American dream

从叙述者的期望是，黛西和她的丈夫汤姆可以有一个完美的家。黛西和汤姆居住的住宅被描述为“一个令人愉快的红白色的格鲁吉亚殖民地大厦俯瞰海湾。草坪从海滩起步，直奔大门，长达四分之一英里，跨过日文、步道砖和燃烧的花园最后跑到房子跟前，明亮的藤蔓好像有奔跑的势头（菲茨杰拉德，1925。P9）”。笔者之所以会给描述一遍又一遍，往往是想凸显一个非常豪华的黛西和汤姆的居住场所，这段冗长的描述高贵而辉煌的地方是，他想给我们指示为什么黛西会背叛盖茨比，五年前背叛自己的爱。

The Great Gatsby is the most well-known work of Francis Scott Fitzgerald as is produced in 1925 during the roaring 1920s. As it came into being when the economy soared, it is considered as a critique of the American Dream and it has in the meantime resulted in the author’s being recognized as one of the twentieth century’s greatest American writers. It is a novel of Fitzgerald that can be regarded as the representation of the break of the American Dream through the depiction of Gatsby’ fortune and it is a great blow to most human beings at that time who are looking forward to the physical satisfaction. Or maybe it can be put in another way that the death of Gatsby in the end is just the evaporation of the American Dream, which is as well indicative of the common ill fortune of people being at the bottom of the society. 
Break of the American Dream

In the beginning of the novel, when it is stating the dwelling residence of Gatsby, the author depicted it as “a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald, 1925. p7).  Though Gatsby had personally experienced a poor childhood, he had in the end surprisingly become a young millionaire through constant full efforts and his unchanged determination to make his own terminal dream: “For over one year he had been beating his way along the south shore of Luke Superior as a clam digger and a salmon fisher or in any other capacity that brought him food and bed”(Fitzgerald, 1925. p105), “employed in a vague personal capacity as steward, mate, skipper, secretary and even jailor”(Fitzgerald, 1925. p107), “He owned some drug stores, a lot of drug stores. He built them up himself.”(Fitzgerald, 1925. p116). 

What is out of the narrator’s expectation is that Daisy and her husband Tom has a house that can match the one of Gatsby. The dwelling residence of Daisy and Tom is described as “a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens-finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run(Fitzgerald, 1925. p9) ”. The reason why the author will give that lengthy description to describe the living place of Daisy and Tom over and over again which tends to be a very luxurious, noble and splendid place is that he would like to give indication to us why Daisy will betray Gatsby five years ago and betray her own love. Phrases like  “look at Jordan Baker incredulously”, “retorted”, “objected”, “complained”, “accusingly”, “winking ferociously”, “cried with tense gayety”, “inquired coldly”, etc. can be well justified that Daisy’s eager for the economic issues and her being a low, shallow and vulgar girl. 

For another, Daisy constantly turning up, a list of complementary adjectives are applied subsequently to show her charming outlook: to mention just a few, “a conscientious expression”, “an absurd, charming little laugh” ,“low, thrilling voice”, “her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth”(Fitzgerald, 1925. pp11-12). All of the aforementioned phrases are praising Daisy to a large extent so that it can make sense why Gatsby will still be in love with Daisy even after five years and is voluntary to sacrificing for her without any hesitation.  

All of the above about Daisy’ appealing appearance can be especially useful for the understanding of why the American Dream is so attractive for the great majority of human beings. Or maybe it can be put in another way that the description about Daisy’s beauty is actually the indication of the American Dream’s attractiveness. Gatsby’s extraordinary crushes on Daisy as well as his being willing to die for her without any complaint can be considered as human beings’ blind process of pursuing the American Dream as is actually too physical and unrealistic, which suggests that it is not worthwhile for human beings to act in that way. 

However, the death of Gatsby for his beloved Daisy as she has killed his husband’s love is actually the break of the American Dream. To put it more specifically, Daisy even felt nothing about Gatsby’s death and she did not participate in the funeral of Gatsby but instead she was with her husband into a journey to Europe. In our common sense, what Daisy should do is to feel pitiful about Gatsby’s death and in the meantime felt regretful about her own misbehaviors. But what she acted is that she did not have realized her own mistake and she directly traveled to Europe with her husband. Therefore Daisy is just a beauty without inner beauty and she deserves no love from others. To put this into the American Dream, I can say that American Dream should be broken and human beings are better to be down-to-earth and live a life that does not emphasize on the physical aspect simply. 

Speaking of the literary criticism of the novel, it is argued that this novel is as well a love story of Gatsby as has resulted in his later death as well. His love has lasted for five years as have not changed even when he noticed his girlfriend’s betrayal but instead stimulated him to keep struggling so as to welcome the coming of a wealthy life at last (Batchelor, Bob. 2014). Daisy’ being so indifferent and worldly can be justified for the fact why there are so many social commentaries that are talking about the disadvantages of the American Dream (Wise GEEK, 2003-2015). 

 To sum up, this novel depicts the break of the American Dream through stating the Gatsby’s whole life, from his love with Daisy in the army five years ago until his reunion with her in five years and even dying for her then. Though Gatsby does not change a little toward Daisy as he always has crushes on her all the time, Daisy has actually changed too much and she has become a worldly woman that pays attention only to the economic issues. In the end, Daisy’s travelling to Europe with her husband without taking any regard of Gatsby’s dying for her has to a large extent suggested that the unrealistic aspect of the American Dream, the so-called break of the American Dream. As far as I am concerned, this novel also reflected that though those people at the bottom of the society have been rich seemingly, they can still not get away from their ill fortune in whatever way as is determined by the society at that time. 

Bibliography
1. Batchelor, Bob. 2014. Gatsby: the cultural history of the great American novel. Rowman & Littlefield. 
2. Francis Scott Fitzgerald. 1925. The Great Gatsby. Penguin Books: 1-193.
3. Wise GEEK. 2003-2015. What Is the “American Dream”?. Online available from: http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-american-dream.htm.