Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
作
者
介
绍
：
不
重
要
1.
出
身
：
F. S. Fitzgerald was born in Minnesota but raised in New York . He was born into an upper-class family and
attended Princeton University; he did not complete his degree due to a personal crisis that made him abandon
studies and join the army in 1917 (remember, WWI was 1914-18). While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda,
2.
第
⼀
本
⼩
说
：
his future wife, a girl from a very rich family that only accepted to marry him once he obtained
success with his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1919). Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned
(1921), was also very successful;
3.
标
志
性
作
品
and his collection of short stories Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) made him an iconic figure in New
York (Fitzgerald is credited to have coined the term “jazz age”).
4.
悲
惨
后
半
⽣
In the 1924, the Fitzgeralds moved to Paris, where he became close friends with Ernst Hemingway. In
1925 Francis S. Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby (1925) and, despite a good critical reception (T. S. Eliot
praised the book, for example) it was a
本
书
⼀
开
始
的
价
值
：
commercial failure during Fitzgerald’s lifetime.
After returning from Paris in 1927, Fitzgerald tried to survive financially by publishing short stories and working
in the Hollywood film industry (his most important period in Hollywood was 1937-39), but he had severe issues of
alcoholism
酗
酒
and his wife Zelda suffered from permanent mental illness
精
神
病
. They went through very hard
times in the 1930s. Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in 1940, at the age of 44.
时
代
背
景
：
To more about this period of American history, see original materials here:
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-great-gatsby-by-f-scott-fitzgerald
https://youtu.be/EVPzyRjCBiA (Context: America in the 1920s, this is a great video that overviews the historical
background of The Great Gatsby)
⼋
个
⽅
⾯
“
暗
⿊
性
”
：
Impact of WAR I
Failure of Prohibition Tavern Development
New class brought by Prohibition
Women's Emancipation
Decadence under decadence Crime and corruption under Prohibition
The Rise of Advertising
The Age of the Automobile
Predicted the Great Depression
1. WAR I
的
影
响
2.
禁
酒
令
失
败
酒
馆
发
展
3.
禁
酒
令
带
来
的
新
阶
层
4.
妇
⼥
解
放
5.
颓
废
下
的
腐
朽
禁
酒
令
下
的
犯
罪
和
腐
败
6.
⼴
告
的
兴
起
7.
汽
⻋
时
代
8.
预
⾔
了
经
济
⼤
萧
条
character
Who’s Nick Carraway, the narrator?
介
绍
⼀
下
narrator
●Origins. From Minnesota.
●Family history. Hardware family business.
●Education and work. Yale (an Ivy League university).
●Life in New York. Works in New York, he’s neighbor to Gatsby.
Nick has rented a house in West Egg. He first goes to visit his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom, in East Egg. There, he
also meets Jordan Baker. How’s his experience dealing with this people?
✔
Daisy.
✔
Tom. He has a lover, Martyln.
✔
Jordan Baker. She plays golf.
1. Narrator& protagonist
：
Although Nick Carraway is the narrator of The Great Gatsby, and we only see things he
witnesses or is told about, Jay Gatsby is the protagonist of the novel. In addition to lending his name to the book’s
title , Gatsby also serves as the novel’s focal point.
2.
核
⼼
：
Gatsby’s central aim through the novel is to see Daisy again and recaptured their shared past.
盖
茨
⽐
在
⼩
说
中
的
核
⼼
⽬
标
是
再
次
⻅
到
黛
⻄
，
重
温
他
们
共
同
的
过
去
。
The most powerful antagonist is time itself, which
prevents Gatsby from recapturing what he lost.
最
强
⼤
的
对
⽴
⾯
是
时
间
本
身
，
它
阻
⽌
盖
茨
⽐
夺
回
他
失
去
的
东
⻄
。
3. Gatsby tells Nick one version of his life story. Many of the stories Gatsby tells about himself turn out to be lies or
half-truths. The fantastic nature of his stories gives Gatsby’s history a mythical quality, which reinforces the sense
of him as a tragic hero.
盖
茨
⽐
向
尼
克
讲
述
了
他
的
⼀
个
版
本
的
⼈
⽣
故
事
。
盖
茨
⽐
讲
述
的
许
多
关
于
⾃
⼰
的
故
事
都
变
成
了
谎
⾔
或
半
真
半
假
。
他
的
故
事
的
奇
妙
性
质
使
盖
茨
⽐
的
历
史
具
有
神
话
般
的
品
质
，
这
加
强
了
他
作
为
⼀
个
悲
剧
性
英
雄
的
感
觉
。
4.
⼀
系
列
事
情
：
Gatsby’s quest to win back Daisy incites all the action of the book , as well as the tragic conclusion.
Unlike Nick, who seems to not know what he wants, or else to not want more than to be an observer
尼
克
只
是
作
为
⼀
个
旁
观
者
, Gatsby is clear and determined
⽬
标
清
晰
坚
定
about his goal.
1)
契
机
：
From the moment he first kissed Daisy, Gatsby has aspired to attain her. This aspiration drives all
his subsequent choices, and those choices in turn affect the other characters in the novel.
2)
事
件
：
Mildred’s death, George’s suicide , and Gatsby’s murder are all the result of Gatsby’s quest to
have Daisy for himself. Tom, Daisy, and Nick’s decisions to leave the east are also caused by Gatsby’s
actions.
3)
结
局
：
Despite his power to change his life and the lives of others, Gatsby fails to attain his goal. He
dies without having won Daisy back from Tom. In fact, we can infer that Gatsby’s presence
出
现
in their
lives served to draw the couple closer together – the exact opposite of what Gatsby wanted.
出
现
了
和
他
意
愿
相
反
的
结
局
：
夫
妻
双
⽅
更
亲
近
了
空
间
的
重
要
性
Symbolic importance of two spaces :
West Egg vs. East Egg ( fictional name s for Great Neck and Manhasset Neck , respectively, two areas separated by Manhasset
bay ):
被
曼
哈
顿
分
开
Besides West Egg and East Egg, there are two additional spaces :
1) The valley of ashes.
1. what
：
First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long
stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes.
⼀
⻓
段
由
⼯
业
灰
烬
倾
倒
造
成
的
荒
凉
⼟
地
组
成
2. how
：
It represents the moral and social decay
道
德
和
社
会
的
堕
落
that results from the uninhibited pursuit of
wealth
对
财
富
⽆
⽌
境
的
追
求
, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The
valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight
困
境
of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes
and lose their vitalit
动
⼒
as a result.
2) New York City.
The green light:
1.
地
理
位
置
：
Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock
码
头
and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn
草
坪
2.
象
征
性
：
the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future
希
望
和
梦
. Gatsby associates it with
Daisy,
3.
具
体
象
征
理
想
：
in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal.
指
导
他
在
⿊
暗
中
前
进
Because Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream
追
求
daisy
和
美
国
梦
有
关
, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal
更
普
遍
的
理
想
.
4.
具
体
象
征
早
期
殖
⺠
眼
中
的
美
国
：
In Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the
ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.
⽚
段
节
选
：
Chapter 1
叙
述
者
“Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book , was exempt from my reaction — Gatsby who represented
everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was
something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those
intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby
impressionability which is dignified under the name of the " creative temperament " — it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a
