了不起的盖茨比书评英文

2024年6月8日发(作者：)

了不起的盖茨比书评英文

了不起的盖茨比书评英

文篇一

《了不起的盖茨比 英文书评》

The Great Gatsby

Reading experience：

I start to read the book about 3

weeks ago ,At first, I searched some

information about the author from the

Internet, then glanced the basic content

of novel, When I read the several

chapters ahead of the novel, I feel it was

so boring , the complex relationship

would kill me. When I nearly finished the

novel, everything was suddenly

enlightened.

Information about this novel：

The novel is told us the story of

Gatsby by Nick’s tone. Nick came to New

York from his hometown the America

Middle West, and he rent a small house

nearby Gatsby’s luxurious mansion

where hold a grand banquet every night.

The story began with the meet

between Nick and Gatsby. And Nick had

an exploratory interest to Gatsby and

understood that there was a lost love in

Gatsby’s deep heart. Gatsby and Daisy

loved each other when Gatsby was young,

but because of Gatsby’s poor family they

were broken up. Then G. joined the First

World War. While Daisy was married to

Tom who was a rich dandy, but her

marriage was not happy because Tom had

a mistress. Therefore, the material

couldn’t satisfy her spiritual empty.

Gatsby was very painful and he

believed that Daisy betrayed the pure

heart for the money, so he resolved to be

a man of wealth and a few years later he

managed it. What’s more, in the

opposite direction of Daisy’s house

Gatsby built a mansion. In order to attract

Daisy and aroused the lost love, Gatsby

spent money like water.

Nick was moved by Gatsby’s passion

of love, so he visited to his young female

cousin Daisy and told her Gatsby’s mind.

Then Gatsby made date with Daisy, often.

Finally, Gatsby found Daisy’s vanity,

vulgar and selfish. Gatsby’s pink dream

finally broke up, but he still insisted it,

still retained any illusion about Daisy, and

even led to his tragedies.

One day Daisy was in a drunken

driving Gatsby’s car ran over and caused

an accident that killed Tom’s mistress,

and she planned a plot with Tom to put

the crime to Gatsby. It led to the

mistress’ husband shot Gatsby. Gatsby

died, only his father and Nick attended

the funeral.

Nick witnessed the virtual mood of

human reality. At the end, Nick backed to

his hometown with a tragedy mood.

Introduction of the author：

The Great Gatsby is written by F.

Scott Fitzgerald, who was born in1896

and died in Hollywood in 1940, and grew

up in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the most

important representative of the “Jazz

Age”. He published the novel Tender is

the Night, Paradise, the Last Tycoon and

so on; and published over 160 short

novels, for instance, Benjamin’s Fantasy

Trip, Ice Palace, Winter Dream and so on.

The twentieth century, the United States

academic community selected 100 the

best novels in the river of English

literature. The Great Gatsby and Tender is

the Night are the list. And The Great

Gatsby is second. He first published The

Great Gatsby on April 10, 1925, a story set

in Island’s North Shore and New York

City during the summer of 1922.

Impression on the novel:

After reading the novel, I was deeply

shocked by Gatsby’s persistence,dream,

and his miserable ending,and impressed

more about the “Jazz Age”.In American

history, maybe“ it was the best of times,

it was the worst of times, we had

everything before us, we had nothing

before us, we were all going direct to

Heaven, we were all going direct the

other way”.

The Gates ratio is the 20's

models American youth,he was young

and full of passion to realize all his

dreams ,which could have been a perfect

character in any r, he was

poor,and this,which made him become a

tragic character, also was the focus in that

age-“Jazz Age”. Gates compares in order

to pursue the black eyebrow coloring

alizarin red to exhaust own sentiment

and the ability and wisdom, finally ruined

own life. “There was a faint,barely

perceptible movement of the water as

the fresh flow from one end urged its way

toward the drain at the other .With little

ripples that was hardly the shadows of

waves ,the laden mattress moved

irregularly down the pool.” A hopeless

ending indicates that the most beautiful

dream in that age was eventually

destroyed by the reality,the

can clearly know that Daisy did

not choose Gatsby although he had

become much more affluent than

Tom ,but choose her previous life-living

with Tom,it may be a bad choise,but it

was really the decision made by Daisy

herself,a selfish, disingenuous and vain

girl,the girl which Gastby always loved

and was willing to pay everything he has

for ,even she betrayed more than

once,and this can be inferred when

Gastby showed his love and she

hesitated.

Shutting the book,I am deep in

author tries to describe the

social,

the so-called up class ,the so-called

prosperous country,and certainly the

shattered"the American

dream".In my opinion,the author

not only wants to attack the luxury and

hypocrisy of the classes,but also to appeal

to people to pursue true love,not the

greed of money and

hypocrisy,although this book has a

desperate ending.

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇二

《了不起的盖茨比英文读后感》

The Great Gatsby

Mengyan Li, September 15, 2013

The film The Great Gatsby is on in

the cinema these days. I watched the film

last week and felt interested in the story.

So I decided to read the novel The Great

Gatsby. During one week, I just have read

the first half of the story.

The novel describes the break of

American dream of Gatsby who was an

upstart by selling wine in the 1920s,

which indicates the American

society's tragedy. On the surface,

The Great Gatsby is a story of the

frustrated love between Garsby and a

Daisy. But this novel actually wants to

criticize the situation of society at that

time. The novel is a classic fiction of hope

and disillusion.

The author describes the leading

character Gatsby through Nick’s eyes.

Nick Carraway is the novel’s narrator, a

young man who was a tolerant,

open-minded, quiet, and good listener.

And as a result, others tend to talk to him

and tell him their secrets. He is the

protagonist Gatsby’s neighbor and

Daisy’s cousin.

The protagonist Gatsby was born

into a poor family, but he had the great

ambition to achieve the fortune and ideal

happiness. All his ambitions and illusions

are for his lover, Daisy. And his lover Daisy

is the symbol of youth, money and rich,

the American dreamwhich is based on the

consistent pursuing of wealth. Gatsby

paid all his life to pursue the dream

though his lover had became the another

rich man’s wife. In my eyes, about love,

Gatsby is a pitiful guy. Every night he

looked the green light across the river,

missing his lover. Every Saturday night he

hold big parties, invited all the celebrities

to his big house, just want to attact Daisy

to come. He asked Nick’s for help, just

wanted to meet Daisy. His nervousness

and before meet Daisy makes me feel he

is a young guy who first meet his little

girlfriend. Aside all the other things, for

love, he is loyal through thick and thin.

That’s the point which makes me feel

pitiful about Gatsby and the tragedy.

