An Analysis Of Themes In Tender Is The Night From The Perspective Of Neo-Marxist Criticism

Fitzgerald is one of the most important American writers. He regarded the1920s America as the Jazz Age,"It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of satire". People listened to Jazz, read popular novels, drank excessively, and advocated free sex. They were intoxicated with the life of debauchery. Fitzgerald vividly described the people of the Jazz Age in Tender Is the Night, which received great praise after his death.Many scholars analyzed this novel from lots of literary critical perspectives such as structuralism, deconstructionism, feminism, social psychology, and archetypal analysis, etc. Therefore, another different perspective, Neo-Marxist criticism especially the views of Georg Lukacs, is adopted in this paper to disclose the themes that Fitzgerald wants to express. This provides readers some new insights and helps readers to have a better understanding of this novel. This thesis concludes that this novel not only describes faithfully the reality of1920s and1930s America, but also seriously criticizes it. During that period, because of the commodification which the lower class adopted in achieving their dreams, and the unequal exchange of their dreams at the cost of losing their love, happiness, and career, their American dreams are doomed to be a failure.This paper includes five parts in all.Chapter one is the introduction part. The life story of Fitzgerald is mentioned in this part, together with some of his celebrated works. It also includes the introduction of Tender Is the Night.Chapter two sums up the study of this novel both at home and abroad, and states the importance of doing this paper.Chapter three makes a general introduction of Neo-Marxist criticism and the ideas of Lukacs on literature.Chapter four is the main body of this thesis. It gives an account of the two themes of this novel based on Neo-Marxist criticism:the commodification of people and the disillusionment of American dream.Chapter five is the conclusion part. It briefly analyzes the relationship between these two themes. What's more, based on the equivalent exchange theory, this paper concludes that the pursuing of American dream at that time will become a failure unavoidably.