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although he has extravagant parties frequently and there are so many rich and famous people from all around the world come to take part in his parties and even they are proud of having seen him once. But the only thing he really wants to achieve is to regain the past when he is in love with Daisy, and this is the symbol of his American Dream, too. （Zheng Chenggong, 2002,3: 5）
Gatsby’s attempt to achieve his American Dream which is to recapture the love of Daisy Buchanan whom he had known five years before the action of the novel begins, when he is a young and poor officer in the United States army and Daisy is a young unmarried woman, who used to live a luxuriant life with much money and great fame. And the only way should Gatsby make his American Dream come true is to get a lot of money which is much difficulty for a normal soldier to earn. He does all the things Daisy asks him to do. And nobody can do this out of reason. In order to win Daisy, Gatsby dare to have illegal trade of alcohol to make a fortune, because he clearly knows that he must offer Daisy a better life which is luxuriant if he wants to win Daisy. Through his great effort, he gets much money authentically although it is from illegal business.
Gatsby's success in fortune is great, his strong will of love and achieving life goal is also great; he becomes the big name of the society, and becomes the upper class's deputy. Everyone is glad to come to his party, everyone admires his property, and everyone wants to be his friend, even Daisy has taken much notice of him and falls in love with him again. Gatsby is also great when he loses his life in order to protect Daisy from the accident.
However, the falling of his American Dream, that Daisy goes together with her husband to another city happily while Gatsby is murdered mistakenly, improves that all his great characterizes means nothing. In other words, Gatsby’s final American Dream, which is to win Daisy, is totally a failure.（杨慧群, 2002, 5: 3）
Furthermore, when Gatsby died, no one turns up for his funeral, though hundreds of people have eaten at his place. It is a sad comment on human nature that when a man dies, he is alone, absolutely alone. The only things that accompany him are his good deeds especially those done spontaneously and without expectations. And the saddest thing is that Daisy, doesn’t feel any regret or sorrow for Gatsby’s death, has gone traveling with his husband Tom. There is nothing left for Gatsby. All the things of his life have gone with his death, including his wealth and love.
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From the above analysis of Gatsby’s American Dream, there is a conclusion that whatever it is broken or not, Gatsby’s American Dream is to get as much money as he can even through every illegal means, and then he can have the economical strength to achieve his final goal——win the love of Daisy.
2. Gatsby’s Efforts in Achieving his American Dream
Gatsby was born in a poor family in the Middle West, but when he is a boy he has an ambition to win wealth and position depending on his intelligence and diligence. During the time of serving in the army, Gatsby is in love with Daisy who is in a big and rich family. And in his eyes, Daisy’s living style and her beauty are the very ideal incarnation③ that Gatsby is dreaming of. But the relationship between them are not possible, because he doesn’t have enough money to afford Daisy a luxuriant life, and later on Daisy gets married with the rich and influential Tom Buchanan. Gatsby believes that it is money which makes her leave him, so he determines to be rich. After several years’ self-imposed hardships, Gatsby become wealthy and successful by illegal operations, and his faithful belief in ideal love which is the symbol his American Dream.
When he could get the admission with the help of money, he buys a villa standing for wealth and in the opposite site of Daisy's mansion; also it's a kind of silence call of Daisy. He holds grand banquet in his villa day and night to attract Daisy to come and intends to regain their past loving days, and succeeds in retrieving Daisy's love again. From the luxuriant ball, people could see the luxury and squander of Gatsby's life. People from all around the world come to his house. They are drinking, singing and dancing, and they come for fun, for enjoyment. But most of them don't know why the party is held; some of them even don't know who the host is. And Gatsby is a mystery. However, Daisy in his heart is only an illusion and is as superficial as others in her ranking and she will never give up her simple-minded but elegant, and settled life for the ideal love.
For such an American Dream, Gatsby spares no effort in achieving it. He not only tries every possible means including illegal trade of alcohol to make a fortune, but also catches every chance to meet with Daisy, speaks out his feeling to her, tries his best to make Daisy believe in his love for her and gives Daisy everything he can. But while Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and a friend of Daisy have a talk in the hotel of London, and Daisy,
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who drives Gatsby's car, encounters a car accident and kills Tom's lover----Myrtle, Gatsby’s American Dream begins to fall down. After the accident, Daisy and Tom travels abroad for shelter. Myrtle's husband learns that the car belongs to Gatsby, and then he murders Gatsby. Then the story comes to an end with Gatsby's death. Gatsby has done a great effort for his love, but all his efforts turn out to be a failure.
