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[Abstract ]　T he Gr eat Gat sby, wr itt en by F. S. Fit zgerald, allegorically por trayed the theme of the Amer ican dr eam by using many techniques. The most impor tant one is symbolism,which he succeeded in using to define the essential qualit ies of his own age. T her e ar e somedominant images in the novel, such as the gr een light, the aut omobile, the magic shir ts, andGatsby' s smile , etc. All t hese symbols ar e closely r elat ed to Gatsby' s dr eam and also implythat his dream is r ooted in the whole hist or y and society of America.
      Introduct ion
      This was an er a of radical changes—— of growth in populat ion, in the gr oss nat ional product , in the r iseof new technology and forms of mass media. In 1920 the populat ion of the United States was 106, 466, 000;by 1929, ＄104 bi ll ion; in 1920, 33. 49 percent . In 1920, 8, 131, 522 automobi les were registered in theUnited States in 1929, 23, 120, 897——Durant who formed Gener al Motors in 1908, and Henry Ford, whobrought out the Model T , the first mass- produced car , in the same year . Technology and mass media werebeginning to take over America to shape and determine the collect ionwww.51lunwen.org mind. At the beginning of 1922, therewer e four licensed stat ions and by the end of that year there would be 576. Tabloid publishing was a Britishinvent ion unt il the New York Daily News caught on in 1919. By the mid- twent ies New Yor k had three withthe ci r culation of over 1. 6 mi l lion. Professional spor ts were also on the rise in the twent ies. Baseball wasmor e popular than ever. However, the stock market crashed in 1929, which Fi tzger ald regarded as the end ofthis American er a. The 1920s seen through the pr ism of “ T he Great Gat sby”becomes a st range distillat ion ofunlimited wonder and opportunity foundering on human excess and waste, a heightened and yet insubstant ialcarnivalesque moment in which personal and nat ional desire give way to resplendent empt iness. As hismasterpiece “ T he Great Gat sby”tells an ext remely American story, Fitzgerald is called the spokesman of thegr eat era. In this point of view, the twenties may in many ways be thought of as Gatsby' s Amer ica.“ T he Great Gat sby”does illust rate a vivid pictur e of the modern America in that era , which is presentedas a corrupt , amoral and violent t ime, and in which loneliness, frust rat ion and lost spi r i ted values aretypical. Fitzgerald used the method of symbolic narrat ive rather than documentary realism to catch essence ofthe historical moment , reveal ing his cent ral character to a mythic level . Gat sby is shown in the dr eampartaking of a state of mind that embodied America itself. Gat sby' s fate is related closely to the dest iny ofAmerica. Gatsby' s dream and the American dream run through the whole novel , which is the theme of T heGrea t Gatsby.1　Gatsby' s dream has three basic and r elated par ts: the desire to escape ordefeat t ime, or repeat the past ; the desire for money; and the desire forincarnat ion of “ unut terable vision”in mater ial ear th.
      1. 1　The desire to escape or defeat t imeGat sby' s insistence that one can indeed “ repeat the past ”is an important clue to his essent ialadolescence—— an adolescence which he has never outgrown. The most str iking example is the firstappear ance of Gat sby. “I saw that I was not alone—— fifty feet away a figure has emerged from shadow o