The Great GatsbyThe Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

Major Works of F. Scott Major Works of F. Scott FitzgeraldFitzgeraldThis Side of Paradise (1920)Flappers and Philosophers (1920)Tales of Jazz Age (1922)The Beautiful and Damned

(1922)The Great Gatsby (1925)Tender Is the Night (1934)The Last Tycoon (1941)

What Is Happiness?What Is Happiness?

Some people who seem to have nothing are very happy. Some people who seem to have everything are not happy.

Some rich people feel happy while some poor people feel unhappy.

Some self-sacrificing volunteers are not happy while some seemingly selfish people feel happy.

If wealth and morality do not necessarily bring happiness, what then?

Characters in Characters in The Great The Great GatsbyGatsbyWest EggJay GatsbyNick CarrawayEast EggDaisy BuchananTom BuchananJordan BakerValley of AshesMr. WilsonMrs. Wilson (Myrtle Wilson)

Are they happy?Are they happy?

Mr. & Mrs. WilsonMr. & Mrs. WilsonMr. Wilson’s garage business doesn’t

run well; he’s not able to reach wife’s standard.

Mrs. Wilson feels cheated right after the wedding and has been having an extra-marital affair which is a superficial sexual relationship – quarrel with Tom

Mr. Wilson is deeply hurt when he finds his wife’s betrayal and completely breaks down when his wife gets killed by the car in her desperate effort to get free of him.

Tom & Daisy BuchananTom & Daisy Buchanan

Tom Buchanan: having affairs with other women all the time despite his marriage;

- quarrel and fight with his mistresses; - not happy about Daisy’s affair with

Gatsby; - not happy about the rise of colored

peopleDaisy: bored; showing no real feeling for

her husband, her cousin and Gatsby

Jordan BakerJordan BakerBored like Daisy, having to find

ways to kill time - attending parties - playing golf (dishonest way) - dating with people whom she

doesn’t care for

Nick CarrawayNick CarrawayA sincere and honest young man - finding it hard to accept

insincere / irresponsible people like Daisy, Tom and Jordan Baker

- not happy about people’s cold-heartedness to Gatsby in spite of all his hospitality and kindness

- not happy about Daisy’s careless treatment of Gatsby’s deep love for her

Jay GatsbyJay GatsbyLonely - pursuing a dream all alone with

nobody around him understanding it except Nick, a new acquaintance

- Meyer Wolfsheim: pure business partner

- father: not even knowing his son’s change of his surname

- guests and party-goers: indifferent, haven’t even met Gatsby

- Daisy: not caring for a person from Nowhere like Gatsby, loving gayety only

Jay GatsbyJay GatsbyHappy - having obtained wealth through

hard work though not honest work (bootlegging was illegal)

- having had the woman he loves back in his arms by that wealth

- is immersed in the exciting prospect of getting married with the woman he loves and possessing her forever though that prospect is illusive and unreal

Happiness isHappiness isAn emotion to be enjoyed and

experiencedNot sth. to be possessedA long lasting enduring

enjoyment of lifeBeing in love with livingNot merely moments of pleasure

What brings happiness?What brings happiness?Not wealth, not lover, not pleasure

/ gayetySelf-fulfillment – achievement of

one’s values, and genuine self-esteem

- values include productive career, romance, positive relationship such as friendship, hobbies, etc.

Optimistic attitude towards things

Merriam-Webster’s Online Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary definition of Dictionary definition of HappinessHappinessa state of well-being and

contentment a pleasurable or satisfying

experience

Quotations (1)Quotations (1)Happiness is when what you

think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.Mahatma Gandhi

Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation.William H. Sheldon

Quotations (2)Quotations (2)Happiness is something that you

are and it comes from the way you think.Wayne Dyer

Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.Denis Waitley

Quotations (3)Quotations (3)Happiness is that state of

consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.Ayn Rand

Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling and enduring and accomplishing.George Sheehan

Quotations (4)Quotations (4)Happiness is not a station you

arrive at, but a manner of traveling.Margaret Lee Runbeck

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.Aristotle

Is Gatsby Great?Is Gatsby Great?Yes, he is great because he has

the great capacity to dream and to transform his dream into reality.

No, …

Green lightGreen lightEverything Daisy representsSth. Gatsby looks forward to, the

hope of his life, the object he works hard and strives for

The dream of Gatsby’s life: possession of beauty, wealth, social status, love and happiness

The dream that one day Gatsby can sit side by side with Daisy at a home of their own which is unrealistic and impossible

Gatsby’s ScheduleGatsby’s Schedule

Gatsby’s determination to realize his dream of rising up in the society which promises equal opportunity for everyone to succeed

But Gatsby’s dream is a decayed American dream because he takes the shortcut, the criminal path to success and because he takes money and social status as the ultimate goal and only content of success.

Jazz Age / Roaring TwentiesJazz Age / Roaring Twenties

Economic prosperity – a consumer society, booming business with market for radios, home appliances, synthetic textiles and plastics; huge profits; businessman a popular hero (Henry Ford and his Model T)

An age of materialism - giddy from sudden wealth, people partied and spent money recklessly

Hedonism – pleasure seeking, material wealth, heavy drinking, casual sex

American DreamLand of OpportunityRags to Riches—Anyone can become

rich, famous, powerful.Jobs and education available to all

who want them.Meritocracy (rewards) = skill + effort.Through hard work, courage, and

determination one can achieve prosperity. Americans can live better than their parents did.