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇三

《了不起的盖茨比 书评》

了不起的盖茨比 书评

作品背景是上世纪20年代的柯立芝

繁荣时期，期间美国经济达到了前所未

有的繁荣，在金钱至上的社会里，盖茨

比追求财富显符合当时美国民众的想

法，我想讲一下主人公的毁灭及他的爱

情。

其实，他只是个发了财的私酒贩，

却始终无依无靠、受着所谓上流阶层的

蔑视、排挤；黛西当然有对盖茨比动心，

也只不因为盖茨比能给他提供更多的物

质享受和精神慰藉，她的确有过与汤姆

分开的想法甚至勇气，但一听闻盖茨比

只是私酒贩而非她想象的地位之人时，

她吝啬的爱瞬间荡然无存。

盖茨比和黛西的爱情是建立在钱的

基础上，但这之间我看是没有爱的，或

顶多是单向。他自认用钱便可买到旧爱

的心。铁证是，为了掩盖自己的罪行，

黛西不念恩情，卑鄙地借刀杀死了盖茨

比。

黛西的价值观是遗忘了浪漫和纯

真，麻木寄生于金钱。盖茨比的毁灭与

其说是被子弹穿过，不如说是将理想寄

予错误的对象，最终成为被利用的玩物。

他身上能肯定的也就是他的了不起

之处就是能在那个物欲横流，拜金主义

之风盛行的时代还坚守着自己的理想—

—戴西。然而他在发迹前后对理想从未

动摇，从未改变。因此了不起之处就在

于与别人与众不同，他们愿意为现实而

牺牲理想。盖茨比则宁肯为理想而放弃

现实。

作者以小窥大，用悲剧的爱情折射

出美国梦的破灭，也隐晦地讽刺了上层

社会贪婪而腐朽的本质。一个在“美国

梦”里忠于理想、被欺骗利用而不自知

的小人物就是盖茨比。

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇四

《了不起的盖茨比书评》

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇五

《床头灯了不起的盖茨比的英文读

后感》

了不起的盖茨比

The narrator, Nick, begins the book

by giving us some advice of his father’s

about not criticizing others. Through

Nick’s eyes, we meet his second cousin,

Daisy, her large and aggressive husband,

Tom,and the Buchanans live

on the fashionable East Egg, Nick lives on

the less-elite but not-too-shabby West

are soon fascinated by a certain

Mr. Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and mysterious

man who owns a huge mansion next door

to Nick and spends a good chunk of his

evenings standing on his lawn and

looking at an equally mysterious green

light across the bay.

Tom takes Nick to the city to show

off his mistress, a woman named Myrtle

who is married has an affair with Tom.

Then,Nick meets and warily be friends

with Gatsby at one of his huge

reveals to Nick that he and

Daisy had a love thing before he went

away to the war and she married Tom.

Gatsby wants Daisy back. The plan is for

Nick to invite her over to

executes the plan; Gatsby and Daisy are

reunited and start an affair. Everything

continues swimmingly until Tom meets

Gatsby.

when Tom has it out with Gatsby

over who gets to be with the

party drives home to Long Island, Myrtle

is struck and killed by Gatsby’s car.

Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy was driving,

but that he’s going to take the blame for

it. Meanwhile, Tom tells George that

Gatsby killed his wife. So George shoots

and kills last,Daisy and Tom

take off. Nick concludes that our nostalgia,

our desire to replicate the past, forces us

constantly back into it.

But the author makes a masterly

opening move, compared to the girl

which is in love treats as Gates the youth,

the money and the status symbol, treats

as * the method pursue wealthy material

life "the American dream".

Gates compares in order to pursue the

black eyebrow coloring alizarin red to

exhaust own sentiment and the ability

and wisdom, finally ruined own life. He

naively thought that, Had the money to

be able to revive an old dream, redeems

the love which lost. He was what a pity

wrong. He looked at mistakenly black

eyebrow coloring alizarin red this vulgar

superficial woman. He looked at

mistakenly on the surface the debauchery

but the spiritual sky empty bored society.

He lives in the illusion, is gotten rid by the

black eyebrow coloring alizarin red, is

desolate for

the society, finally has cast the

tragedy which is unable to recall.

Gatsby is a poor young man from the

mid west. He fall in love with daisy, a

wealthy and beautiful girl. But he is too

poor to marry her. After that daisy

married to a rich man, tom.. In order to

get her love back, he tried his best, and

did something illegal. At last, he became

rich and bought a luxurious villa. He had

parties every weekend to attract daisy to

come. Finally she came and Gatsby meet

her. But he found the girl was not the

daisy in his dream. Gatsby had a sense of

loss. Then daisy killed a woman in a

traffic accident. Tom and daisy shift the

blame to Gatsby, and Gatsby was shot by

the woman’s husband.

From his life, we can see the life of

some Americans. First, they have a dream,

and they work very hard, but at last, they

have a sense of failure. In term of Gatsby,

love and daisy is all to him. He worked

hard to get wealthy for her. He did

something illegal for her. He staged party

for her. And even he died for her. Gatsby

insisted that daisy in his dream is a

beautiful

and innocent girl, and she will love

him forever, even he was poor, even she

married to Tom. But actually, daisy had

changed. She became foolish, selfish and

meretricious. She didn’t want to return

her love. Even she shifted the blame to

him. It is not worthy for Gatsby to love

her.

In my personal opinion, death may

be a perfect way for Gatsby to relieve.

The pure girl daisy was his entire dream.

But he found that daisy now is a foolish,

selfish and meretricious girl. She can’t

live with him, she hurt him and shift

blame to him. This is not equal to Gatsby.

First he thought that he live for her. But

she became such a girl he didn’t live. All

the dreams broke. There was nothing he

could live with. And his future life would

be boring and make no sense, because he

had no dream, no goal. The death is his

best way to get rid of all the sufferings.

The cause of this tragedy is，we can

see, is daisy. But as a matter of fact, it is

not just daisy’s fault. Mostly, the blame is

American society. We can see daisy like to

have a wealthy life and married to

tom, but may be most of the people will

do this, because most of the people hate

poverty and like to have rich life. And

after Gatsby’s death, no one would like

to attend the funeral. It is the society

cause the tragedy. In that society, the

people are all selfish. Another problem

the author want to describe is that the

people have no relief and no dream, and

they lead a life in vanity Even Gatsby,

such an ambitious man, excepting the

love of daisy, has no other dream. He has

a luxurious house, lives a rich life, and

attends descent party, but he doesn’t

know what he really wants except daisy.

It is a pity for him because once he find

daisy can’t return back, he will no place

to go.

