| As one of the spokesmen of the"lost generation", Fitzgerald is also considered as the chronicler of the 1920s, one of the peculiar decades, characteristic of both economic booming and the sense of spiritual disorientation. He was one of the insiders as well as outsiders of the time in the trend of pleasure-seeking, money-making and truth-pursuing. He enjoyed material prosperity unlimitedly, and at the same time, he was a self-conscious writer with detached observation of the dominant trend. Inside he knew his time well; outside he saw it ironically. He is kind of autobiographic writer, out of his own life experience, presenting vivid and artistic revelation of both the surface and depth of post-war American society. His masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, is actually a typical panorama of the"Jazz Age", consuming floods of products and piled wealth extravagantly on the one hand, frustrated at the disorientation and dislocation in values and morality on the other. Gatsby, with a pure dream, tries to rebuild the paradise on earth, but his dream is based on and corrupted by materialism, and consequently falls into the hell in the end because he traps himself into a big paradox, so to speak, noble and transcendent ideal by evil means---criminal activities, which is doomed to tragedy. This tragedy actually reflects the paradox between spiritual pursuit or frustration, moral embarrassment and material extravagance in American society after WWI.This paradox, in the long run, exists unconsciously through the history of human beings as well as in that of the America from its colonial period to its foundation and rapid expansion, and descends spiritually from the culture of Christianity, deeply rooted in Americans'psychological and ideological structure. The first Americans were those Puritans who escaped from the religious persecution in Britain to seek fortunes and freedom in the new world, hoping to build up an earthly paradise. With the wealth accumulation they turned their back on the pure dream and fell into material opportunism. This paradox can also be sensed in the Bible which has influenced the ideology in the west so deeply that the impact has become collective unconscious to the western people. The Bible developed around God's salvation to the sinned world. In the Old Testament, in order to seek knowledge, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and were driven out the Garden of Eden, which becomes man's original sin. With the burden, man has to seek salvation all his life. In the New Testament, Jesus, the God's son, sacrifices himself to save the world. The salvation, however, results in betrayal and killing. This paradoxical salvation is a kind of"archetype", that is,"a typical or recurring image."(Frye 1973: 99) Fitzgerald may not have a conscious motivation in writing, but Gatsby actually imitates the life of Jesus and implements the salvation by way of resolution, death and resurrection. Gatsby is out of ordinary because of his loyalty to a pure dream. Nevertheless, in contrast to Jesus'nobility and idealism, the means Gatsby uses to achieve his dream makes Gatsby's greatness ridiculous. The Great Gatsby is the projection of this unconscious, which contributes to the success of the novel with inspiring social and historical significance.The thesis is made up of three parts. Part One gives an introduction to the research situations on the argument both abroad and at home, and the major concepts of archetypal theories, Part Two has a comprehensive discussion on the historical and cultural background of the archetype paradoxical salvation, and Part Three presents a close analysis of the projection of paradoxical salvation on Gatsby life process. |
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