A Spiritual Collapse in the Jazz Age——The Interpretation of The Great Gatsby from the Perspective of Spiritual Ecology Abstract The Great Gatsby is the masterpiece of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, a most famous American writer who is known as the spokesman for the Jazz Age of the 1920s. The novel displays three kinds of alienation that people in the Jazz Age are confronted with, that is alienation between man and nature, alienation between man and man, alienation between man and his inner world through the depiction of the protagonist Jay Gatsby’s love tragedy.47208
From the perspective of the theory of the spiritual ecology, this thesis attempts to interpret the spiritual conditions of people in the Jazz Age, an era of economic booming and prosperity which is similar to nowadays society. The interpretation is mainly from three of the five aspects of man’s spiritual plight summarized by Professor Lu Shuyuan, that is spiritual vacuum, materialization of spirit and alienation of existence. The three kinds of alienation eventually lead to man’s spiritual collapse such as loneliness, emptiness, depression, etc. From the interpretation, the imbalance between man’s material and spiritual desire may be responsible for the imbalance between man’s three kinds of ecology and consequent spiritual plight. In addition, a suggestion could be put forward by the essay that traditional values and morality may serve as an adjuster between man’s spiritual desire and material desire in order to pursue the balance between their natural, especially social and spiritual ecology.
Key words: F. Scott Fitzgerald; Jazz Age; spiritual ecology; spiritual plight; traditional values and morality
爵士时代的精神崩塌——《伟大的盖茨比》精神生态探析与解读
摘要《伟大的盖茨比》是美国20世纪杰出作家弗朗西斯•斯科特•菲茨杰拉德的代表作。小说以主人公杰伊•盖茨比的爱情悲剧为主线，再现了爵士时代下人们所面临的三种疏离：人与自然的疏离、人与人的疏离、人与自我的疏离，以及由此导致的精神崩塌。
本文主要从鲁枢元教授总结出的现代人的五个主要精神症状（精神的“真空化”、心灵的“拜物化”、存在的“疏离化”、生活风格的“齐一化”和行为的“无能化”）中的三个方面的精神困境即精神的“真空化”、心灵的“拜物化”和存在的“疏离化”，来探析、解读《伟大的盖茨比》中的爵士时代人们的精神状态。通过对小说的解读，本文尝试性地提出以下结论：物质追求与精神追求间的失衡造成了人的三种生态的失衡和最终的精神困境；在面临物欲膨胀下的精神疏离困境，人们应重新找回并坚守传统道德和价值观，用其来约束自己过分的物欲、发挥其精神引领作用，最终达到社会生态和精神生态间的平衡。
毕业论文关键词：弗朗西斯•斯科特•基•菲茨杰拉德；爵士时代；精神生态；精神困境；传统道德与价值观
Contents
Introduction 1
1. The Great Gatsby 1
2. A Literature Review of The Great Gatsby 1
3. The Theory of Spiritual Ecology Researched in China 2
4. Arrangement of the Thesis 3
Chapter One Spiritual Vacuum in The Great Gatsby against the Background of the World War I 4
1.1 Despair Arising from the World War I 4
1.2 Loss of Traditional Values and Morality 6
Chapter Two Materialization of American Dream in The Great Gatsby 8
2.1 The Essence of Materialization of American Dream 8
2.2 The Breakdown of Gatsby’s American Dream 9
Chapter Three Human Situations and Spiritual Alienation in The Great Gatsby 11 《伟大的盖茨比》精神生态探析与解读:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_49207.html