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摘 要

弗•司格特•菲茨杰拉德是美国最杰出的小说家之一，他的文学作品被誉为美国“爵士时代”的典型著作，同时也被认为是二十世纪二十年代“迷惘的一代”作家中的一员。菲茨杰拉德著有许多美妙的作品，而《了不起的盖茨比》是其中最著名的代表作，受到读者的广泛好评。

本文从运用象征手法的角度分析这部小说。首先, 文章介绍了小说发生的现实背景。其次, 阐述了象征的意义及其在文学作品中的实际运用。下一部分则着重分析各种象征色彩在《了不起的盖茨比》中的深刻含义。接下来，本文说明了以上所分析的象征手法在表达小说主题与内涵方面发挥的重要作用。最后, 文章的结论再次强调主题并指出美国梦幻灭的根源。笔者认为, 之前一些国内外的研究仅强调象征色彩而忽略了社会的内在含义。此外，本文也将补充研究时代背景的象征意义，并将盖茨比的美国梦与作者的美国梦结合起来。

关键词：弗•司格特•菲茨杰拉德 美国梦 象征意义 《了不起的盖茨比》

1. Introduction

1.1 About the author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 --- December 21, 1940) was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the wonderful writings of the Jazz Age. He is a legendary figure and a graceful stylist of the 1920s, and his tragic life was an ironic analog to his romantic art.

Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and he was named after his ancestor, Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner. Edward Fitzgerald, who was a salesman and a Southern gentleman, was his father, but his furniture business had failed. Fitzgerald learned from his father that even if a person has failed, do not give up living in a generous style. Also, his mother always devoted herself to him.

Fitzgerald was smart but did poorly in school. He entered Princeton University in 1913, where he spent most of his time doing social activities. He left school in 1917 because of his poor scores. After that, he joined in the US Army near the end of the First World War.

Fitzgerald was a great writer in America, who had written many books. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and his most famous work --- The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories and got income by selling them to Hollywood studios. He once said that he would first write his stories in an authentic manner, but finally published them in magazines. He was good at using symbols and metaphors, and based his creation on his own life experiences. Readers can find the shadow of himself or people around him from many characters he created in his works, that is to say, he vividly described the characters and plot which had made readers unforgettable. The Great Gatsby is considered as his greatest novel in reflecting the situation of the Jazz Age and the disillusion of the American Dream.

1.2 About the background

The Great Gatsby was first published in 1925, which was set on Long Island’s North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922. This novel took place following the First World War, or in the 1920s, when American people couldn’t wait to enjoy lavish lives. They tried to forget the past and ignore the future, just wanted to pursue the instant happiness. American traditional values, ideology and political ideas became a tragic failure after the First World War, and although America was the healthiest country in the world during the ten years, people lived in desperation without any purpose. There was also a striking gap between the rich and the poor, and the money worship was a hit at that time. In addition, The Eighteenth Amendment was approved by the US congress on January 16, 1919, which banned the production, sale and transportation of alcoholic drinks. Since then, smuggling this kind of things became a common phenomenon and made people rich suddenly.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Previous researches

The Great Gatsby is a classical book of American Dream which made a conclusive comment on the Jazz Age. Increasing materialism drove people to pursue happiness and money. Throughout the years, scholars and critics have made a great number of studies on this book from different aspects. Chang Yaoxin, a famous Chinese professor remarks, “Fitzgerald found intuitively, in his personal experience, the embodiment of that of the nation and created a myth out of American life.” (Chang, P) Like this, large numbers of critics have analyzed the novel’s themes, especially the theme of American dream. Additionally, some scholars have analyzed it through the perspective of style or narrative, for example, Liu Li says, “By using these narrative skills Fitzgerald makes the reader possible to keep some aesthetic distance from the events and the characters in the story.” (Liu, P.45)

2.2 Research gap

Lots of researchers have made analysis on The Great Gatsby. They would like to focus on American Dream to find out people’s pursuit for wealth, besides, many of them have paid attention to its content and design to enjoy the technique of writing. Although some may use symbols such as characters, colors and objects to study the novel, Symbolism in settings are seldom involved. Furthermore, some of the symbolic analyses are isolated from other aspects. Thus, this thesis is intended to explore the Symbolism in The Great Gatsby by making a systematic and detailed analysis on various important objects, colors, characters and especially settings with symbolic meanings in relation to its themes.