Novel describe and buy to sell

through perfect art form wine

upstartAmerican dreamthat Gatsby

pursue unreal the twenties Kill , has

announced the tragedy of the American

society. Gatsby falls in love with Daisy

and departure is actually a very ordinary

love story. But the author makes skilful

opening moves, regard girl whom Gatsby

loved the symbols of the youth, money

and status deeply as, Regard U.S.A. as by

means to pursue rich material lifeDream

of". For pursue Gatsby Daisy

exhaust own emotion and ability and

intelligence, ruin one's own life. He

thought innocently : Can revive an old

dream after having money, redeem the

lost love. It's a pity , he is wrong. He

has misunderstood this one of Daisy

Vulgar and shallow woman . He has

misunderstood the boring society on the

surface dissipated and luxurious and

hollowly on spirit. Whether it live he the

dreamlike China, is abandoned by Daisy,

treats for the society coldly, Cast the

tragedy that can't retrieve at last.

Gatsby is the typical American youth

in the twenties. Experience of him

whether joyous song smile at portrayal

inknight's timesof dance.

Sweetheart Daisy of one's early

years such as Gatsby marry rich and life

dissolute Tom. For win Daisy,

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇六

《了不起的盖茨比读后感》

The Great Gatsby

The novel described for the

20's through the perfect artistic

form to sell "the American

dreamwhich liquor nouveau riche Gates

compared pursues

vanishing, has promulgated the

American society's tragedy. Gates

and bids good-bye compared to and the

black eyebrow coloring alizarin red love

originally is the very ordinary love story.

But the author makes a masterly

opening move, compared to the girl

which is in love treats as Gates the youth,

the money and the status symbol, treats

as * the method pursue wealthy material

life "the American dream".

Gates compares in order to pursue the

black eyebrow coloring alizarin red to

exhaust own sentiment and the ability

and wisdom, finally ruined own life. He

naively thought that, Had the money to

be able to revive an old dream, redeems

the love which lost. He was what a pity

wrong. He looked at mistakenly black

eyebrow coloring alizarin red this vulgar

superficial woman. He looked at

mistakenly on the surface the

debauchery but the spiritual sky

empty bored society. He lives in the

illusion, is gotten rid by the black

eyebrow coloring alizarin red, is desolate

for the society, finally has cast the tragedy

which is unable to recall. The Gates ratio

is the 20's models American youth.

His bitter experience is precisely the

happy song smiles the dance

"knight the timethe portrayal. The

author has designed for the novel

"the dual leading characterNick the

Carrow prestige. His

importance is not inferior to the

leading character Gates ratio in many

aspects. He not only is the story narration

and commentary, also is in the novel a

important personage. He both is having

the very complicated relations with

contradictory both sides. He is Gates

compared to neighbor and friend, also is

the black eyebrow coloring alizarin red

cousin, Tom's schoolmate, but also

is being in love black eyebrow coloring

alizarin red good friend Jordan. He acted

as Gates to compare after the black

eyebrow coloring alizarin red

distinguishes the go-between which 5

years remet, the sympathy which also

became which the Gates ratio to revive an

old dream the criticism and he suffers

kills. He although advances into to the

Long Island luxurious residential district,

but he already is not "wilderness

timewhich Tom represents inner world

citizen, also is not worships blindly the

black eyebrow coloring alizarin red which

Gates compares represents to be

separated from the reality the illusion

world fellow traveller. He represents the

American mid-west the traditional ideas

and the moral criterion. He happiness

illusion which loses compared to the

pursue has many critical criticisms

regarding Gates, regarding was fastidious

the

semblance but innermost feelings

vulgar Tom and the black eyebrow

coloring alizarin red has carried on fair

whipping. After Gates compared to dies,

former days guest did not make an

appearance, the black eyebrow coloring

alizarin red accompanied the husband to

depart by far, Nick pertinent had pointed

out society's false and the

heartlessness, caused the reader

compared to the

American dream necessity which

pursued to be disillusioned regarding

Gates had the profound impression.

中文：

小说通过完美的艺术形式描写了20

年代贩酒暴发户盖茨比所追求的“美国

梦”的幻

灭，揭示了美国社会的悲剧。

盖茨比与黛茜的恋爱和分手本来是

个很普通的爱情故事。但作者出手不凡，

把盖茨

比热恋的姑娘当作青春、金钱和地

位的象征，当作*手段追求富裕物质生活

的“美国

梦”。盖茨比为了追求黛茜耗尽了自

己的感情和才智，最后葬送掉自己的生

命。他天真

地以为：有了金钱就能重温旧梦，

赎回失去的爱情。可惜，他错了。他看

错了黛茜这个

粗俗浅薄的女人。他看错了表面上

灯红酒绿而精神上空虚无聊的社会。他

生活在梦幻之

中，被黛茜抛弃，为社会冷落，终

于铸成了无法挽回的悲剧。

盖茨比是20年代典型的美国青年。

他的遭遇正是欢歌笑舞的“爵士时代”

