《了不起的盖茨比》英文读后感

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　　《《不起的盖茨比》》英文读后感1

　　The Great Gatsby I read, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the well-known American writer, was published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in 2004, with 225 pages.

　　The book is a novel. It is a story told by Nick about a man named Gatsby. The author gives the reader a vivid love story with a tragic end. The story can be interpreted many ways. The fall of the American dream is one major theme.

　　Here are the top four characters. Gatsby, the protagonist, has an obsessive love with Daisy. He struggles for her attention, for her joyance, and most importantly, for her herself. It turns out what he struggles for is only an allusion, a shadow, and a dream, just out reach of his hand. He pays “a high price for living too long with a single dream” (Fitzgerald, 200). Special attention should be paid to Nick, the narrator. He is “one of the few honest people” that we ever known in the novel (Fitzgerald, 70). Therefore, we can, first of all, trust his narration. As Daisy’s cousin and Gatsby’s neighbour, he then exists as a connection of the two. Another function he plays is that being an observer, he can evaluate and criticize our protagonist objectively. Daisy and Tom make a perfect couple. Daisy, though born a beauty, is sensual and “her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald, 152). Then Tom, both physically and spiritually, is vulgar. Tom and Daisy lead a luxurious and profligate life.

　　The following is the plot of the novel. Gatsby and Daisy loved each other. However, Gatsby was too poor to marry Daisy. He went to war in Europe. When he came back he found Daisy had married Tom. He earned substantive money illegally, and came to New York City, and bought a house, and held parties, which were luxurious out of imagination, in order to draw Daisy’s attention. Finally he knew Nick, his neighbour, was Daisy’s cousin, and came to him for help. Under Nick’s arrangement, Gatsby met Daisy five years after they parted. After Tom had learned that there was something between Gatsby and Daisy, he attacked Gatsby that the latter did drugstore business in the face of Daisy and Nick, and asked Daisy back to his arms. Later, Daisy, driving, killed Myrtle, Tom’s lover by accident. However, Tom told her husband, Wilson, that it was Gatsby who was Myrtle’s lover and killed her. Consequently Wilson shot Gatsby to death and took his own life as well. After Gatsby’s depressing funeral, Nick decided to go back to the Middle West. After all, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and he himself were all from the Middle West.

　　When The Great Gatsby was published, T. S. Eliot praised it was the first step of American novel had token since Henry James. I like this novel, which is not hard to understand but not easy to appreciate. First, it is a novel about dreams. Young men, maybe young women as well, without fortune and outlook may lack everything but dreams. Yet how their dreams will turn out to be is completely another thing. We notice in Chapter 9, Gatsby’s SCHEDULE, which is marvelously similar to Benjamin Franklin’s schedule, and then we are reminded of the American dream. That is a dream, as James Truslow Adams has remarked, “of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (“What is the American Dream” ). The generation of Franklin succeeded through their personal struggle. Unfortunately, this was never true to men like Gatsby, who lived in the 1920s America. Gatsby does have ambition, but he is a hero in an improper time where money is the sole criterion of success. Fitzgerald links Gatsby “with a world that no longer exist, a world that has been lost in back rush of time, a world that offers more in promise than has been realized in fact” (Lehan). It is the dream that deceives him into living with sufferings; and it is the dream that even makes him die willingly.

　　Besides the decline of the American Dream, another theme of the novel, in my opinion, is that there exists no true love in a world where ruthless materialism prevails. Notwithstanding “the love Gatsby has for Daisy seems to be the only pure impulse in a corrupt world” (Lehan), his love has no opportunity to flourish. Daisy finally chooses to follow Tom, and they escape, “and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald, 222). About love, Fitzgerald says through one of his characters, “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (Fitzgerald, 95). The love between Nick and Baker, if it exists, can support this point as well.

　　In terms of craftsmanship in American literature, The Great Gatsby can be said one of the most consummate. It is a work making good use of symbolism. First, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock represents Gatsby’s hope and dream for the future. It is yet only an illusory dream which he will never reach. It is not more real than the stars in the sky. Second, the Valley of Ashes symbolizes “the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth”. Third, the eye of Doctor T. J. Ecklebury’s in a billboard represents “God staring down upon and judging American society as moral wasteland”. Each symbol has more than one interpretation, with which I will not try to bother here.

　　Then the language of The Great Gatsby deserves to be mentioned. The language is elegant and graceful, and sometimes it could be compared to a poem’s language. In one of Gatsby’s grand parties, “people disappeared, reappeared, made plans to go somewhere, and then lost each other, searched for each other, found each other a few feet away”(Fitzgerald, 44). Then when Daisy was singing with the music in a husky, rhythmic whisper, she brings out “a meaning in each word that it had never had before and would never have again” (Fitzgerald, 135). Then Gatsby “stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air …” (Fitzgerald, 191). More examples shall not be quoted. The description of views of the evening and moonlight should be specially noticed.

　　In relation to our life, how shall we do with our personal dreams? Man, as he grows, becomes realistic. This process is like when we put a piece of paper into a glass of water, the paper is gradually soaked and suddenly falls into the bottom. Then it is like an artichoke flower, peels off one petal after another, and finally withers. However, without dreams, what can man hold? The Pandora’s Box opened; everything flew out, leaving only hope at the bottom. Hope, thence, stays forever for the despairing people, even when they have nothing else.

　　Finally, the fiction urges me to think about what kind of life we are willing to have? All the four principle characters are from the Middle West and come to live in the East. Many in China come from the countryside and pursue the urban life. Nick never feels he is a part of the East, and if Gatsby has felt, he would not be dead. The relation between countryside and urban life deserves reconsidering, especially in the contemporary Chinese context.

