Abstract: The Great Gatsby is one of the most well-known novels of the 20th century written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald who is the most typical representative of the Jazz age and the Lost Generation.It not only describes the American society in the 1920s,but also reflects truly the degeneration of morality under materialism,hedonism and spiritual decadence behind the prosperous city.The story reveals the love tangle between Gatsby and Daisy.And the experience of Gatsby is similar with that of Fitzgerald.Although Fitzgerald was engaged in the prosperous life,he still tried his best to find a way of moral self-salvation.This paper aims to study the morality through two aspects,namely,characters and symbolism,which are displayed by Fitzgerald, and then it criticizes the existed moral problems during the Jazz Age to dig out the causes for shaping Fitzgerald’s morality.Finally it shows that the tragic fate of Gatsby and satirizes the American life attitudes that everyone should carpe diem and enjoy life.

Key words: The Great Gatsby;morality; characters;symbolism

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1.Introduction1

1.1 A Brief Introduction of the Author and Work1

1.2 A Brief Introduction of The Moral Shaping in Two Different Time Phases/.2

2. Morality in Characters4

  2.1Nick Carraway:Moral Spokesman.4

  2.2Gatsby:Contradictory Man.6

  2.3Tom and Daisy:Moral Destroyers7

3. Morality in Symbolic Signs8

3.1 Symbolism in Three Objects.9

3.2 Symbolism in the Descriptive Orders11 

4. Causes for the Shaping of Fitzgerald’s Morality 15

4.1 Subjective Factors15

4.2 Objective Factors17

5. Conclusion19

References.20