希望的微光在此燃起——析《了不起的盖茨比》中的美国梦的幻灭From here Spark of Hope Kindles: Analysis of the Disillusioned American Dream in The Great Gatsby开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

2. Literature Review2.1 Different comments on The Great Gatsby Maxwell Perkins was the one who read the initial drafts of The Great Gatsby, and this is what he said about Fitzgerald on Nov.20,1924, Gatsby is somewhat vague. The readers eye can never quite focus upon him. His outlines are dim. Now everything about Gatsby is more or less mystery, i.e, more or less vague, and this way be somewhat of an artistic intention, but I think it is mistaken. Couldnt he be physically described as distinctly as the others, and couldnt you add one or two characteristics like the use of that phrase, old sports--not verbal, but physical ones, perhaps.(11)First published by Scribners April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly, in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. The famous literary critic, H.L. Mencken still held a conservative comment on The Great Gatsby that this novel only told so simple a story that it couldnt cause peoples resonate(16).Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and became a part of American high school curricular and numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades. Today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title Great American Novel. T. S. Eliot, a famous poet, excellent dramatist and important literary critic, once told Fitzgerald that he had read The Great Gatsby for three times and considered it the first step forward American fiction had taken since Henry James (21). Murakami Haruki, the famous Japanese author of novels spoke highly of The Great Gatsby, he said Every time I read this book, I feel excited. I really want to share my thoughts towards The Great Gatsby with others.(2) He also said If I did not read The Great Gatsby. May be I can write different things or maybe just write nothing. (35) In 1988 the Modern Library editorial board voted it in the 20th centurys best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period.2.2 Disillusion of the American Dream Chen Zhuo said that wealth gained through dishonest labor, understandably, is unstable. Gatsby can become rich overnight and he may also go bankruptcy instantly. The corrupted means of wealth accumulated prescribes the corrupted the corrupted nature of his wealth, which is ramshackle, likely to collapse at any time. The spiritual aspect of Gatsbys American dream is no different from the material aspect in terms of its corrupted nature. The traditional American dream, apart from the individual pursuit of happiness, also emphasizes personal responsibility for the public happiness. With both the material aspect and the spiritual aspect corrupted, Gatsbys American dream is inevitably doomed. Furthermore, Gatsby is merely a typical representative of the thousands of Americans in 1920s. Through the archetypal story of Gatsby, Fitzgerald tells us the distorted and perverted American dream in 1920s is doomed a disillusionment. The tragedy of Gatsby is in fact the tragedy of the American dream. The ultimate death of Gatsby, in fact, prescribes the ultimate disillusionment of the American dream(15).Ding Jianguo analyzed that in the beginning, the dream of Gatsby was rooted in the American Dream with his words that he inherited all the possession of the puritans in the colonial time. By setting the date September 12th, 1906 which was the wrong time for the American Dream to realize, Fitzgerald tried to be ironic with Gatsby. When we see the disillusion of Gatsby in the novel, we know what it really means to be anachronistic. In the time Gatsby lived, the American Dream became a cultural myth and already lost its economic and social foundation with the time of the pioneer and Benjamin Franklin left behind in history(34).2.3 New hope of the American dream William C. Perkins noted that in this beautiful novel, the author gives accurate and profound description on protagonist Gatsbys dream, the perceptual language description and implicit vocabulary has reached a new height, so that the reader can think the crazy history years of the first World War. Although American Dream of Equality and everyone can succeed is disillusioned in this novel, a new generation of immigrants in the United States is trying to fought a good and their real American Dream(28). Elizabeth Boling stated that in appearance, the American Dream depicted in Fitzgeralds work always ends with disillusion. But like what it shows in how the American Dream becomes in future, the spirit that nourished the American Dream is absent but not dead as the hope that Fitzgerald put on the spirit of the struggle for realization of the American Dream(2).The last sentence of The Great Gatsby said that so we beat on, boast against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past which indicate the new hope of life and the American Dream .

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

3. Methods and Significance of the StudyThis thesis will have a penetrative study on the disillusionment of the American dream and the new hope in The Great Gatsby. I have first of all read the Chinese version. In this way, a shorter period of time is needed for getting familiar with the content of the novel. Another modernized tool---Internet also does me a great favor, providing me with abundant background information. What is more, other study methods, such as documentation, comparative method and analytic induction, will applied into paper writing. In addition, my supervisor helps me a lot with this thesis. She constantly gives some grammatical suggestions. Reading books, taking notes, turning to the Internet and the libraries, and discussing with my supervisor are the main process of this study. The thesis consists of four parts. The first part will primarily provide the background information, including a general introduction of the author and the novel The Great Gatsby and the brief introduction of the American Dream. The second part is the focus of the thesis. In this part, the study will focus on analyzing the disillusion of the American Dream and new hope of the America society. Part three will talk about something that related to the New American Dream. Part four will draw a conclusion.