Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to a number of professors and friends at the College of Foreign Languages for their help and encouragement at all stages in writing of this thesis. And thank all the professors and teachers at the Foreign Languages Department who spare no efforts to teach me.21518
Special thanks should go to Doctor Cheng Qinghua, my respected supervisor, who has generously shared so much inspirational and provocative ideas and insightful guidance throughout my research work. With much care, he read the whole manuscript and offered me much invaluable criticism. His great help makes this thesis a better one that it would otherwise not have been.
I also would like to take this opportunity to present my sincere thanks to all my teachers in the College of Foreign Languages. They are Prof. Chen Jiaxu, Prof. Zhong Ling, Doc. Yan Ming, associate Prof. Yuan Bing, Yu Jing, Lin Xiaojun, Zhao Xiaoling, Huai Peixin, Liao Jing, Zhang Xiaoli, Sun Hongying, Cao Xia, Wang Min, Yang Dongsheng, etc, from whose excellent, instructive lectures I have benefited a great deal in the writing of this thesis.
I am also indebted to my family for their support and understanding.
 Abstract
Jack London (1876-1916), a modern and productive writer in America, is one of the most well-known creators in the Age of Realism and Naturalism of American literature. He wrote many novels, among which Martin Eden is the most famous and successful one. Martin Eden is a novel into which Jack London put most of himself. In it he expresses the contradiction of embracing the socialism of Marx on the one hand, and believing in the triumph of the strongest inpidualism on the other hand. The way Martin Eden ends his life shows the disillusionment of the American Dream. Jack London describes a tragedy of the intellectuals by the experience of the hero. This paper will focus on the pursuit and disillusionment of the American Dream based on the careful reading of Jack London’s autobiography and his work Martin Eden, and the reason why they pursue the American Dream and why they are doomed to fail. And readers will have an understanding of what people of those days had experienced and what they had paid in realizing the American Dream. What’s more, Chinese people can learn how to pursue the China Dream in a better way.
The thesis is principally pided into four parts. The first part is an introduction to Jack London and his pursuit of American Dream but it failed in the end. Besides, it offers the summary of London’s work Martin Eden. The second part presents the American Dream’s originality and development, and analyses the hero Martin Eden’s American Dream. The third part describes the hero Martin Eden’s death and reasons why his American dream fails, and lists some lessons in pursuing the China Dream. The last part is a conclusion spurring on people’s deep thinking.
Key Words: Jack London, Martin Eden, American Dream, pursuit and disillusionment
 摘要
杰克•伦敦（1876—1916）是美国文学史上著名的现实主义小说家之一。其小说塑造了众多形象鲜明的人物，其中以马丁•伊登的塑造最为突出，最为成功。《马丁•伊登》是作者根据自己的亲身体验创作的，主人公马丁•伊登这一超人般的艺术形象是作家的“自画像”。小说中主人公一方面拥护马克思的社会主义思想，另一方面又支持强烈的个人主义，具有矛盾性，最终他不得不通过自杀结束自己的生命也表明了美国梦的幻灭，是一曲知识分子的精神悲剧。本文从杰克•伦敦自身及他的小说《马丁•伊登》的视角来解读美国梦的追寻与幻灭，分析作家最后悲剧的原因以及美国梦从实现到幻灭的必然性，从而折射当时美国社会的人们为了实现梦想所做的努力及在努力的过程中所遭受的痛苦，并以此为例，更好地把握中国梦。论文网 美国梦的憧憬与幻灭评杰克伦敦《马丁•伊登》:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_13762.html