The Great Gatsby was written by Fitzgerald in 1925. The story occurred in New York in 1920s. It was regarded as a symbol of the era of American jazz literature. The story about the frustrated love between a young man and a young woman. However, the major theme of this novel is to describe a much larger but less romantic scope. Though all of its events take place within a mere few months (during the summer of 1922) and set in a quite limited area (in the neighborhood of Long island and New York), it is a perfect symbolic reflection in 1920s’ America as a whole, in particular the decline of the American dream in an era of superficial prosperity and material excess. The Great Gatsby had established his position in the history of modern American literature when it was published in 1925. Therefore, he became a spokesman for the Jazz age in 1920s and one of the representatives of the “lost generation” writers.
For the study, the critic of the sordid reality of American society of the Jazz Age and the disillusionment of the American dream, which is the theme of the novel, will be revealed according to Northrop Frye’s archetypal criticism. And these archetypes immensely contribute to the enrichment of the connotation. The readers can acknowledge Fitzgerald’s artistic brilliance and greatness by fully understanding these archetypes. 《了不起的盖茨比》中的原型解析(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_18564.html