的写照。 作者为小说设计了一个“双重

主人公”尼克·卡罗威。他的重要性在

许多方面不亚 于主人公盖茨比。他既是

故事的叙述者和评论者，又是小说中一

个重要人物。他与矛盾

着的双方都有千丝万缕的关系。他

是盖茨比的邻居和朋友，又是黛茜的表

哥、汤姆的同

学，还热恋着黛茜的好友乔丹。他

充当了盖茨比和黛茜分别5年后重新见

面的牵线人，

又成为盖茨比重温旧梦的批评者和

他惨遭杀害的同情者。他虽然跻身于长

岛豪华的住宅

区，但他既不是汤姆所代表的“荒

原时代”的精神世界的公民，也不是盖

茨比所代表的

盲目崇拜黛茜的脱离现实的梦幻世

界的同路人。他代表美国中西部的传统

观念和道德准

则。他对于盖茨比追求失去的幸福

的梦幻有许多中肯的批评，对于讲究外

表而内心卑俗

的汤姆和黛茜则进行了公正的鞭

挞。盖茨比死后，昔日的宾客一个也不

露面，黛茜则陪

丈夫远远离去，尼克一针见血地指

出了社会的虚伪和无情，使读者对于盖

茨比所追求的

美国梦的必然破灭有了深刻的印

象。

小说采用第一人称的叙事手法，仿

佛书中发生的一切都是尼克的亲身见

闻，不加虚

饰，令人感到亲切可信。尼克和盖

茨比两人从陌生到认识，感情上既有距

离，又有融和，

富有多种层次的结合和区别，写得

脉络清晰，恰到好处。这种把不同的观

点巧妙地统一

在一部小说中，使作品具有深刻的

内涵和严密的结构，正是作者独特的艺

术成就。 作者在叙述中还运用了许多丰

富生动的比喻，使人物的感情起伏和场

景的变换增添

了抒情的色彩。精采的比喻常常被

用来渲染梦幻的气氛，表达精神的空虚。

如尼克初次

到汤姆家，看到黛茜和她女友贝克

坐在沙发上“活像浮在一个停泊在地面

上空的大气

球”，后来才“慢慢地降落地面”。

盖茨比在家里第一次与黛茜重逢时伸手

去抓她的手，

以一种创造性的热情投入了他的梦

幻。“不断添枝加叶，用飘来的每一根绚

丽的羽毛加

以缀饰”。这些梦幻是“牢牢地建立

在仙女的翅膀上的”。内涵深刻的比喻把

盖茨比对

“美国梦”的追求描绘得维妙维肖，

跃然纸上。

小说还运用了象征的手法来揭示人

物内心的活动与环境的冷酷。比如：西

卵码头尽

头有一盏绿灯，盖茨比常常在晚上

孤独地望着它，伸开双手想去拥抱它—

—那青春和爱

情的象征，仿佛是黛茜的化身。小

说末了，尼克又想起了盖茨比信奉这盏

绿灯，似乎近

在眼前，他几乎不可能抓不住，实

际上却可望而不可即，他的梦想已经远

远逝去了。又

如书中六次出现的“埃克尔堡大夫

的眼睛”是蓝色的，“若有所思，阴郁地

俯视这片阴

沉沉的灰堆”。它象征不幸和灾难。

在情节发展的关键之处，这双眼睛好像

复活了，它

仿佛看着盖茨比去跟汤姆摊牌，又

预见到威尔逊要去杀死盖茨比。浑身铜

臭的黛茜爱穿

白色的上衣和裙子，宛如纯洁可爱

的天使，其实她的灵魂污点斑斑。这象

征纯洁的白色

像一面洁白的镜子，把她的灵魂深

处暴露无余。盖茨比重温旧梦的幻想一

去不复返了。

作者用五光十色的音符谱出了一曲

凄怅的悲歌，给人留下无限的思索。

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇七

《了不起的盖茨比读后感》

Novel describe and buy to sell

through perfect art form wine

upstartAmerican dreamthat Gatsby

pursue unreal the twenties Kill , has

announced the tragedy of the American

society. Gatsby falls in love with Daisy

and departure is actually a very ordinary

love story. But the author makes skilful

opening moves, regard girl whom Gatsby

loved the symbols of the youth, money

and status deeply as, Regard U.S.A. as by

means to pursue rich material lifeDream

of". For pursue Gatsby Daisy

exhaust own emotion and ability and

intelligence, ruin one's own life. He

thought innocently : Can revive an old

dream after having money, redeem the

lost love. It's a pity , he is wrong. He

has misunderstood this one of Daisy

Vulgar and shallow woman . He has

misunderstood the boring society on the

surface dissipated and luxurious and

hollowly on spirit. Whether it live he the

dreamlike China, is abandoned by Daisy,

treats for the society coldly, Cast the

tragedy that can't retrieve at

is the typical American youth

in the twenties. Experience of him

whether joyous song smile at portrayal

inknight's timesof dance.

Sweetheart Daisy of one's early

years such as Gatsby marry rich and life

dissolute Tom. For win Daisy, by buy to

sell he wine accumulate first a large sum

of wealth again He thought innocently :

Can revive an old dream after having

money, redeem the lost love .But he fails

to gain Daisy's heart finally, has

exhausted one's own emotion and

ability and intelligence in order to pursue

Daisy, Ruin one's own life finally.

The illusion that Gatsby revived an old

dream has gone for ever. The author

composes a chilly and disappointed sad

melody with the multicoloured note,

leave somebody limitless thinking.

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇八

《菲茨杰拉德《了不起的盖茨比》

书评》

Name_____Date_ Fiction Title

Author __Write the new vocabulary

words you learned from this book.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

9. 10.

Setting: Tell about the time period

this book takes place.

Main Characters

_______

Conflict or Problem

Events

1. 2.

3.

4.

Write a short summary about the

book.

Conclusion

Fictional books always have main

characters: Describe one main character

in this book in detail. How did he/she

look, what age was he/she, what was

his/her personality like, etc.

Who is your favorite character?

Describe the character

What was the importance of this

character to the story?

Would you recommend this book to

a friend? Why or why not?

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇九

《了不起的盖茨比 读后感》

《了不起的盖茨比》是一部家喻户

晓的美国小说，这部小说和它的作者菲

茨杰拉德深深地影响了后来的一大批美

国小说家如海明威、塞林格、卡波特，

甚至连远隔重洋的日本当代小说家村上

春树也十分钟爱这部小说，他在自己的

小说中借主人公之言：“兴之所至，我便

习惯性地从书架中抽出《了不起的盖茨

比》，信手翻开一页，读上一段，一次都

没让我失望过，没有一页使人兴味索然。

何等妙不可言的杰作！”

《了不起的盖茨比》作为一部经典，

在写作技巧上自有其成功之处，结构紧

凑，文笔流畅，多运用象征手法，小说

随着尼克的叙述展开，既有旁观者超然

物外的姿态对现实讽刺批判，又能深入

到小说人物之间，感受他们的悲欢。仅

仅是文字和技巧方面的成就，就已让人

爱不释手。

而一部作品若想成为经典，只靠文

字和技巧上的成就是不够的，它必然要

在思想层面上具有人类共同拥有的“精

神内核”，从而无论是“爵士时代”还是

“网络时代”的人们都可以从阅读中有

所获得。

“美国梦”便是《了不起的盖茨比》

的精神内核。

“美国梦”起源于殖民时期，本杰

明•富兰克林曾提出关于追求个人主义，

通过自力更生获得幸福的信条。也就是

说，任何人，不论他的出身、种族及宗

教信仰如何，凭借勇气、勤奋及运气，

都能获得成功。 之所以称其为“美

国梦”，不过是刚踏上”新大陆”的欧洲

人，面对这片富饶的土地，相信他们的

梦想可以在这片广阔的土地上实现。实

际上，人人平等、公平竞争何尝不是人

类共有的梦想。

而《了不起的盖茨比》却给狂热追

求“美国梦”的人们泼了一盆冷水，“美

国梦”本身并不是菲茨杰拉德责难的对

象，菲茨杰拉德批判的是腐化堕落的“美

国梦”，是变质为不择手段，追求金钱、

追求恣意挥霍享乐的“美国梦”。

小说中尼克、盖茨比、汤姆和黛西

都意图从中西部到东部去实现他们的梦

想——对金钱、名誉、成功、刺激的追

求。黛西不会嫁给一个一文不名的男人，

她和汤姆的生活必须由豪华的房子、马

球、旅游和每天盘算着如何打发时光构

成；而盖茨比也只有在通过各种非法手

段赚到大笔的钱，住进海滨别墅，过上

一掷千金的生活之后，才感到自己有信

心去“赢”回黛西——他的“美国梦”。

正是对这种已然“物质化”了的梦

想的盲目追逐，使那个时代的人们陷入

了一种缺乏洞察力的状态——追求由金

钱、名誉堆砌的成功，却精神生活空虚，

外表的繁华难以掩盖空洞、虚伪的社会

风气。

盖茨比的悲剧在于他没有意识到他

一生追求的“美国梦”的虚伪性和无意

义性。作者在结尾也写到：“He had come

a long way to this blue lawn, and his

dream must have seemed so close that he

could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not

know that it was already behind him„”