　　It is my pleasure to recommend this novel to my friends. Another well-known American writer, who was contemporary with Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway’s words are of service, “Gatsby was a great book. I’ve read it twice in the last five years. It gets better with each reading” (Hemingway, Gregory). I would like to read it twice when time is available.

　　《不起的盖茨比》英文读后感2

　　The Great Gatsby is a significant classic in America literature and Fitzgerald is also considered as a chronicler of the “Jazz Age”. The women characters play an important role in revealing the theme of the novel. Especially the figure Daisy and the contradictions in her has aroused my interests to think carefully about the reason why she would choose that when her ideal ran into the reality.

　　Daisy was once a lovely, elegant and innocent girl when she was “Daisy Fay”. Though Gatsby was a penniless lower class young man, she fell in love with him crazily and happily. While she changed and showed her darker side gradually. She noticed the importance of wealth and position, so she chose to marry to Tom Buchanan though she did not love him as much as Gatsby at that time. Besides, Daisy considered her daughter as a doll and continued playing with those guys. Even until the end, her former lover Gatsby who was wealthy and renowned then came back to her. Considering Gatsby’s illegal sources of money and his inglorious past, Daisy refused to go with Gatsby finally. What annoyed me the most is the plot that Gatsby was murdered because of the misunderstanding of Wilson while Daisy did not attend his funeral. She may have many scruples when her ideal life was disturbed by the cruel reality. Actually everyone may become confused and perplexed when we face the confliction. Also everyone has his own choice. But the point is how much we can afford when confront the result that happened after our decision.

　　The slang “Make friends with local tyrant” is very popular nowadays. We ought to think about the hidden reason for its popularity after we scoff at it. With the fast development of economy, more and more people are lost themselves just like the young generation after the World War Ⅰ. Their value has been or is going to be changed completely. They don’t know what exactly right is and what exactly they are supposed to do. Some students play online games in the dormitory rather than go to the classes. Some staff has become a workaholic in order to deal with the life pressure. Some married stars betrayed their families without remembering their oath. It seems that the whole society has ran out of the regular track. So it is high time that we calmed down and reflected ourselves. What exactly is our final ideal and how could we make it a reality?

　　Honestly speaking, nobody could live in the society without money. And obviously, almost everyone has been aware of the necessity of money. So no wonder people are struggling and fighting to get more money. But what if the life with plenty money is different from the life we used to dream of? As far as I’m thinking, it is definitely that life is more cruel that we thought and it is impossible that life goes as we designed. We can not own everything that we want to have. What we could do and what we could change is just ourselves. Our choices, our goals or our attitudes all have an impact on the final result. The change may be pretty small, but we ought to believe that the miracle will definitely show up as long as you stick to your ideal goal. So when your ideal is disturbed by the reality, don’t let your original step be disturbed as well. Just follow your heart and be yourself. And I believe that you will finally achieve your goal in the near future.

　　《不起的盖茨比》英文读后感3

　　At the beginning of the review, I am afraid but I need mention that I read The Great Gatzby from my paper book, not online, so it might be a little strange in the record of my reading history and also the lack of comments.

　　After reading the novel, I sympathized deeply for Gatzby, who dedicated almost his whole life into pursuing Daisy, but eventually was shot down for Daisy’s fault, and also Nick, who narrate this heart-broken story to us. But I believe that all is destined, not only his success, but also his miserable, dramatic ending.

　　First, Gatzby meant to be succeed, which was determined by his personality. He was such an absolute perfectionist, fairly speaking, a paranoiac, that he never accept he was inferior to others in all kinds of aspects. He scheduled his life when he was young in order to achieve his goal. He couldn’t live like Tom who dissipated his time on women, also couldn’t like Wilson live so meaninglessly, and his ambition made it impossible for him to be content with common life. After the moment he denied his poor family background, changed his name into Jay Gatzby, he either succeed, or die.

　　No matter how, he will succeed. I always believe it because his characteristic promised.

　　And I also believe Gatzby would fall in love with a lady with a celebrated background. Because he was a perfectionist , he must long for a charming, wealthy, graceful aristocracy. Daisy was just a representation of perfection, a concrete thing in his dream.

　　However, Daisy falls far short of Gatzby’s ideal. She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, and hypocritical. She is careless person who smashes thing up and then retreats behind her money. She allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle ever though she herself was driving the car. Finally, rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, Daisy and Tom move away, leaving no contact address.

　　Gatzby knew exactly what kind of person she was. And the very beginning of the novel, he said “Her voice is full of money”. But how can it matter? His puzzle of life would be incomplete without Daisy, and as we know, he was such a paranoiac that never let it happen. It’s impossible for him to restart.

　　Gatzby’s obsession about Daisy and Daisy’s characteristic determined the trend of plot.

　　So, it is destined.

　　And not only from the plot development we can say Gatzby’s fate was destined, but also from the writer himself. Technically, Gatzby wasn’t a only fictional character, but also the reflection of writer, Fitzgerald himself. He also had a complex relationship of his own. His own experience made him believe that there’s a huge gap between the “natural” rich and the ”new” rich.

　　In rich boy, his another novel, he showed his attitude directly:

　　Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand.

　　They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.

　　Because of the poverty and adversity they had been through, they always cherish the first glamorous thing dropping in their life. Some of them even take it as the highest goal in life, like Gatzby who considered Daisy as his whole world. When their dream faded out gradually, they might behave like Gatzby, deceive themselves to protect their “little green light” in their heart until their hearts are beaten to pieces by reality.

　　At last, I want to use the final sentence in The Great Gaztby as the end, which I consider as the most profound ending I have ever read and inspire me a lot. Gatzby’s dream was always behind him, from the moment he met Daisy and fell in love with her. So what he did was just striving hard back into the past against the current of time, like the ending says:

　　So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.