Castle In The Air

F·Scott Fitzgerald, the famous American novelist in the 20th century, is known as the spokesman and laureate of the"Jazz Age"America, whose works give us an accurate picture of the aura of the American twenties. The Great Gatsby is thought to be his finest work. It is generally viewed among critics that it is a novel about the American society in the 1920s. It shows a contradictory mood and a sense of failure about the life of the Jazz Age Fitzgerald perceived. Through the glittering world of The Great Gatsby run the themes of moral waste and decay and the lack of personal responsibility which is characteristic of the Jazz Age. Living in this aura, Gatsby's fate is inevitably marked by the social ideologies.This thesis analyzes the roots of the disillusionment of Gatsby's dream from the social, historical and authorial perspectives. It is composed of three chapters, plus the introduction and the conclusion.The introduction summarizes the biographical background of Fitzgerald and the historical context. As the novel has been considered as a semi-autobiographical one, it is important to explore the author's biography from the social point of view and emphasize the connection between the author's biography and the novel. The introduction also gives a very brief review of the different studies that have been done to the novel and the structure of the thesis.In the first chapter, the discussion is mainly about the influence of the American dream on Gatsby. Gatsby lives in the time of the American dream and is influenced deeply by the dream. In this chapter, the writer of the thesis tries to illustrate the negative effect and corruption of the American dream in the modern society, and explore the origins and essence of Gatsby's dream. He works honestly and hard, but he does not get riches as what the values and ethics tell him; on the contrary, he succeeds in material wealth by the illegal means. Gatsby, a farmer's...