James Adams coined the phrase “American Dream” in his 1931 book Epic of America:

“ The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” —James Adams

American dream & American dream & CommunismCommunismMarx’s description of Communist

society is the complete self-realization of every one.

Gatsby & American dreamGatsby & American dreamRealistic aspect of American dream:

The American dream helped promote the early growth and prosperity of the U.S.

But in the process of American economic development, Americans attach too much importance to achievements and wealth in their evaluation of an individual’s value that leads to mammonism and the distorted pursuit of wealth and achievement.

Gatsby & American dreamGatsby & American dreamThat has something to do with

the origin of the American dream. Early Puritans went to the U.S. to built “a holy city of God” thinking of themselves as the chosen people of God. They think whoever achieves success is elect by God.

Gatsby & American dreamGatsby & American dreamIn contemporary China, a person

who has earned big money through real estate investment judged others who haven’t earned as much money to be the “loser”.

Gatsby & American dreamGatsby & American dreamUnreal / illusive aspect: Gatsby in

the novel is immersed in the illusive “American dream” whether this “American dream” is social status, money or beautiful woman and has paid his real life in this illusive process. But he thinks all this is real and his experience is all true.

The question is: Is Gatsby happy?

Reader’s favorite quotesReader’s favorite quotesDaisy tumbled short of his dreams –

not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything (p. 97, Chapter 5).

黛西远不如他梦想中那么好 —— 这倒不是她本人的过错 , 而是由于他的幻想过于精彩 , 这种幻想已经超越了她的本身 , 超越了一切东西。

Reader’s favorite quotesReader’s favorite quotes“Let us learn to show our friendship

for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead,” he [Meyer Wolfsheim] suggested. “After that my own rule is to let everything alone.” ( 陶洁， p. 158 ， Chapter 9 ）

咱们大家都应当学会在朋友活着的时候讲交情 , 而不要等到他死了之后 , 在人去世以后 , 我个人的原则是不管闲事。

Reader’s favorite quotesReader’s favorite quotesThey were careless people. Tom

and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness … ( 陶洁， p. 161-162 ，Chapter 9 ）

汤姆和黛西 , 他们是不负责任的人 - 他们砸碎了东西 , 把别人给毁了 , 然后就退缩到自己的金钱或者麻木不仁、 漫不经心当中 ...

CommentsComments... his finest novel, sensitive and

symbolic treatment of themes of contemporary life related with irony and pathos to the legendry of the American dream.

---The Oxford Companion to American Literature

《了不起的盖茨比》是他（菲茨杰拉德）最好的小说，该书敏锐地抓住了当代社会生活的主题，并以象征手法展现了“美国梦”传奇之下的嘲讽及悲怅。

—— 《牛津美国文学词典》

CommentsComments... the first step that American fiction

has taken since Henry James, because Fitzgerald depicted the extolled grandest and most boisterous, reckless and merry-making scene.

— T ． S ． Elliot

《了不起的盖茨比》是自亨利 ·詹姆斯以来美国小说迈出的第一步，因为菲茨杰拉德在其中描写了宏大、熙攘、轻率和寻欢，凡此种种，曾风靡一时。

—— T ． S ．艾略特

CommentsCommentsF ． Scott Fitzgerald (1896—1940)

American short-story writer and novelist famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age (the 1920s), his most brilliant novel being The Great Gatsby (1925). His private life ... in both America and France, became almost as celebrated as his novels.

- Encyclopedia Britannica弗 ·司各特 ·菲茨杰拉德（ 1896—1940 ）美

国小说家，以其对爵士时代（ 20 世纪 20 年代）的描绘而著称。代表作为 1925 年问世的《了不起的盖茨比》。他在美国和法国的私生活……几乎与他的小说一样为人乐道。

—— 《大英百科全书》

CommentsComments这人生，这虚无 最近看《了不起的盖茨比》，想起乔伊斯

的《阿拉比》，小男孩爱上了同学的姐姐，做梦里这女孩都在闪金光，女孩老提有个阿拉比的市场，听上去充满了东方神秘的色彩，和女孩一样闪闪发光，小男孩于是发花痴，一定要到那市场去给女孩买件东西，于是一番折腾，汽车，火车，走错路，等等，最后，到了阿拉比，突然发现，那是一个庸俗简陋超级破败的地方。

梦碎。

CommentsComments长大后，小男孩成了盖茨比，爱上一个资产阶级小姐，以为她可以为爱而爱，可以放弃所有的门第的观念，可以是一生追求的梦想，于是，盖茨比可以用不纯洁的手段来赚钱，但是却把那个梦想保留得好好，河湾对岸她家码头一直长明的那盏绿色的灯光，就是闪闪发光的阿拉比市场。但是他把她想错了，很严重的错误。有些东西并没有改变，它只是不存在而已。

这一次搞得很严重了。 梦碎，人亡。

Assignments for “Barn Assignments for “Barn Burning”Burning”Read Faulkner’s short story “Barn

Burning” and think about - relationship between people,

such as father and son, father and the landowner, individuals (the Snopes family) and the community

- the character of father and son - the 3 questions on p.179