1. An Analysis of the Art of Symbolism

This chapter focuses on the definition of Symbolism and discusses the practical application in The Great Gatsby. It pays more attention to the analysis of different symbols in the book, and finds out the significance of the use in symbols involved. Generally speaking, Symbolism in this book can be divided into four parts: characters, colors, objects and settings.

3.1 Definition of Symbolism

Symbolism refers to an object representing another to give it a more significant meaning. As normally used in literary study, symbol suggests a connection between the common sense of reality and a moral or spiritual order.

In literature, Symbolism is used to deepen or change meanings in readers’ mind. Novelists often use Symbolism to describe the feature of objects and create characters, or reflect the meaning of the main topics. Authors often use different symbols to represent a particular concept. Throughout various forms of literature, symbols of characters, animals, objects or even settings may be adopted to create meanings in a story. In The Great Gatsby, it is easy to find that Fitzgerald has employed symbolic technique to express his true ideas and reveal themes.

3.2 Symbolism in characters

In The Great Gatsby, there are two meaningful symbolic figures --- Daisy and Gatsby, who are the two main characters related to the theme.

3.2.1 Daisy

Daisy is the symbol of beauty, power, wealth and of Gatsby’s dream, so Gatsby put all his lifetime and energy to win back her love. In the novel, Daisy was a charming girl who could attract people’s attention easily. However, this kind of beauty was just a fantasy. Looking inside, readers can find that Daisy was a “Golden Girl” who often showed indifference to the society. She chose Tom as her husband because wealth and status was her purpose in her heart, and in order to satisfy her own selfishness, she could do almost everything at the expense of others and could behave herself out of true affection.

At that era, Daisy is the symbol of American Dream and represents the mental outlook of the “Jazz Age”. She is charming by appearance but of no value in fact. Gatsby’s love and pursue for Daisy can also be considered as his worship for position and fortune. At the end of the story, Gatsby died instead of Daisy, but Daisy was so cold that she just went on with her own thing and even didn’t shed any tear.

3.2.2 Gatsby

Gatsby is described as the follower of American Dream, whose life is like a symbol of the whole American experience at that time. He spent all the time on getting Daisy’s love back and becoming rich, but neither of them succeeded. He was poor before, but he worked hard to change himself and step up to a higher position. Though great courage and ambition played an important role in his life, the reality was out of expectation. Gatsby is a symbol of Idealism which makes materialism a kind of romantic expectation. The corruption of his dream is the epitome of the American Idealism’s destruction. Meanwhile, in some aspects, Gatsby’s experience was similar to Fitzgerald’s life, and the fiction also combined Gatsby’s idea with American Dream. Likewise, the failure of his life was bound to cause the tragedy of America.

3.3 Symbolism in colors

Each kind of color has its potential meaning. In fact, the same color may represent different meanings even under the same background. Color is a very important symbol that writers can better express ideas.

3.3.1 Green

Green is the color of nature, which represents hope, spring, beauty and energy. In this novel, green has been throughout Gatsby’s whole life, which means his hope and dream. At seventeen years old, Gatsby wore an old green sweater, which gives people an active and hopeful impression. Then during the World War I, he fell in love with a beautiful girl, Daisy, but couldn’t afford her rich life. Gatsby worked hard to struggle from the bottom, which is his pursuit for love, a romantic dream. When he became a wealthy man, he still wanted to find Daisy and regain her love. It’s his only pursuit and dream. In such sentences like “I glanced seaward-and saw nothing except a single green light” (Fitzgerald, P.21) and “Now it was again a green light on a dock” (Fitzgerald, P.94), the readers can also find that it’s the hope of Gatsby. Every time he saw the green lamp, he felt that he can get the love of Daisy.

On the other hand, green also symbolizes money and its power in society. For Gatsby, he needed money to win back Daisy and lead an honorable life. Besides, he had a large green lawn and green ivy going up his house. The passengers also sat “in a sort of green leather conservatory”. (Fitzgerald, P.121) These things in green color obviously represent his rich life and position in society.

However, to some degree, green is a symbol of something far away and unattainable. The green light is so faint and almost invisible to guide Gatsby, but it shines all the time. This resembles his pursuing for Daisy who is out of reach. It also indicates the disillusionment of his American Dream.

3.3.2 White

White often represents something that is good or pure, and Fitzgerald used white color Symbolism to portray Daisy. At the beginning of the novel, Daisy appeared in a white dress, which has shown her purity and innocence at early time. However, white has another meaning of emptiness and illusion, because compared with others, white has no real color. Her white owning also represents her shallow inside. After marrying, Daisy lived in a large white house, with white curtains in it. All these white symbols reflect her spiritual emptiness and the fact that she almost had nothing to do in life. At the end of the book, the readers can see that Daisy was drunk in a white evening dress, and she was carried somewhere by four solemn men. It points out that Daisy was addicted in luxury and fantastic environment.

