摘 要

美国梦是美国文化与价值观的重要部分。一直以来，美国梦为多数美国人所推崇，并且在许多美国电影中都得到了体现。美国梦在不同历史时期具有不同的文化内涵。本文旨在通过分析《了不起的盖茨比》和《当幸福来敲门》这两部电影，深入探索美国梦在不同年代的特征。《了不起的盖茨比》展现的是爵士时代盖茨比美国梦的破碎；而《当幸福来敲门》这一部电影则体现的是20世纪80年代加德纳美国梦的实现，美国梦已经具有了现代特征。通过对比盖茨比美国梦的破灭和加德纳美国梦的实现，读者可以对特定时期的美国梦内涵有更深入的认识，对美国梦的变化有更全面的了解。美国梦所体现的内容是与当时的社会环境、社会所推崇的价值观以及个人价值观联系在一起的，这些因素决定美国梦能否实现。

关键词：美国梦；《了不起的盖茨比》；《当幸福来敲门》；变化

Abstract

American Dream is an essential part of American culture and values. American Dream is admired by most Americans and embodied in many movies all the time. The contents of American Dreams are different in different periods. The paper aims to explore the characteristics of American Dream in different periods by analyzing two movies: The Great Gatsby and The Pursuit of Happiness. The Great Gatsby reflects the disillusionment of Gatsby’s American Dream in the Jazz Age; The Pursuit of Happiness embodies the realization of Gardner’s American Dream in the 1980s. American Dream at that time had modern characteristics. By comparing the disillusionment of Gatsby’s American Dream and the realization of Gardner’s American Dream, the readers can have a better understanding about the connotations at the particular periods and a more comprehensive understanding about the changes of American Dream. The meanings of American Dream in different historical periods are related with the current social environment, the cultural values advocated by the society and the individual values. These factors can affect whether American Dream can be realized or not.

Key Words: American Dream; The Great Gatsby; The Pursuit of Happiness; changes

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 American Dream 2

2.1 The root of American Dream 2

2.2 The development of American Dream 2

2.3 The implication of American Dream 3

2.4 The Declaration of Independence and American Dream 3

3 Changes of American Dream 4

3.1 The Great Gatsby 4

3.1.1 Gatsby’s American Dream 4

3.1.2 Disillusionment of Gatsby’s American Dream 5

3.1.3 Reasons for disillusionment of Gatsby’s American Dream 5

3.2 The Pursuit of Happiness 7

3.2.1 Gardner’s American Dream 8

3.2.2 Realization of Gardner’s American Dream 8

3.2.3 Reasons for realization of Gardner’s American Dream 8

3.3 Analyses on the Changes of American Dream 11

3.3.1 Gatsby’s American Dream and Jazz Age 11

3.3.2 Gardner’s American Dream and Modern Period 12

4 Conclusions 14

References 15

Acknowledgments 16

From Gatsby to Gardner: Analyses on the Changes of American Dream

1 Introduction

American Dream is the Americans’ dream of success, which is equal to the sum of character, ability and fortune. As a core of American natural spirit and cultural character, American Dream is a real life ideal and goal of Americans. “It deeply rooted in the early Puritanism, developed in the course of the Westward Expansion in 18^th century and disillusioned in the monopolized period” (Ju, 2011: 65). In its narrow sense, it refers to the individual ideal that anyone who strives to forge ahead, we will be able to have a wealthy and happy life in the North American where is full of hope; while in its broad sense, it refers to the ideal of a nation, for instance, democracy, freedom and equality. In the different historical periods, American Dream has different themes, nevertheless, the same point is just like a red line, which appears in the American literature all the time. Nowadays, movies play a more and more crucial role in the American culture. A certain of Hollywood films concentrated on the theme – American Dream. They show its different contents in different periods (Gao, 2011). The Great Gatsby and The Pursuit of Happiness are the representatives of them. The Great Gatsby reflects the American Dream in 1920s; while The Pursuit of Happiness shows the modern dream in the United States.

2 American Dream

American Dream, the epitome of American cultural spirit, plays an invaluable role in the

development of America. With the development of American history, American Dream has different foci in different periods.

2.1 The root of American Dream

American Dream originated from the Puritans’ religious ideal of “pure land” in the colonial period. When the unique natural conditions laid natural base for the formation of American Dream, and the Declaration of Independence laid the ideological foundation for it. After that, the promulgation of the Constitution, the Westward Expansion and the endless pursuit of wealth gradually make the American Dream deeply rooted in the hearts of the human beings.

2.2 The development of American Dream

In seventeenth Century, most of the European people came to the new continent in order to escape from their country’s political and religious persecution, they had strong desire towards the equality and democracy, therefore, “the equality and democracy” were the important connotation of American Dream at that time.

At the end of 18^th century to the early 19^th century, the discovery of gold mine in the western United States made quite a few Fortune’s Favored Children have huge wealth overnight, which also contributed to the westward migration wave, and put on the thick gold for the American Dream, thus, the material wealth has become an important factor of American Dream.

The end of the Civil War in 1865 liberated the black slaves; at the same time, the beginning of Industrialization made more immigrants into the new industrial cities, such as New York, Chicago and so on. Tremendous impoverished people relied on their own insistent struggle to become the industry giant, which proved one fact to the world: in the United States, on condition that you have wisdom, dream, and a heart to stick at working hard, you must be successful in the life. At this moment, American Dream has evolved into a personal dream of success.

2.3 The implication of American Dream

American Dream, briefly defined, is the belief that every man, whatever his origins, may pursue and attain his chosen goals. The concept of America can be called the land of opportunity. Equal opportunity is the spirit of American Dream. Smart, diligent and firm and indomitable characters are the necessary conditions for American Dream, meanwhile, the huge range of social class longitudinal flow, especially the upward mobility is the most distinctive feature of the American Dream.