盖茨比渴望用金钱赢回黛西的感情，但

却意识不到一个如黛西一般的拜金女子

已无真挚感情可言。对金钱的膜拜已使

当时社会的大多数人冷酷无情，盖茨比

生前宾客盈门，死后却无人参加葬礼，

这就是对当时社会风气最大的讽刺。在

这样一种社会风气中却痴情或纯情如盖

茨比者，只能有悲剧性的结局。而正是

因为盖茨不同于当时社会中的大多数

人，还拥有自己纯真的梦想，所以才被

菲茨杰拉德用“Great”来形容吧。

对梦想的追求是人类永恒的话题，

有人狂热追求名利，有人也会为人类平

等献出生命。而现实中梦想却极易物质

化，追求金钱和优越的物质生活显然比

追求人人平等、友爱有诱惑得多。但无

论是何种境界的追求，归根结蒂，我认

为还是追求精神方面的满足——这也是

人不同于动物的方面。纯物质的追求永

远不会给人深层次的满足，它只会使人

欲望不断膨胀，在追求中丧失对人对己

的洞察力，不知道自己真正需要的是什

么，把对物质的追求当作自己的全部追

求，结局只有更深重的失望。

《了不起的盖茨比》在叙述中不乏

伤感的基调，主题思想似乎与时代的进

取精神背道而驰，因此纵然是经典，也

断然算不上书店里的畅销书。但正是这

种冷眼旁观的文字，让人们在“积极进

取”的同时，不妨稍停片刻，对自己所

追求之物重新审视，不要在当前时代的

风气中迷失方向。

菲茨杰拉德自己也了然，他能做的

不过是一部小说，人类整体对物质的狂

热是无法停滞的。 用《了不起的盖

茨比》最后一句话作为结束，这也是刻

在菲茨杰拉德墓碑上的文字：

So we beat on, boats against the

current, borne back ceaselessly into the

past.

盖茨比最终凄凉死去，无人流泪，

无人哀悼。然而隔了半个多世纪，我们

仍在为盖茨比扼腕，我们追随着他，甚

至追随着码头对岸黛西家的那盏绿灯。

我们看着盖茨比梦的破灭的同时，也审

视了自己——到底什么才是我们的梦

想，到底怎样的梦想才不至于让我们倒

退？我们时时质问，却迟迟得不到回答。

或许每个人的心间，总是存在过这

样的一盏绿灯，我们为之痴迷神往，如

飞蛾扑火般的不顾一切。因为我们听到

了它的召唤，仿佛一只无形的手，牢牢

地抓住我们的命脉——唯有追逐，才得

永恒——不管这个梦想，是有着气吞山

河的盛大，还是小悲小喜的微末。我们

永不会知道结局如何，也无需记挂，就

好像盖茨比在跨出了第一步时，势必不

会因为第二步的不可知而畏首畏尾。再

是虚无的梦，即使存在就是一种幻灭，

我们亦是小心翼翼地呵护。但凡我们的

心说：“走吧，年轻人”，即使荆棘遍地，

我们也要跋山涉水，逆流而上。

菲茨杰拉德曾说：“法国是一片土

地，英国是一个民族，但是美国„„是

一颗赤子之心”我们从这颗赤子之心中

看尽哀乐人间，同时也暗暗滋生出自己

的梦想。在每一个晴朗的早晨，我们选

择张开双臂，看得更远，跑得更快„„

了不起的盖茨比书评英文篇十

《The Great Gatsby 了不起的盖茨

比》

The Great Gatsby

1. Key Facts

AUTHOR • F. Scott

Fitzgerald

GENRE • Modernist

novel (modernism), Jazz Age novel, novel

of manners

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN •

1923–1924, America and France

NARRATOR • Nick

Carraway; Carraway not only narrates the

story but implies that he is the book’s

author

POINT OF VIEW • Nick

Carraway narrates in both first and third

person, presenting only what he himself

observes. Nick alternates sections where

he presents events objectively, as they

appeared to him at the time, with

sections where he gives his own

interpretations of the story’s meaning

and of the motivations of the other

characters.

TONE • Nick’s

attitudes toward Gatsby and Gatsby’s

story are ambivalent and contradictory.

At times he seems to disapprove of

Gatsby’s excesses and breaches of

manners and ethics, but he also

romanticizes and admires Gatsby,

describing the events of the novel in a

nostalgic and elegiac tone.

SETTING (TIME) • Summer

1922

SETTINGS (PLACE) • Long Island

and New York City

-West Egg (where Gatsby and Nick

lived; the less fashionable; new rich)

- East Egg (where the Buchanans

lived, the fashionable; old money)

-The Valley of Ashes (where the

Wilsons lived, the desolate wasteland)

- New York City (where anything

went, money was made, bootleggers

flourished, parties and affairs came one

after another) PROTAGONIST(主角) •

Gatsby and/or Nick

MAJOR CONFLICT • Gatsby has

amassed a vast fortune in order to win

the affections of the upper-class Daisy

Buchanan, but his mysterious past stands

in the way of his being accepted by her.

RISING ACTION • Gatsby’s

lavish parties, Gatsby’s arrangement of a

meeting with Daisy at Nick’s

CLIMAX • There are

two possible climaxes: Gatsby’s reunion

with Daisy in Chapters 5–6; the

confrontation between Gatsby and Tom

in the Plaza Hotel in Chapter 7.

FALLING ACTION • Daisy’s

rejection of Gatsby, Myrtle’s death,

Gatsby’s murder

THEMES • The decline

of the American dream, the spirit of the

1920s, the difference between social

classes, the role of symbols in the human

conception of meaning, the role of the

past in dreams of the future

MOTIFS • The

connection between events and weather,

the connection between geographical

location and social values, images of time,

extravagant parties, the quest for wealth

SYMBOLS • The green

light on Daisy’s dock, the eyes of Doctor T.

J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes, Gatsby’s

parties, East Egg, West Egg

FORESHADOWING • The car

wreck after Gatsby’s party in Chapter 3,

Owl Eyes’s comments about the

theatricality of Gatsby’s life, the

mysterious telephone calls Gatsby

receives from Chicago and Philadelphia

STRUCTURE • using

flashback; combination of the past and

the present

2. Analysis of Major Characters

Jay Gatsby

The title character of The Great

Gatsby is a young man, around thirty

years old, who rose from an impoverished

childhood in rural North Dakota to

become fabulously wealthy. However, he

achieved this lofty goal by participating in

organized crime, including distributing

illegal alcohol and trading in stolen

securities. From his early youth, Gatsby

despised poverty and longed for wealth

and sophistication—he dropped out of St.

