As is known to all, The Great Gatsby is considered Fitzgerald’s finest work; it was one of the greatest literary works of that period. At that time, the American economy soared, bringing unprecedented levels of prosperity to the nation. Prohibition, the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol, made the bootleggers become millionaires, and an underground culture of revelry sprang up. Money, opulence, and exuberance became the principle of the day. The novel records the life and death of the hero, Jay Gatsby, as seen through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway, who is Gatsby’s neighbor coming from Midwest to New York to seek fortune. When Gatsby is a young handsome officer, he falls in love with a wealthy beautiful girl, Daisy. However, Gatsby is too poor to marry the girl at that time and he goes to the front after staying a short time with Daisy. Five years later, Daisy is married to a rich man, Tom Buchanan. Determining to win his lost love back, Gatsby engages himself in bootlegging and other “shady” enterprises to earn enough money to attract Daisy. By making these efforts, Gatsby aims to recapture the past and his dream. He holds dazzling parties every weekend in the hope of attracting his beloved girl, Daisy, to come. Gatsby finally meets Daisy with the help of Nick. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. Their love rekindles, and they begin an affair. Gatsby always manages to continue his dream and love Daisy. However, in the showdown scene with Tom Buchanan, Daisy betrays Gatsby and retreats into the protection of her lawful marriage, regardless of Tom’s coarseness and open unfaithfulness (Tom is in love with Myrtle Wilson). In the car accident, Daisy drives and kills Myrtle. Suspecting that Gatsby is Myrtle’s lover and has killed her, George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, shoots Gatsby, and then commits suicide. But the real murderer Daisy and her husband Tom are immune in their money and let other people clean up the mess they made.

It is not until the 1950s and 1960s, long after Fitzgerald’s death, that The Great Gatsby achieves its success as the portrait of the “Roaring Twenties,” as well as one of the greatest American novels ever written. Today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title “Great American Novel.” Besides, the Modern Library editorial board voted it the 20th century’s best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period.

1.2 Literature Review

Up to now, a substantial number of researches have been done on the theme of The Great Gatsby. In order to show how the novel has been variously studied, I classify these different researches into three groups which can draw the essential lines of demarcation: Firstly, the researches which focus on analyzing the American dream, secondly, the studies that explore Fitzgerald’s writing craftsmanship and techniques, and thirdly, the researches that criticize the money fetishism of the women characters in the novel.

Since its publication, this novel has received warm discussion from the critics, who analyze the novel from various perspectives. A great part of the critical attention has been on the themes of the novel.

Many researches focus on the theme of the American dream. To Zhang Lilong, The Great Gatsby is in fact a recall and summary of the process of the evolution of the American dream (1998: 108-109). Some others point out that Gatsby’s tragedy could represent that of all the Americans at that period of time. Wang Yujuan holds that the tragedy of Gatsby is also the tragedy of Fitzgerald; the tragedy is of all the pursuers of the American dream. Besides, she argues that the dream of Gatsby is also the dream of all typical Americans (1998: 28). The defeat of Gatsby is also the loss of the lost generation. Critics abroad have paid much attention to the theme of The Great Gatsby as well. They regard its theme as the failure of the American dream through Gatsby’s personal experience. Callahan holds that The Great Gatsby is an exploitation of the American dream as it exists in a corrupt period. He says that critics from different generations have noted how Fitzgerald uses his conflicts to explore the origins and fate of the American dream and the related idea of the nation (1996: 48).