Of course, white is also related to Gatsby. His house was painted white and the uniform he wore for dating was white, too. Gatsby lead an empty life in which he just made great effort to become wealthy and caught chances to win Daisy’s love, but this behavior was meaningless at that time. Even if he owned much wealth, he still couldn’t save her lost soul. This situation let the irony of white sink in.

Therefore, to a certain degree, white is a symbol of corruption. People’s empty life and the pursuit of materialism are doomed to lead to the destruction of American Dream and this kind of attitude towards life is doomed to cause failure.

3.3.3 Yellow and gold

Yellow and gold symbolize power, fortune and position. In the novel, they are main symbolic colors, which represent the treasure and also represent old money. Daisy and Tom’s house were decorated with gold, Daisy was called the “golden girl”, Jordan had a head of yellow hair, and playing yellow cocktail music ... All of these expressions reveal that people put materialism on the supreme status in the society. Money counts most in the Jazz Age. People were longing for living a rich life and even abandoned their inner belief. They thought as long as they had money and stayed at a high position, they could get everything they want. As Fitzgerald has said, “In Jazz Age, money is the tool to become successful.” (Fitzgerald, P.31) Tom was a real wealthy man who had old money, and he was the standard that people wanted to reach, so Daisy gave up Gatsby and married Tom at last. Gatsby also wanted to be rich in order to win the affection of his true love, so he bought a yellow car to show his old wealth. But in fact Gatsby did not have old wealth, so his tragedy was within our expectations.

From ancient time, gold and yellow has been the most honorable color which means power, position and fortune. Jazz Age was like the situation that people pursued wealth and seemingly wonderful life with empty minds.

3.4 Symbolism in objects --- the Valley of Ashes

The Valley of Ashes is a different place where Myrtle and Wilson lived. “This is a valley of ashes --- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey man who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Fitzgerald, P.23) The Valley of Ashes was a symbol of the low society which was dark and lifeless, and in that place money and fortune was valued over everything. Wilson, a soulless and hopeless man who lived in the village without any ambition, killed Gatsby at last, which has shown that the tragedy of Gatsby resembles that of the era. Although his wife maintained a sense of morality, he gave up under the pressure of society.

The Valley of Ashes is a reflection of American social situation in the 1920s. After World War I, people’s values had undergone great changes, among which some may had been distorted. They were eager to become wealth, so they considered money as the most important.

3.5 Symbolism in settings

Settings such as West Egg and East Egg are also necessary in the novel. They have the same size and shape, but are totally different inside. The East Egg and the West Egg are both rich, but they have different social status, which is one of the most important themes.

3.5.1 East Egg

East Egg represents rich families with high status, who had old money and had been wealthy for a long time. Their families have lived in the East for generations; they feel proud of their traditional heritage. However, they were lack in morality. People in the East Egg often showed indifference to others, and under their rich appearances, they had a cold heart and lived a meaningless life with no dreams. When having heard Gatsby’s death, they did nothing, not even mentioning to attend his funeral. They could sweep out everything bad from their life completely.

Though Gatsby lived in West Egg, he loved East Egg and had a deep affection to it because Daisy was there. East Egg appealed to him so much that readers can feel his dream and love for it, which symbolized his pursuit of American dream. In conclusion, East Egg is a symbol of moral flaw which can also indicate the corrupted American Dream. Gatsby’s pursuit for American Dream is doomed to be a failure.

3.5.2 West Egg

West Egg stands for the newly rich who don’t have real position and identity. They hadn’t been rich for a long time and were still to be despised even if they were wealthy. They earned money quickly by making both legal and illegal trades during the economic boom of the Roaring 20s. Gatsby and Tom lived in such society where they made money by themselves because they had no background. People in the West Egg were proud of money they possess, but had better qualities and were more sincere in life. It makes readers feel moved that Gatsby stood outside Daisy’s window all night to make sure she was safe and happy. He didn’t want to see Daisy sad due to the previous unpleasantness.

The West Egg where Nick and Gatsby live represents American Dream with traditional moral values. However, this kind of dream was something false that couldn’t be recognized by other people. It then resulted in the break of American Dream at that era.

4. Conclusion

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