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1.2 Literature Review
In different historical periods, critics and scholars have made researches on the novel from different perspectives. In the past century, a wide range of themes have been studied: the romantic story of main protagonists，the female and male images, American dream, inevitability of Gatsby’s tragedy, and so on. Besides, researches at abroad are much deeper in the depth and width than in China.
In China, critics and scholars pay great attention to The Great Gatsby from 1980s. It mainly includes four perspectives: feminism, stereotype in religions, narrating theory and psychological analysis.
Staring from 1980s, there are some essays on feminism, discussing typical female images with the background of 1920s and meanwhile the symbolism of medical paternalism’s decline and feminism’s rise. According to Yang Xue’s “ An Analysis of female image in The Great Gatsby”, Daisy symbolizes women who chase fame and wealth in the Jazz Age are cheated unfairly in an environment of patriarchy. Resulting from the original research on The Great Gatsby, some scholars focus on other characters as well, emphasizing the representative image of different classes. Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle represent three classes respectively, the high class, the middle class and the lower class. In the article “On Understanding F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Female characters in The Great Gatsby” (2005), Lin Xin, Guan Jian and Xu Weiyao insist that the symbolism of Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle plays great importance to study on American psychological values.
In addition, some papers have reported detailed analysis of the image of bird, flower, rain and colors. In Huang Xiaoqiang’s “The Artistic Effect of Images in The Great Gatsby”(2010), the image of flower, green light and gray light are all fully analyzed. Huang Xiaoqiang holds that Fitzgerald has well used some images to reveal the theme of the novel as well as the fate of main characters. Similar to automobile, house as the symbol of social status also fails to gain great attention of scholars in China. With limited former researches, Wang Bingqing reports “ A Study on the Metaphorical Meanings of the Houses in The Great Gatsby”. She concludes that the house image is firmly related with the corruption of the American Dream and cages for females.
Nowadays, scholars begin to propose that the images of technological objects in the novel, having great significance on deepening the theme. He Ju’s “A Study on the Symbolic Meanings of Modern Technologies in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby” (2013). In He Ju’s paper, the image of car, telephone and light are well explained on their symbolic meaning through a thorough research from the perspective of modernity. In his essay, he presents telephone as a way to make lie easier and describes that automobile is a vehicle which brings world convenience and also criminality.
In view of researches on modernity in The Great Gatsby through the modern technology images, the original research appears earlier at abroad, and it can be traced back to Irving S. Saposnik’s “The Passion and the life: Technology as Pattern in The Great Gatsby” ( 1979), Kenneth S. Knodt’s “ The Gathering Darkness: A Study of the Effects of Technology in The Great Gatsby”( 1976). Saposnik concludes that the use of technology image in The Great Gatsby represents “ a severe imbalance between outward form and inner dislocation” (qtd. In Bryer 330). In Knodt’s essay, railroad, telephones, motorboats, cars and guns are fully discussed with the theme of destruction. Moreover, since 2005, scholars at abroad have already began to pay attention to the automobile in The Great Gatsby. In “Low-swinging Chariots: The Automobile and Fateful Nostalgia in The Magnificent Ambersons, One of Ours, and The Great Gatsby”, David D. Halvorson asserts that car image represents a deceptive past, which drives Gatsby to failure. ( 2005). In the same year, Samuele F.S. Pardini’s “ The Engines of History: The Automobile in American and Italian Literary Cultures, 1908-1943”(2005) fully introduces the history of automobile and its development in American literary world. In this book, Samuele examines the connection between speed with many typical works which contain the image of automobile. He describes automobile in The Great Gatsby as “ a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent”, which also means acceleration and a product of death.