Olaf’s College after only two weeks

because he could not bear the janitorial

job with which he was paying his tuition.

Though Gatsby has always wanted to be

rich, his main motivation in acquiring his

fortune was his love for Daisy Buchanan,

whom he met as a young military officer

in Louisville before leaving to fight in

World War I in 1917. Gatsby immediately

fell in love with Daisy’s aura of luxury,

grace, and charm, and lied to her about

his own background in order to convince

her that he was good enough for her.

Daisy promised to wait for him when he

left for the war, but married Tom

Buchanan in 1919, while Gatsby was

studying at Oxford after the war in an

attempt to gain an education. From that

moment on, Gatsby dedicated himself to

winning Daisy back, and his acquisition of

millions of dollars, his purchase of a

gaudy mansion on West Egg, and his

lavish weekly parties are all merely

means to that end.

Fitzgerald delays the introduction of

most of this information until fairly late in

the novel. Gatsby’s reputation precedes

him—Gatsby himself does not appear in

a speaking role until Chapter III.

Fitzgerald initially presents Gatsby as the

aloof,

enigmatic host of the unbelievably

opulent parties thrown every week at his

mansion. He appears surrounded by

spectacular luxury, courted by powerful

men and beautiful women. He is the

subject of a whirlwind of gossip

throughout New York and is already a

kind of legendary celebrity before he is

ever introduced to the reader. Fitzgerald

propels the novel forward through the

early chapters by shrouding Gatsby’s

background and the source of his wealth

in mystery (the reader learns about

Gatsby’s childhood in Chapter VI and

receives definitive proof of his criminal

dealings in Chapter VII). As a result, the

reader’s first, distant impressions of

Gatsby strike quite a different note from

that of the lovesick, naive young man

who emerges during the later part of the

novel.

Fitzgerald uses this technique of

delayed character revelation to

emphasize the theatrical quality of

Gatsby’s approach to life, which is an

important part of his personality. Gatsby

has literally created his own character,

even changing his name from James Gatz

to Jay Gatsby to represent his reinvention

of himself. As his relentless quest for

Daisy demonstrates, Gatsby has an

extraordinary ability to transform his

hopes and dreams into reality; at the

beginning of the novel, he appears to the

reader just as he desires to appear to the

world. This talent for self-invention is

what gives Gatsby his quality of ―

greatness‖: indeed, the title ―The

Great Gatsby‖ is reminiscent of billings

for such vaudeville magicians as ―The

Great Houdini‖ and ―The Great

Blackstone,‖ suggesting that the

persona of Jay Gatsby is a masterful

illusion.

Gatsby believed in the green light,

the orgastic future that year by year

recedes before us.

As the novel progresses and

Fitzgerald deconstructs Gatsby’s

self-presentation, Gatsby reveals himself

to be an innocent, hopeful young man

who stakes everything on his dreams, not

realizing that his dreams are unworthy of

him. Gatsby invests Daisy with an

idealistic perfection that she cannot

possibly attain in reality and pursues her

with a passionate zeal that blinds him to

her limitations. His dream of her

disintegrates, revealing the corruption

that wealth causes and the unworthiness

of the goal, much in the way Fitzgerald

sees the American dream crumbling in

the 1920s, as America’s powerful

optimism, vitality, and individualism

become subordinated to the amoral

pursuit of wealth.

Gatsby is contrasted most

consistently with Nick. Critics point out

that the former, passionate and active,

and the latter, sober and reflective, seem

to represent two sides of Fitzgerald’s

personality. Additionally, whereas Tom is

a cold-hearted, aristocratic bully, Gatsby

is a loyal and good-hearted man. Though

his lifestyle and attitude differ greatly

from those of George Wilson, Gatsby and

Wilson share the fact that they both lose

their love interest to Tom.

Nick Carraway

If Gatsby represents one part of

Fitzgerald’s personality, the flashy

celebrity who pursued and glorified

wealth in order to impress the woman he

loved, then Nick represents another part:

the quiet, reflective Midwesterner adrift

in the lurid East. A young man (he turns

thirty during the course of the novel)

from Minnesota, Nick travels to New York

in 1922 to learn the bond business. He

lives in the West Egg district of Long

Island, next door to Gatsby. Nick is also

Daisy’s cousin, which enables him to

observe and assist the resurgent love

affair between Daisy and Gatsby. As a

result of his relationship to these two

characters, Nick is the perfect choice to

narrate the novel, which functions as a

personal memoir of his experiences with

Gatsby in the summer of 1922. Nick is

also well suited to narrating The Great

Gatsby because of his temperament. As

he tells the reader in Chapter I, he is

tolerant, open-minded, quiet, and a good

listener, and, as a result, others tend to

talk to him and tell him their secrets.

Gatsby, in particular, comes to trust him

and treat him as a confidant. Nick

generally assumes a secondary role

throughout the novel, preferring to

describe and comment on events rather

than dominate the action. Often, however,

he functions as Fitzgerald’s voice, as in

his extended meditation on time and the

American dream at the end of Chapter IX.

Insofar as Nick plays a role inside the

narrative, he evidences a strongly mixed

reaction to life on the East Coast, one that

creates a powerful internal conflict that

he does not resolve until the end of the

book. On the one hand, Nick is attracted

to the fast-paced, fun-driven lifestyle of

New York. On the other hand, he finds

that lifestyle grotesque and damaging.

This inner conflict is symbolized

throughout the book by Nick’s romantic

affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted to

her vivacity and her sophistication just as

he is repelled by her dishonesty and her

lack of consideration for other people.

Nick states that there is a ―quality

of distortion‖ to life in New York, and

this lifestyle makes him lose his

equilibrium, especially early in the novel,

as when he gets drunk at Gatsby’s party

in Chapter II. After witnessing the

unraveling of Gatsby’s dream and

presiding over the appalling spectacle of

Gatsby’s funeral, Nick realizes that the

fast life of revelry on the East Coast is a

cover for the terrifying moral emptiness

that the valley of ashes symbolizes.

Having gained the maturity that this

insight demonstrates, he returns to

Minnesota in search of a quieter life

structured by more traditional moral

values.

Daisy Buchanan

Partially based on Fitzgerald’s wife,

Zelda, Daisy is a beautiful young woman

from Louisville, Kentucky. She is Nick’s

cousin and the object of Gatsby’s love. As

a young debutante in Louisville, Daisy

was extremely popular among the

military officers

stationed near her home, including

Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lied about his

background to Daisy, claiming to be from

a wealthy family in order to convince her

that he was worthy of her. Eventually,

Gatsby won Daisy’s heart, and they made

love before Gatsby left to fight in the war.

