Abstract: Many people said nowadays China is lost in material and everybody is thinking only of making money, which has amazing similarities with the Roaring Twenties of the American. This paper is based on the short novel The Great Gatsby written by American famous writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald, and analyzes the unique social backgrounds in the 1920s and the personalities of the characters to get further understanding of the characters and its inner mind. Besides, in order to know about the plots this paper analyzes the personalities of the characters and the different love relationships. Ultimately, by demonstrating the relationships between the characters and their behaviors, the close relationships between individual destiny and their personalities and the society, this paper draws a conclusion that the moral spirit has magnificent influence on the society and people. Meanwhile, this paper is supposed to awaken the society of China nowadays by discussing the moral spirit which has been dying out gradually, and realize the importance of the moral spirit.

Key Words: Gatsby; American Dream; love relationships; the moral spirit

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. The Introduction to the Protagonist -- Gatsby-1

2.1 The Life of Gatsby-1

2.2 The Personality of Gatsby-2

2.3 The American Dream of Gatsby-3

2.3.1 The Dream of Gatsby-3

2.3.2 The Causes for Disillusion of His Dream-4

3. The Writing Background of The Great Gatsby and Moral Spirit in it-5

3.1 Features of the Roaring Twenties-5

3.2 Women in the Roaring Twenties-6

3.3 The American Dream in the Roaring Twenties-7

3.4 The Moral Spirit in the Roaring Twenties-7

4. Love Relationships between Each Couple and Their Moral Spirit-8

4.1 The Love Relationship between Tom and Daisy-8

4.2 The Love Relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Wilson-9

4.3 The Love Relationship between Tom and Mrs. Wilson-9

4.4 The Love Relationship between Nick and Baker-10

4.5 The Love Relationship between Gatsby and Daisy-11

4.6 The Moral Spirit in These Relationships-11

5. The Interaction between Moral Spirit and the Society-12

5.1 The Moral Spirit in the Society-12

5.2 The Social Impact on Human-12

5.3 The Importance of Moral Spirit-13

6. Conclusion-14

References-15

Acknowledgments-16