Abstract

The Great Gatsby is considered as one of the famous American novelist F.Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. With the publishment of the novel, F.Scott Fitzgerald established his position in American literary history and he became the spokesman of ‘The Jazz Age’ in 1920s and one of the representative writers of ‘the Lost Generation’. The novel was on the background of the 10 years between the year 1919 after the first World War and the year 1929 before the American economic crisis, which was called‘The Jazz Age’, and it was finished in 1925. During this period, the American capitalism got thriving development and the America entered the period of industrialization rapidly. Meanwhile, the American economy got unprecedented prosperity. However, with the rapid development of the economy and people enjoyed the subsequent prosperity, hedonism was very popular featured pursuing money blindly and spending money like water. One reason accounting for the tragedy love ending of the main character Gatsby in the novel is that his persistent faith of love and his wrong concept that money can buy love for him. At the same time, his tragedy is the natural product of the age and society, when and where people pursue money and draw water to others’ mill and try all sorts of tricks to gain wealth without considering about traditional virtues. There are many factors resulting in his tragedy, the background that Gatsby lives, his ‘American dream’ and his personality, which will be deeply analyzed from above factors in the dissertation.  

Keywords: Gatsby; background; tragedy; the factors

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction1

2.Introduction of the Novel and the Writer2

2.1The summary of the Great Gatsby2

2.2 The life of F.Scott Fitzgerald3

3.Background Information of the Novel4

3.1 The social background of The Jazz Age 4

3.2 The introduction of the American Dream.5

4. The Reasons on Gatsby’s tragic Fate.6

4.1 Analyze the factors of society6

4.2Analyze the factors of Gatsby’s illusion7

4.3 Analyze the factors of Gatsby’s personality.9 

5. Conclusion10

References.12