Daisy promised to wait for Gatsby, but in

1919 she chose instead to marry Tom

Buchanan, a young man from a solid,

aristocratic family who could promise her

a wealthy lifestyle and who had the

support of her parents.

After 1919, Gatsby dedicated himself

to winning Daisy back, making her the

single goal of all of his dreams and the

main motivation behind his acquisition of

immense wealth through criminal activity.

To Gatsby, Daisy represents the paragon

of perfection—she has the aura of charm,

wealth, sophistication, grace, and

aristocracy that he longed for as a child in

North Dakota and that first attracted him

to her. In reality, however, Daisy falls far

short of Gatsby’s ideals. She is beautiful

and charming, but also fickle, shallow,

bored, and sardonic. Nick characterizes

her as a careless person who smashes

things up and then retreats behind her

money. Daisy proves her real nature

when she chooses Tom over Gatsby in

Chapter VII, then allows Gatsby to take

the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even

though she herself was driving the car.

Finally, rather than attend Gatsby’s

funeral, Daisy and Tom move away,

leaving no forwarding address.

Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love

with money, ease, and material luxury.

She is capable of affection (she seems

genuinely fond of Nick and occasionally

seems to love Gatsby sincerely), but not

of sustained loyalty or care. She is

indifferent even to her own infant

daughter, never discussing her and

treating her as an afterthought when she

is introduced in Chapter VII. In Fitzgerald’

s conception of America in the 1920s,

Daisy represents the amoral values of the

aristocratic East Egg set.

3. Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and

often universal ideas explored in a literary

work.

1) The Decline of the American

Dream in the 1920s

On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a

story of the thwarted love between a

man and a woman. The main theme of

the novel, however, encompasses a much

larger, less romantic scope. Though all of

its action takes place over a mere few

months during the summer of 1922 and is

set in a circumscribed geographical area

in the vicinity of Long Island, New York,

The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic

meditation on 1920s America as a whole,

in particular the disintegration of the

American dream in an era of

unprecedented prosperity and material

excess.

Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an

era of decayed social and moral values,

evidenced in its overarching cynicism,

greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The

reckless jubilance that led to decadent

parties and wild jazz music—epitomized

in The Great Gatsby by the opulent

parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday

night—resulted ultimately in the

corruption of the American dream, as the

unrestrained desire for money and

pleasure surpassed more noble goals.

When World War I ended in 1918, the

generation of young Americans who had

fought the war became intensely

disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that

they had just faced made the Victorian

social morality of early-twentieth-century

America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy.

The dizzying rise of the stock market in

the aftermath of the war led to a sudden,

sustained increase in the national wealth

and a newfound materialism, as people

began to spend and consume at

unprecedented levels. A person from any

social background could, potentially,

make a fortune, but the American

aristocracy—families with old wealth—

scorned the newly rich industrialists and

speculators. Additionally, the passage of

the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919,

which banned the sale of alcohol, created

a thriving underworld designed to satisfy

the massive demand for bootleg liquor

among rich and poor alike.

Fitzgerald positions the characters of

The Great Gatsby as emblems of these

social trends. Nick and Gatsby, both of

whom fought in World War I, exhibit the

newfound cosmopolitanism and cynicism

that resulted from the war. The various

social climbers and ambitious speculators

who attend Gatsby’s parties evidence the

greedy scramble for wealth. The clash

between ―old money‖ and ―new

money‖ manifests itself in the novel’s

symbolic geography: East Egg represents

the established aristocracy, West Egg the

self-made rich. Meyer Wolfshiem and

Gatsby’s fortune symbolize the rise of

organized crime and bootlegging.

As Fitzgerald saw it (and as Nick

explains in Chapter IX), the American

dream was originally about discovery,

individualism, and the pursuit of

happiness. In the 1920s depicted in the

novel, however, easy money and relaxed

social values have corrupted this dream,

especially on the East Coast. The main

plotline of the novel reflects this

assessment, as Gatsby’s dream of loving

Daisy is ruined by the difference in their

respective social statuses, his resorting to

crime to make enough money to impress

her, and the rampant materialism that

characterizes her lifestyle. Additionally,

places and objects in The Great Gatsby

have meaning only because characters

instill them with meaning: the eyes of

Doctor T. J. Eckleburg best exemplify this

idea. In Nick’s mind, the ability to create

meaningful symbols constitutes a central

component of the American dream, as

early Americans invested their new

nation with their own ideals and values.

Nick compares the green bulk of

America rising from the ocean to the

green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.

Just as

Americans have given America

meaning through their dreams for their

own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with a kind

of idealized perfection that she neither

deserves nor possesses. Gatsby’s dream

is ruined by the unworthiness of its object,

just as the American dream in the 1920s

is ruined by the unworthiness of its object

—money and pleasure. Like 1920s

Americans in general, fruitlessly seeking a

bygone era in which their dreams had

value, Gatsby longs to re-create a

vanished past—his time in Louisville with

Daisy—but is incapable of doing so.

When his dream crumbles, all that is left

for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is

move back to Minnesota, where

American values have not decayed.

2) The Hollowness of the Upper Class

One of the major topics explored in

The Great Gatsby is the sociology of

wealth, specifically, how the newly

minted millionaires of the 1920s differ

from and relate to the old aristocracy of

the country’s richest families. In the

novel, West Egg and its denizens

represent the newly rich, while East Egg

and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom,

represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald

portrays the newly rich as being vulgar,

gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social

graces and taste. Gatsby, for example,

lives in a monstrously ornate mansion,

wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce,

and does not pick up on subtle social

signals, such as the insincerity of the

Sloanes’ invitation to lunch. In contrast,

the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste,

subtlety, and elegance, epitomized by the

Buchanans’ tasteful home and the

flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan

Baker.

What the old aristocracy possesses

in taste, however, it seems to lack in

heart, as the East Eggers prove

themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies

who are so used to money’s ability to

ease their minds that they never worry

about hurting others. The Buchanans

exemplify this stereotype when, at the

end of the novel, they simply move to a

new house far away rather than

condescend to attend Gatsby’s funeral.

Gatsby, on the other hand, whose recent

wealth derives from criminal activity, has

a sincere and loyal heart, remaining

outside Daisy’s window until four in the

morning in Chapter VII simply to make

sure that Tom does not hurt her. Ironically,

Gatsby’s good qualities (loyalty and love)

lead to his death, as he takes the blame

for killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy

be punished, and the Buchanans’ bad

qualities (fickleness and selfishness) allow

them to remove themselves from the

tragedy not only physically but

psychologically.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures,

contrasts, or literary devices that can help

to develop and inform the text’s major

themes. Geography

Throughout the novel, places and

settings epitomize the various aspects of

the 1920s American society that

Fitzgerald depicts. East Egg represents the

old aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich,

the valley of ashes the moral and social

decay of America, and New York City the

uninhibited, amoral quest for money and

pleasure. Additionally, the East is

connected to the moral decay and social

cynicism of New York, while the West

(including Midwestern and northern

areas such as Minnesota) is connected to

more traditional social values and ideals.

