【标题】了不起的盖茨比中美国梦的幻灭 【作者】王 鹏 【关键词】菲茨杰拉德；了不起的盖茨比；美国梦；幻灭 【指导老师】段 庆 艳 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionThe introduction summarizes the biographical background of Fitzgerald and the historical context. As the novel has been considered as a semi-autobiographical one, it is important to explore the authors biography from the social point of view and emphasize the connection between the authors biography and the novel.In the first chapter, the writer of the thesis tries to illustrate the negative effect and corruption of the American dream in the modern society, and explore the essence of Gatsbys dream. Also it shows the negative effects of the American dream on morality and humanity. The second chapter analyzes self-destruction in Gatsbys dream. The analysis includes two aspects: the pursuit for the unworthy love, naivety and innocence in Gatsbys character. Gatsby believes the possibility of repeating the past and regain Daisy after he succeeds in material wealth, but has never come to see that he is never to be accepted into the exclusive club of the wealthy to which Daisy and Tom belong. Gatsby is eventually destroyed by himself. The third chapter explores the unequal social position in the cruel society. It is also one of the important reasons to push Gatsby towards the failure. On the surface, Gatsbys reunion with Daisy is glorious, but in fact, it is the beginning of Gatsbys end. The conflict between Tom and Gatsby is virtually a conflict between the two classes: the new rich and the established rich. The result of the conflict is Gatsbys death.A.Biographical BackgroundIn the history of American literature, there is probably no writer who is more identified within a decade than Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s. He so vividly captured the mood and manners of his age and successfully drew a portrait of the American twenties through his works that he is always remembered as the spokes-man and laureate of the Jazz Age. An important reason is that he lived the era and was an integral part of it. And he wrote into stories and novels his very experiences or his keen observations of the Jazz Age America.The story of the legendary Fitzgerald of the twenties usually begins with the picture of the newly married, handsome Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald dancing around or jumping into the fountain of the Plaza Hotel. This pastoral scene may be useful in reminding us that the Fitzgeralds were not native new Yorkers. Hhe was from the deep south, from Montgomery, Alabama. He was a Midwesterner.1 Edmund Wilson, one of Fitzgeralds closest literary friends, insisted on the important influence of St. Paul, Minnesota in determining the direction of his art and the growth of his sensibility. It is clear that many of his basic attitudes were defined by the upper middleclass financial and social position that he inherited.B. Social and Historical ContextThe decade of 1920s, particularly in America, had a sharply defined uniqueness than most recognized periods. World War I had left all European belligerents weary and numbed spiritually. America, however, not having been involved in the war for long, remained just as powerful as before. An economic boom marked the first few post-war years, and as people began receiving higher wages, there was a rash of spending on conveniences which advertisements stated people could not live without. Materialism spread rapidly throughout the country, and people became more greedy and self-obsessed. A flow of consumerism seemed to have swept away the pain and the shadow caused by the war. The American dream turned to be the dream of money, and wealth became the symbol of success. Yet the gap between the wealthy and the poor in society was still painfully obvious.Prosperous in economy as it was, many changes in spiritual and social values were taking.The attitude place in the 1920s, which seriously affected the younger. Young people turned their backs to the values against the experience of the time was also a backlash of their parents. Girls casualty and freedom in their relationships with man, which would be impossible for their Victorian mothers to imagine. A“revolution” took place in peoples attitudes towards moral and sex, which seemed to be encouraged by the popularity of the Freudian psychology by 1920. The pursuit for material fulfillment and sensual enjoyment became the dominance of young peoples life while they remained spiritually bankrupt. This kind of hedonism and“seize-the-day philosophy”2 is well illustrated in both This Side of Paradise(1920) and The Great Gatsby(1925). Fitzgerald summarizes the characteristics of the Jazz Age precisely in This Side of Paradise:“a generation grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought and all faith in man shaken.”3 And Tom and Daisy in The Great Gatsby portray perfectly the carefree, self-absorbed attitude of the time. The disillusionment of the American DreamA. The illusion of the American Dream