【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 war, America has risen up as the wealthiest country in the world with no obvious rival. People just overspend their money and enjoy physical pleasure. The whole Americans go into a mad whirl of the unlimited materialism and the immediate hedonism. Secondly, the faith crisis after the War causes grave moral decadence of the general society, which corrupts the moral basis of the American Dream. The faith crisis directly results from the tremendous impact that the First World War has imposed on people’s thought and feelings, in particular on the youth. At first, the young people are inspired to jion into the war enthusiastically with the hope of making the world more safe for democracy. But when they return from the war, they are disappointed to find that “the Great War” has brought the world nothing but grief and death. Then the faith crisis arises. It unavoidably invites emotions of despair and insecurity among the young generation.Nick’s account of one of Gatsby’s lavish parties in Chapter III shows a way of getting close to an accurate picture of the time: Gatsby’s vulgar ostentation of his incredible wealth, the wild jazz music, the careless crazy youth, the new daring dances and the chaos abounding at and after the party. With the effect of the strong wine and the Jazz music, both of which seem to give way to freedom, the young people are seen to go crazy for fun. As Fitzgerald pointes out through Nick’s voice in The Great Gatsby, the majority of the 1920s are “careless people” (Fitzgerald 1992: 158). They feel no shame at being “a bad driver” (Fitzgerald 1992: 157).Following the above analysis, we can see that it is the impact of the First World War and the economic doom following it that have changed Americans’ idea of life, which subsequently shakes the fundamental of the American Dream. The Disillusionment of Gatsby39。s Dream As many critics said, Gatsby is a steady and romantic hero who directs his life by a dream to which he was faithful to the end, for no one and nothing in America can match the vitality of Gatsby’s dream. Meanwhile his destruction is strongly coupled with the disillusionment of his dream, thus an analysis of it is necessary. Origins of Gatsby’s DreamIn the last chapter of the novel, Gatsby’s father proudly showed Gatsby’s schedule and general resolves written in 1906 on the last flyleaf of the “ragged” copy book called Hopalong Cassidy(Fitzgerald 1992: 110) to Nick. It tells how deeply young Gatsby has absorbed the ideas of Benjamin Franklin through his autobiography into his ambition to be successful, believing that a man can be what he want to be by hard working.Horatio Alger (18341899), writer of the book Hopalon Cassidy, is another person who had large influence on young James in forming his early belief. Alger has probably been the most widely read of all American writers. “His novels tend to follow the same pattern: a boy works his way up from poverty to respectability through hard work, thrift and good luck.” (Matterson 1990: 65) To Alger, everything is determined by the efforts and the character of the individuals. Gatsby actually starts by struggling for advancement in the Alger method. The parallel between Gatsby39。s experience and the American history is explicit on the last page of the novel：Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any light except the shadowy,moving glow of a ferryboat across the sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island that flowered ooce for the Dutch sailors eyesa fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees，the trees that had made way for Gatsby’S house，had once pandered in whisper to the last and greatest of all human dreams。 for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, pelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something mensurate to his capacity for wonder. (Fitzgerald 1992: 115) Here, the Dutch sailors bee representative of humanity having “for the last time” something that matches our “capacity for wonder. This spirit of the newly discovered continent in turn is reflected in Gatsby39。s looking at the green light on Daisy39。s dock. This parallel not only connects Gatsby39。s tragedy with the tragedy of the American nation but also identifies Gatsby39。s ideal with the traditional American dream.So, Gatsby’s Dream, as some critics have pointed out, has been an illusion that he could never has fulfilled. Essence of Gatsby’s Dream Elements of Gatsby’s Dream The development of Gatsby’s dream is the history of his involvement with a social class, the American rich. At the beginning, he planed to be rich and successful in imitation of the way of Benjamin Franklin and Horatio Alger. But he failed in the end. Then he met Dan Cody, who bees Gatsby’s image of the wealthy and successful man, from that time, Gatsby developed his new own social style and learned his way of acquisition of wealth.As well as image for himself, however, Gatsby needs an image of something beyond him to which he can aspire, and this final stage of his imaginative development is pleted when he meets Daisy and falls in love with her, When he kissed her at the first time, he has “wed forever his ineffable vision to her perishable breath” and “the incarnation was pleted.” (Fitzgerald 1992: 71) And ever since then she bees the center of his dream. For him, Daisy is not only as a woman but also as the symbol of a way of life. Her life and everything about her is another world to him:Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot straggles of the poor(Fitzgerald 1992: 95) As a matter of fact, Gatsby fails to get marry with her. Gatsby