Nick’s analysis in Chapter IX of the story

he has related reveals his sensitivity to

this dichotomy: though it is set in the East,

the story is really one of the West, as it

tells how people originally from west of

the Appalachians (as all of the main

characters are) react to the pace and style

of life on the East Coast.

Weather

As in much of Shakespeare’s work,

the weather in The Great Gatsby

unfailingly matches the emotional and

narrative tone of the story. Gatsby and

Daisy’s reunion begins amid a pouring

rain, proving awkward and melancholy;

their love reawakens just as the sun

begins to come out. Gatsby’s climactic

confrontation with Tom occurs on the

hottest day of the summer, under the

scorching sun (like the fatal encounter

between Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo

and Juliet). Wilson kills Gatsby on the

first day of autumn, as Gatsby floats in his

pool despite a palpable chill in the air—a

symbolic attempt to stop time and

restore his relationship with Daisy to the

way it was five years before, in 1917.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters,

figures, or colors used to represent

abstract ideas or concepts.

The Green Light

Situated at the end of Daisy’s East

Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’

s West Egg lawn, the green light

represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams

for the future. Gatsby associates it with

Daisy, and in Chapter I he reaches toward

it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead

him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest

for Daisy is broadly associated with the

American dream, the green light also

symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In

Chapter IX, Nick compares the green light

to how America, rising out of the ocean,

must have looked to early settlers of the

new nation.

The Valley of Ashes

First introduced in Chapter II, 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. It represents the moral

and social decay that results from the

uninhibited pursuit

of wealth, as the rich indulge

themselves with regard for nothing but

their own pleasure. The valley of ashes

also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like

George Wilson, who live among the dirty

ashes and lose their vitality as a result.

The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are

a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes

painted on an old advertising billboard

over the valley of ashes. They may

represent God staring down upon and

judging American society as a moral

wasteland, though the novel never makes

this point explicitly. Instead, throughout

the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that

symbols only have meaning because

characters instill them with meaning. The

connection between the eyes of Doctor T.

J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George

Wilson’s grief-stricken mind. This lack of

concrete significance contributes to the

unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the

eyes also come to represent the essential

meaninglessness of the world and the

arbitrariness of the mental process by

which people invest objects with meaning.

Nick explores these ideas in Chapter VIII,

when he imagines Gatsby’s final

thoughts as a depressed consideration of

the emptiness of symbols and dreams.

4. Analysis of Chapter3

Summary

One of the reasons that Gatsby has

become so famous around New York is

that he throws elaborate parties every

weekend at his mansion, lavish spectacles

to which people long to be invited. One

day, Gatsby’s chauffeur brings Nick an

invitation to one of these parties. At the

appointed time, Nick makes the short

walk to Gatsby’s house and joins the

festivities, feeling somewhat out of place

amid the throng of jubilant strangers.

Guests mill around exchanging rumors

about their host—no one seems to know

the truth about Gatsby’s wealth or

personal history. Nick runs into Jordan

Baker, whose friend, Lucille, speculates

that Gatsby was a German spy during the

war. Nick also hears that Gatsby is a

graduate of Oxford and that he once

killed a man in cold blood.

Gatsby’s party is almost

unbelievably luxurious: guests marvel

over his Rolls-Royce, his swimming pool,

his beach, crates of fresh oranges and

lemons, buffet tents in the gardens

overflowing with a feast, and a live

orchestra playing under the stars. Liquor

flows freely, and the crowd grows

rowdier and louder as more and more

guests get drunk. In this atmosphere of

opulence and revelry, Nick and Jordan,

curious about their host, set out to find

Gatsby. Instead, they run into a

middle-aged man with huge, owl-eyed

spectacles (whom Nick dubs Owl Eyes)

who sits poring over the unread books in

Gatsby’s library.

At midnight, Nick and Jordan go

outside to watch the entertainment. They

sit at a table with a handsome young man

who says that Nick looks familiar to him;

they realize that they served in the same

division during the war. The man

introduces himself as none other than Jay

Gatsby. Gatsby’s speech is elaborate and

formal, and he has a habit of calling

everyone ―old sport.‖ As the party

progresses, Nick becomes increasingly

fascinated with Gatsby. He notices that

Gatsby does not drink and that he keeps

himself separate from the party, standing

alone on the marble steps, watching his

guests in silence.

At two o’clock in the morning, as

husbands and wives argue over whether

to leave, a butler tells Jordan that Gatsby

would like to see her. Jordan emerges

from her meeting with Gatsby saying that

she has just heard something

extraordinary. Nick says goodbye to

Gatsby, who goes inside to take a phone

call from Philadelphia. Nick starts to walk

home. On his way, he sees Owl Eyes

struggling to get his car out of a ditch.

Owl Eyes and another man climb out of

the wrecked automobile, and Owl Eyes

drunkenly declares that he washes his

hands of the whole business.

Nick then proceeds to describe his

everyday life, to prove that he does more

with his time than simply attend parties.

He works in New York City, through which

he also takes long walks, and he meets

women. After a brief relationship with a

girl from Jersey City, Nick follows the

advice of Daisy and Tom and begins

seeing Jordan Baker. Nick says that Jordan

is fundamentally a dishonest person; he

even knows that she cheated in her first

golf tournament. Nick feels attracted to

her despite her dishonesty, even though

he himself claims to be one of the few

honest people he has ever known.

He had one of those rare smiles with

a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that

you may come across four or five times in

life. Analysis

At the beginning of this chapter,

Gatsby’s party brings 1920s wealth and

glamour into full focus, showing the

upper class at its most lavishly opulent.

The rich, both socialites from East Egg and

their coarser counterparts from West Egg,

cavort without restraint. As his depiction

of the differences between East Egg and

West Egg evidences, Fitzgerald is

fascinated with the social hierarchy and

mood of America in the 1920s, when a

large group of industrialists, speculators,

and businessmen with brand-new

fortunes joined the old, aristocratic

families at the top of the economic ladder.

The ―new rich‖ lack the refinement,

manners, and taste of the ―old rich‖

but long to break into the polite society

of the East Eggers. In this scenario, Gatsby

is again an enigma—though he lives in a

garishly ostentatious West Egg mansion,

East Eggers freely attend his parties.

Despite the tensions between the two

groups, the blend of East and West Egg

creates a distinctly American mood.

While the Americans at the party possess

a rough vitality, the Englishmen there are

set off dramatically, seeming desperate

and predatory, hoping to make

connections that