for this to refer to her actions, but they implicitly comment on his own,

46、and may speak once again to his reasons for committing suicide. his comments are also a reminder of notable absence of religion from the upper class, the class that smashes up things and creatures and is then able to retreat back into money. e. myrtle wilsonwe get the feeling that myrtle wilson is n

47、ot an especially smart woman. strung along by tom, myrtle is convinced that he loves her and would leave his wife for her if he could. because she is unhappy in her marriage to george, myrtle is drawn to tom for certain specific reasons. george is passive, but tom is controlling and authoritative. m

48、yrtle puts up with toms physical abuse because she equates it with masculinity a quality that in her mind is lacking in her husband. she even yells at george, “throw me and down and beat me, you dirty little coward!” myrtle also adds to the novels themes of class and wealth. she insists that she mar

49、ried below her caste, that she believed certain things about george until they got married and it was too late. since myrtle is quite obviously below the buchanans class.iii. explor of nicks role nick carraway, the narrator, announces that he is writing his account two years after the events describ

50、ed. aged twenty-nine, in the spring of 1922 he travels east from his midwestern home to work as a bond salesman in new york. he has rented a house on west egg, sandwiched between the mansions along the shore of long island sound. he knows nobody except his distant cousin daisy buchanan, who lives wi

51、th her wealthy husband tom on east egg, across the bay. nick drives over to dinner with the couple, whom he has not seen in years, and their guest jordan baker. tom, an athletic polo player, betrays his boorish arrogance as he expounds a racist theory he has read. daisys magical voice compels nick f

52、orward to listen to her, but he suspects her sincerity when she says she is unhappy. in contrast, dark-haired jordan strikes nick with her jaunty self-assurance. at one point, nicks neighbor “gatsby” is mentioned and daisy catches the name in surprise. dinner is tense; jordan reveals that it is toms

53、 mistress telephoning him, and daisy appears to know. returning to west egg, nick first sees gatsby. as nick is about to call to him, gatsby stretches out both arms towards the water or the green dock light opposite; nick is mystified.in the great gatsby, fitzgerald presents the rise and fall of jay

54、 gatsby, as related in a first-person narrative by nick carraway. carraway reveals the story of a farmers son-turned racketeer, named jay gatz. nick is not a random choice; he was the best possible witness to let the reader discover gatsby. indeed, through coincidence, he happens to be gatsbys next-

55、door neighbor. besides, nick has not interest in gatsby. yet, without being acquainted with gatsby, nick is nonetheless a relative of daisy and consequently introduced to the buchanans and to gatsbys story.a. an eye-witness to the story of gatsbynick witnesses some of the events of gatsbys last summ

56、er and sometimes participates in them. he has two functions: seeing and acting. the emphasis is put on visual perception. the act of seeing creates mystery instead of providing information. a lot about gatsbys life is bound to remain unfathomable: there is more in gatsbys life than nicks eyes can me

57、et. nicks scope of vision is limited. yet, nick is a good observer and can draw his own conclusions. he can analyze gatsbys facial expressions and put a meaning on his gestures. see chapter 5 with the reunion between gatsby and daisy. he is sometimes over informed. when gatsby rushes into the kitchen, nick is made privy of his companions feelings. through nicks agency, the reader is provided with the real feelings of gatsby: this is a terrible mistake. this tends to suggest that fitzgerald tried to translate his character at the expense of his own experience.b. the link betw