An Analysis Of The Great Gatsby With Ecocriticism

The Great Gatsby is one of the most classical woks of Francis. Fitzgerald, and is also agrand historical allegory concerning The Jazz Age in the20s in America, which tells a story thatsome of the characters in the novel were in his low state, some of them were indulged in theirrevel, some were indifferent to love, and others involved themselves into the swamp of love.These phenomena are not only the precise description of the American society, but also thewarning for the prospective society. The persistence and efforts of Gatsby for love gain a lot ofrespect and his tragic consequence also make many people heart-broken. There are largenumbers of studies as to this novel, such as some from the perspective of American dream, somefrom the perspective of symbolism, some from the perspective of feminism, and others frommany other literary perspectives. However, little studies employ ecocriticism as their theoreticalfoundation to investigate The Great Gatsby, so this thesis is aimed to use ecocriticism to have abrand-new and detailed analysis of the motivations, performance, and endings of the characters.The thesis analyzes the novel from the following three perspectives of ecocriticism: The first oneis concerned with the destruction on the natural and social environment by human centralism andits feedback to the figures in the novel; The second one is about how the inharmoniousrelationship between different characters caused by human centralism influence their actions;The third one is about how the psychological environment caused by human selfishness affectsthe performance and the destination of the main characters in the novel. It is not only helpful tothe understanding of the classical novel by taking the new literary methodologies, but also to theenhancement and supplement of the novel.The thesis mainly consists of the seven chapters as follows.The first chapter has a brief introduction to the life and works of the author, as well as thesignificance of the thesis.The second chapter is literature review, carrying out a brief review of the issues about therecent study on the development of ecocriticism abroad and at home and to what degree andfrom what perspectives the critics abroad and at home analyze The Great Gatsby.The third chapter mainly deals with the theories of ecocriticism against human centralism,as well as the three perspectives to expose the unfavorable effects of it. The chapters from four tosix are the body of the thesis, pointing out the various kinds of unbalances caused by humancentralism and its harmful impact on the figures in the novel from the three perspectives.The fourth chapter makes some remarks on the impact on the characters from the natural and social settings tainted by human centralism. The west movement in America virtuallypromoted the American agriculture and industry and built favorable foundation for the economy.In addition, it extended the boundary of America. However, all of these cannot cover thedevastation on the nature. The vengeance from the nature not only inflicted the exploiters, butalso tortured their offspring, namely, the characters in the novel. The First World War is anothersocial outcome aroused by the explosion of human desires, which is one of the causes leading tothe falling and rising of the characters.In the fifth chapter, the unfavorable relationships among the characters and its impact havebeen presented. Both the cheating marital relationship and the lover relationship are the outcomeof human selfishness. It will make it worse and tenser if one just attaches importance to thepleasure of his or he own, regardless being sensitive and considerate to others.In the sixth chapter, the unbalanced psychology of the characters and its impact is focusedon. The desires of human beings are limitless, and they will be stuck in the swamp of misery oncondition that they are consistently in pursuit of some illusionary and extravagant desires.The seventh chapter has a summary of the entire thesis, calls on people to overcome humancentrality for the purpose of being compatible with nature, the fellow men, and to keep an innerpeace. It also points out the disadvantages, limitations and prospect of the thesis.