2。3 Nick’s Respect and Doubts Towards Gatsby。。10

3。 Nick’s Morality in the Later Period: Sensibility and Real Feelings。11

3。1 Nick’s Contempt and Disgust to the Riches。。12

3。2 Nick’s Real Care and Appreciation to Gatsby13

4。 Transition and Influence。。13

4。1 The Reasons and Manifestation to the 来自优Q尔W论E文R网wWw.YouERw.com 加QQ75201.8766 Transition of Nick’s Morality13

4。2 The Influence of Nick’s Morality upon Today’s Society。。15

5。 Conclusion。。15

Bibliography17

Introduction 

The Great Gatsby was the masterpiece of the American author Francis Scott Fitzgerald written in 1925, during the Jazz Age。 After the World War I, America seemed to go into a short period of prosperity before the Great Depression and most people regarded this land as a paradise of dream and freedom。 Money gradually became the ultimate pursuit of people’s lives, while wealth became the only judgement of one’s success。 The traditional puritanical moral concepts and some ideas of economy finally were replaced by Hedonism。 Under such background, the American Dream was a hanging garden piled up by material possession without any substantial hopes。 Therefore, some researchers like Parvin Ghasemi(Parvin Ghasemi, Mitra Tiur, 2009) tend to focus on the jumbled condition of the society and its influence upon the American Dream, especially the intertexture of success and failure, dream and nightmare, etc。 Gatsby, the protagonist of the story in The Great Gatsby, vividly reflects the form of American Dream at that time。 Gatsby spends his entire life pursuing his ideal Daisy with the understanding that much money will surely restore the love between him and Daisy, which symbolizes the disillusion of the American Dream(Zhao Jie,2013)。 On the other hand, the result that Gatsby’s pure love is nothing compared to the wealth and statue of Tom also proves the collapsion of the American Dream(Zhou Xiaoxiang,2009)。 论文网

Integrating the above researches and the definition of the American Dream rooted in the the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal with the right to life, liberty and happiness, the American Dream seems to be alive only when positive spirits are pursued。 And Fitzgerald is the pioneer to lay stress on such spirits by presenting the tragedy of Gatsby, showing that an ideal only based on materialism won’t achieve the fulfillment of the American Dream(Lin Suping, 2004)。 To some extent, Fitzgerald’s spirits and moral perspective in the work is hidden behind the disillusionment of the American Dream。 Lin Suping once focused on the background of Fitzgerald’s morality and pointed out that he preaches his morality mainly from three aspects: the moral spokesman Nick, characterization and three moral images(Lin Suping, 2004)。

Nick, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, subjects every act and motive to a scrutiny of a lively moral sense(Thomas A。 Hanzo, 1957)。 Actually Nick is always regarded not only as the narrator but also the spokesman of morality in The Great Gatsby, who penetrates those inferior qualities like selfishness(Du Yongxin,2001)。 Nick is in a strategic position “half inside and half outside the action”(Gao Mei, 2007), where he is able to observe and participate in what happens around him。 There are many researches talking about such dual roles of Nick and its function in the structure or the content。 As an observer-narrator, Nick discovers incidents one by one with a tranquil tone and naturally gives focus on Gatsby’s story(Gao Mei, 2007)。 Nick is also the most suitable person to express both the sympathy towards Gatsby and the disappointment towards the metamorphism of the American Dream(He Shijie, 2003)。 

Some other researchers pay attention to the growth of Nick’s morality。 After the complex experiences in the east, Nick turns into a mature man with a moral standard of his own from an inexperienced youth concening more about himself(Chen Gang, 2013; Sui Yanan, 2012)。 The manifestation of his change mainly lies in his reactions towards the rich and Gatsby。 Not long after Nick comes to the east, he is pejorative to Gatsby。 As for the Buchanan’s, Nick inclines to possess a feeling of admiration。 Yet later on Nick gradually becomes sympathetic to Gatsby and disagreeable to the rich(Wang Yan, 2010)。 Therefore, Nick’s morality seems to be different in different periods of time, which leads to the sharp contrast of his views and behaviors。 In this process, he seems to get new understandings of his morality。 It should be resonable to analyze Nick’s morality from two periods: the prior period and the later period。 In the prior period, Nick holds negative evaluations towards Gatsby and he doesn’t consider much when keeping a normal contact with everyone even he dislikes。 His morality may be immature。 In the later period, Nick clearly knows who are the real disgusting people and performs according to his mature moral standard。