The Development and Withering of American Dream In the Great Gatsby 英语毕业论文.doc

The Development and Withering of American Dream In the Great Gatsby I. Introduction A. Fitzgeralds Works F.Scott Fitzgerald was the most representative novelist of the 1920s. He accepted a commission in the army and was not discharged until 1919. During this time, receiving word of Ginevra Kings engagement, he met and fell in love with Zelda Sayre. However, zelda, although willing to become engaged to Fitzgerald, did not finally agree to marry him until he could demonstrate his ability to support her. He became a novelist for the sole purpose of earring enough money to marry Zelda. In 1919, he published his first novel This Side of Paradise, it was an immediate success, for it was the first American novel to portray the young, postwar generation. In 1925, he wrote his best novel The Great Gatsby. In the following years they lived, among other places, on the French Riviera, which would provide the background for Tender Is the Night．Zelda suffered from schizophrenia, a form of mental disorder that is characterized by a breakdown in rational thinking．After the first breakdown in 1930，she became progressively ill and was institutionalized for treatment of her mental health．Fitzgerald sank into alcoholism and was further troubled by financial and psychological problems cawed by his wife’s extravagance and jealousy of his writing Tender Is the Night(1934), completed around this time, was not so popular as he had expected，which worried him much and deepened his fear of disaster．He spent the rest of his life writing stories and screenplays that would pay for Zelda’s treatment, both in and out of institution．His sense of defeat and failure was complete after he couldnt succeed even as a film scriptwriter in Hollywood．The Crack-up，a series of essays，which were written in 1936，is a moving analysis of his failure. Fitzgerald tried to make a fame in the literary scene with a novel The Last Tycoon，which many critics believe would have been his masterpiece，but he died of a heart a