C. Disillusionment of Gatsby’s American Dream
As Fitzgerald points out many obvious human traits----snobbery, excessive romanticism, carelessness of others' feelings, betrayal, and the shallow curiosity of other people's dramas, as well as the social discrepancies between the rich and the poor scornfully and with distaste. Different social statuses have different styles of life.（陈可, 2000, 2: 2）
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald describes and contrasts the difference between East and West Egg, shows the separation of the upper class and the lower class, and it provides some insight with the use of symbolism of color. Each of the four important geographical locations in the novel----West Egg, East Egg, the valley of ashes, and New York City----corresponds to a particular theme or type of character encountered in the story. West Egg like Gatsby, full of garish extravagance, symbolizing the emergence of the new rich alongside the established aristocracy of the 1920s. East Egg like the Buchanan, wealthy, possessing high social status, and powerful, symbolizing the old establishment and aristocracy that continue to dominate the American social landscape. The valley of ashes is like George Wilson, desolate, desperate, and utterly without hope, symbolizing the moral decay of American society hidden by the glittering surface of upper-class extravagance. And people, who live in New York City, are the presentation of traditional English. Each of the four lives a different life from others, which they think is the perfect, because they have different points of view about living, wealth, and love. And they all lead a life style which belongs to them only.
Gatsby's spends his whole life in attaining money and status so that he can reach a certain position in life and then he can win Daisy back. That is what motivates him to move to West Egg, and makes money by any means necessary, holds extravagant parties in every weekend, does everything what Daisy requires him to do and so on. There is a
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position in life that he yearns for and will do all that it takes to achieve it, and the final goal for his American Dream is to get Daisy’s love.
Daisy and Tom on the other hand show how people can use their position to look down on others and live their life carelessly. As the narrator of The Great Gatsby Nick says about Daisy, \face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged\(Fitzgerald,1998,1:83) It is this superior mind set that allows Tom to cheat on his wife and allows him and Daisy to run away from the death of Myrtle. They don’t need to worry about such things because they are too good for it. And Nick sees it as a kind of carelessness. \smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness…… they can use their wealth and position to escape whatever they choose.‖ （Fitzgerald,1998,1:163 ）
By comparison, Gatsby and Daisy belong to different kinds of people, they have different backgrounds and life styles, and their social statuses are not the same at all. It is doomed to be a failure if Gatsby wants to be in love with Daisy, and live with her forever.
III. Analysis of Relationship Between Love and Money in Gatsby’s
American Dream
In the novel The Great Gatsby, in order to make his American Dream come true, Gatsby tries every possible means to make a fortune because he knows clearly that only if he has much money, at least more than Tom, he can win Daisy’s love. However, Gatsby’s American Dream is broken as a result although he has taken great pains to achieve it. And the disillusionment of Gatsby’s American Dream is greatly due to the relationship between love and money.
A. Relationship Between Love and Money in the Novel
In the novel, Daisy always lives a luxuriant life since she was born, and it has become a habit for her to anticipate a life of higher standard. It is hard to imagine that how she can stand a difficult life without money. But Gatsby is a poor soldier, if he
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doesn’t pretend to be a rich man with great wealth which can give Daisy a better life, Daisy would not have fallen in love with him at all five years ago. When Gatsby invites Daisy to have a look around his villa, Gatsby clearly knows that the real thing Daisy love is his wealth but not himself. Because while Jay Gatsby and Daisy reunite with the help of Nick Caraway, Jay Gatsby’s wealth immediately fascinates Daisy that she cries, ―it makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before‖(司各特·菲茨杰拉德(著),巫宁坤,唐建清(译), 1998,1: 254) And Gatsby himself also feels that Daisy’s voice is full of money when she sees such a beautiful villa, and she is so happy to touch the costly furniture in his room.
After having taken great pains to get money, Gatsby not only has so much money although it is from illegal business, he also becomes a famous man that many other rich people from all around the world have the wish to take part in his parties and make friend with him. In this case, Gatsby has had the economic strength to win Daisy’s love, and Daisy actually takes much notice of him, even fall in love with him again.
In a common sense, they should be together and live a better life which consists of love and money ever after.
However, things come to a break while Daisy and Tom drop a hint to the husband of Myter---Mr. Wellson, that the yellow car belongs to Gatsby after Gatsby has protected Daisy from the accident successfully, and in the early morning, Gatsby is murdered by Mr. Wellson mistakenly. In such a case, Daisy doesn’t feel any regret or sadness; instead she leaves for another city to have her honey month with his husband Tom. In Daisy’s eyes, the only thing she can see is money, the person who has more money will win her love easier. But Gatsby’s American Dream and all the things he takes great pains to achieve is to win Daisy’s love, so it is doomed to be a failure the time when his property doesn’t mean anything to Daisy.
According to the love between Gatsby and Daisy, it is easy to claim that wealth is the basis of love, and without money, there is no love.
B. Connection Between love and Money in Reality
Money is a kind of currency and a tool for exchange. The period without goods exchange is not long in the history, and such a period is just the most immature, and
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盖茨比美国梦的幻灭 - 透视现实生活中的爱情
