【導讀】Abstract······································································3. 摘要··········································································3. 1.Introduction·······························································4. 2.MaleCharacters?AmericanDreams····································6. .TheUglyUpper-classTom······································8. .GatsbyandDaisy?.NickandDaisy?.TomandDaisy?

　　

【正文】 t, Gatsby is killed by Gee?s gun. Gatsby bees lovestricken. He devotes his entire life to winning the elusive love, despite realizing at the end that reaching his goal was unachievable. Fitzgerald had the same dream as Gatsby, and also yearned to join the ranks of the upperclass and accordingly obtain the love that had escaped him. Unfortunately, they have the hopelessness and despair oute. Obviously, Gatsby represents one part of Fitzgerald?s personality: the flashy celebrity who pursued and glorified wealth in order to impress the woman he loved. 14 . Nick and Fitzgerald Nick is not only a successful narrator in the novel, but also is a spokesperson of the author?s moral. One of the dominant themes of The Great Gatsby was surely one of the prevailing themes of Fitzgerald?s life. Just as Nick describes himself, he has the same background with Fitzgerald.“ My family have been prominent, welltodo people in this Middle Western city for three generations. The Carrayways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we?re descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch,? .” (Fitzgerald 2020: 3) And, Nick?s description of himself in the opening chapter holds true throughout the novel: Nick is tolerant and slow to judge, someone with whom people feel fortable sharing their secrets. They are both thoughtful young men, who like literary in college and write a series of articles, and both have the experience to be in for the World War I. After the Great War, they find the wild and extravagant life seductive and exciting. However, Nick feels disappointment to the lifestyle and the arrogance of the upperclass. He is also disgusted with the moral decay that he witnesses among the rich in New York, and finds the moral emptiness and hypocrisy beneath the glitter of the Jazz Age “ Even when the East excited me most, even when I was most keenly aware of its superiority to the board,? even then it had always for me a quality of distortion. West Egg, especially still figures in my more fantastic dreams” (Fitzgerald 2020: 235236) It is also Fitzgerald?s idea longing for this absent moral center. And at last, from his length meditation in Chapter 9, Nick finally muses that, in some ways, this story is a story of the West, even though it has taken place entirely on the East Coast. He remembers life in the Midwest, full of snow, trains, and Christmas wreaths. In contrast, he thinks that the East seems grotesque and distored. So, all Nick can do is to move back to Minnesota, where American values are not decayed. Through the above statement, it evidently shows that Nick also represents one part of Fitzgerald?s personality: the quiet, sober and reflective Midwesterner adrift in the lurid East. 15 . Tom and Fitzgerald Most reviewers tend to think that The Great Gatsby is an autobiographical novel, and Fitzgerald writes himself into Gatsby and Nick. As for Tom, most of them consider that he is an arrogant, hypocritical bully, powerfully built man hailing from a socially solid old family. In fact, he also is “another Fitzgerald.” According to Fitzgerald? life, it can be easily found that when Fitzgerald went to school in St. Paul, he was crazily attracted by football and wanted to bee a famous player. But due to an accident, he can?t play it forever, which became a pity in his life. However, Tom help Fitzgerald acplish the pity. In Chapter I, Nick tells us that “Her husband (Tom), among various physical acplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven— a national figure in a way”.(Fitzgerald 2020: 8) Having became a celebrity, Fitzgerald felt into a wild, reckless lifestyle of parties and decadence, while desperately needed to support his extravagant lifestyle by writing continuously to earn money. At this time, Tom?s position and property actually bee Fitzgerald?s desire and ambition. Tom lives in a luxury way and always takes part in elaborate parties with Daisy. Tom and Daisy are the darlings of the rich。 they socialize with the upperclass in New York。 they live in the fashionable East Egg district of Long Island。 they are the envy of the selfmade rich. Tom is the established aristocracy and can gain the wealth through the prestige, and he needn?t to worry about money. From these we can see Tom?s life is just Fitzgerald?s dream. Besides, Fitzgerald had the same experience as Tom on the wives? love affairs. During the summer of 1924, on the beach at St. Raphael, Zelda met a handsome French naval aviator named Edouard Jozan. As Fitzgerald worked intensely on his novel, Zelda became bored and restless, and felt pletely in love with Jozan. This love affair never lasted very long as Jozan ended up. However, it had an extremely negative effect on Fitzgerald. When he wrote The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald planed the same scenario. While Tom learns of Daisy?s love affair with Gatsby, Fitzgerald 16 learned of Zelda?s affair with Jozan. While Tom reclaims Daisy from Gatsby, Fitzgerald reclaimed Zelda from Jozan. Apart from these, there is another fact to prove the above viewpoint. For example, Tom is an alcoholic as well as Fitzgerald, and at the end, Fitzgerald mainly died of the alcoholism that hint Tom?s following life. Tom is a plicated character in this novel. To Gatsby and Gee, he is a contemptible and shameless rival. To Daisy and Myrtle, he is an emotional and reliable lover. To Fitzgerald, he is not only Fitzgerald?s ambition, but also Fitzgerald?s dark side. Tom?s hurry ending indicates that American dream has went bad and became a dream of the moral emptiness and hypocrisy what Fitzgerald wants to show to the readers. 5. Conclusion Although Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan, the major male characters in The Great Gatsby, have different backgrounds, experiences and endings, the metamorphic American dream has the same negative effect on them. The Great Gatsby shows the three characters? dissatisfaction and disappointment to the current society. The American dream of happiness, vitality and individualism bee subordinated to the amoral pursuit of wealth. However, Gatsby?s dream, especially, questions the idea of an American that nothing is impossible if one simply tries hard enoug