Pursue, Obtain, and Lose:An Analysis of Gatsby’s Images from the Perspective of Narrative Structure

《了不起的盖茨比》深刻地描写了“爵士时代”人们的生活与观念,以及金钱和享乐掩盖下的精神堕落以及“美国梦”的幻灭。小说中的主人公盖茨比就是为了实现其“美国梦”——企图通过财富和社会地位来换回昔日的爱情,最后付出了生命的代价。这部小说有个最基本的叙事结构:追寻-找到-失去。以盖茨比追寻-找到-失去其梦想为线索,我们大致能得出三个典型的形象:悲剧、传奇式英雄以及孤独。悲剧形象的论述是以那个人人都怀有“美国梦”的“爵士时代”为历史背景。盖茨比传奇式英雄和孤独形象则是以象征美国梦的“绿灯”为线索,以“追寻-失去”这样更紧凑的叙事结构来进行阐述的。

The Great Gatsby profoundly described the lifestyle and ideology of people who living in"Jazz Age"as well as moral degeneration and disillusion of American Dream under the mask of money and enjoyment. The main character Gatsby in this novel strived for his"American Dream", attempting to win his past love back by wealth and social status, which cost him his life. The basic narrative structure can be seen in this novel: pursue-obtain-lose. From the plot development of Gatsby’s pursuing-obtaining-losing of his dream, it can be concluded that there are generally three typical images: image of tragedy,image of legendary hero, and image of loneliness. The analysis of image of tragedy is against the historical background of Jazz Age in which all people had American Dream. Image of legendary hero and loneliness are expounded in a narrative structure of"pursue-lose"which is more tightly knitted, based on the clue of the"green light"which symbolizing"American Dream".