我对20世纪美国文学的体验停止在读了一半的“兔子”系列上，菲茨杰拉德和他的作品似乎从来没有引起我的兴趣。 新年后开始读伟大的盖茨比，竟然出乎意外地被打动了。
盖茨比是一个追梦人，他追逐的梦想是一个更好的自己， 一个家乡以外的世界。黛西是他的梦想的象征，他爱上了自己的梦想，为实现这个梦想附上了终极的代价。盖茨比的逐梦最终被尼克所解读，他们对西部以外世界的爱恨交织让我想起汤玛斯-沃尔夫的“你不能回家”。
"And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out Daisy's light at the end of his dock. He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 9
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 9
几个主题 1. 大战之后的纸醉金迷 （盖茨比的派对） 2. 芝加哥/纽约与西部 （文化中心和本土的美国） 3. 女性的自由与女性的束缚 （婚外情，职业，婚姻选择）
