Where did the Puritan immigrants come from?

Paradise on Earth is a novel by American writer Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, and it is also his first novel.

Its appearance established Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald as the champion and poet laureate in the "Jazz Age". In Paradise on Earth, Fitzgerald describes in detail the process of "fantasy-pursuit-disillusionment" of Emory, and "vividly shows the fantasy of young people's fanatical pursuit of the' American Dream' and the theme of doomed failure".

Name of the work

paradise on earth

Foreign name

This Side of Heaven

author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

Literary genre

long novel

First edition time

1920

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Contents introduction, creative background, works introduction, works appreciation, the influence of works on works evaluation, author introduction, TA said.

brief Introduction of the content

Emory was born in an American aristocratic family, handsome and intelligent. Like the young author, he is sentimental and full of young people's fantasies. He wants to "climb to the top of society", be a "big shot" and marry a "most beautiful girl". Under the influence of his family, he looked at life with the arrogant eyes of the aristocratic class, ignored the reality, was out of tune with the society, and indulged in the rose dream of love all day long. During his study at Princeton University, the surrounding environment intensified his doubts and rebellious psychology about the value of the middle class. However, this series of blind resistance did not bring him happiness, but led to a series of unfortunate events. The failure of the exam made him lose his belief in pursuing knowledge, and several relationships made him lose confidence in love. Just when he was confused and on the verge of depravity all day, World War I broke out, and he left the campus and went to the military camp for training. During the war, my mother died and my classmates died tragically. After the war, he returned to new york to do business, but his investment failed and he finally went bankrupt. At this time, the beloved girl Rosalyn got married, and Father Darcy, who had been revered for many years, died. After repeated blows, emory's thought has undergone profound changes, "from the pursuit of pleasure to nihilism and decadence." He hates life to the extreme, and drinks all day to find inner peace. At the end of the novel, Emory came to Princeton alone, stood at the school gate and looked at everything here. He couldn't help feeling excited and full of thoughts. At this time, he deeply felt that he had lost and lacked too much, which was irreparable. The only thing that can console him is that he has a little understanding of the value standard of life through all kinds of twists and turns on the road of life. [ 1]

Catalogue of works

Juanmu

camphorwood

Chapter name

The first volume Fantasy conceit

chapter one

Emory, the son of Beya Tracy.

chapter two

Source code top-floor building and monster drip mouth

chapter three

The conceited man began to think.

Spread out completely

Creation background

The theme of Paradise on Earth is undoubtedly related to the American dream and its disillusionment. As an American ideal, American myth and American spirit, American dream companion has a long history and rich connotation with the development of American national literature. As early as Columbus discovered America, people began to pursue the "American Dream". Early America was full of romance, which attracted thousands of Puritans and immigrants from Europe. It was a holy land that Europeans yearned for. For the ideal dream of freedom and the secular dream of prosperity, they crossed the ocean and came to the barren American continent. Among these immigrants were English Puritans persecuted by the church in China. In order to get rid of the exploitation of the English Church, they came to the American continent not far from Wan Li, looking for a chance to survive, and dreamed of building a new Jerusalem-the kingdom of God on earth. For them, they can enjoy full personal freedom in this uncultivated land. The Puritans, represented by winthrop, thought they were "special people" of God, and felt an unshirkable responsibility and obligation to fight against all the unholy things in the world. Their dream is to build a "city on the top of the mountain", that is, a demonstration nation, a nation that can be admired and imitated by the world. They work hard for this and are strict with themselves. Puritans first integrated the tradition of freedom, democracy and individualism into the "American Dream", which is still respected by most Americans today. At the same time, through endless struggle from generation to generation, they transformed the wasteland of America into a prosperous capital of the world, created American mythology, and effectively promoted the development of social material civilization. [3]

However, after the 1920s, the American economy was basically in a period of high development and prosperity, but the great economic development did not mean that the people lived and worked in peace and contentment and the society developed steadily. The great changes in material life have brought a series of spiritual puzzles that are difficult to solve. Instead of bringing prosperity to people, economic forces have washed away the dams of social politics, morality and values. The "American Dream", which once inspired the American people's unremitting struggle as a sincere belief, has suffered an unprecedented impact in the face of this social reality. The grand ideals such as "democracy, freedom and equality" gradually lost their sacred glory, and the enterprising spirit was gradually replaced by unscrupulous extortion. The belief that everyone in the United States can get rich began to disintegrate, and the "American Dream" was facing the crisis of complete disillusionment. [3]

The theme of disillusionment inevitably appears in literary works: Hemingway fully shows the pessimism and disappointment of American youth with his popular anti-war novels; Eliot used his famous poem The Wasteland to describe the postwar civilization that became a spiritual wasteland. With his short life experience and careful observation of society, Fitzgerald provided an example of disillusionment of the "American Dream". Fitzgerald's emphasis on personal experience is itself a microcosm of American national experience. In this sense, although Fitzgerald's works have obvious autobiographical nature in the overall framework, they have gone beyond the personal category and become dramatic symbols of human and cultural reality. Paradise on earth is a typical example. [3]

character introduction

Emory Bryan

Emory Bryan is a visionary, eager to get ahead through his own struggle one day. He is indecisive and sentimental, and almost all the characteristics of the younger generation in the United States after the war are reflected in him. However, when his family went bankrupt, all the "pretty girls" around him parted ways with him. He is very disappointed and has strong resentment and hatred for the upper class and the current social system. He began to realize that in this world, "the richest people can marry the most beautiful girls if they want, while artists without income can only sell their talents to businessmen who make buttons." This strong contrast and his radical ideology made him look forward to a great social revolution, so that he could turn to the top of society. Emory's pursuit of "paradise on earth" is dreamy. After the dream is shattered, all that remains is greater melancholy and sadness. In this sense, Paradise on Earth is a vivid record of how the younger generation overcame false illusions and gradually matured. [4]

works appreciation

Theme of the work

Paradise on Earth consists of The Romantic Egoist1965438+May 2007-1965438+February 2009 and The Growth of an Important Person, which faithfully depicts the social scene of American economic prosperity after World War I and vividly records the love of youth. This novel can be regarded as an autobiographical novel that records Fitzgerald's own life experience, and it can also be regarded as a social documentary that truthfully reflects the disillusionment and confusion of American youth after World War I. The process of Amauri's "growth-love-disillusionment" is not a simple story about the growth of young people, but also a social chronicle that gives insight into the fantasy and pursuit of American youth after World War I. Emory's growth process reflects the wildness and unremitting pursuit of the American dream by the younger generation. This pursuit is embodied in the pursuit of self and love. [5]

"The romantic figures in Fitzgerald's works have a remarkable feature, that is, they are diligent in self-reflection." Emory in Paradise on Earth is an out-and-out romantic, but he can constantly reflect on himself while experiencing various setbacks, and finally get rid of the fantasy of aristocratic and romantic egoism step by step and get to know himself. [5]

At the beginning of the novel, Emory's family background is explained. Emory's mother Beatrice is the daughter of a wealthy American, and his father Stephen Bryan got rich by inheriting the inheritance of two brothers who are famous as brokers in Chicago. This newly formed family is a typical middle-class family. However, Beatrice still maintains the aristocratic style in this new family. When Emory left for St. Regis Middle School, he was said to have prepared "six sets of summer underwear, six sets of winter underwear, a sweater or T-shirt, a sweatshirt, a coat, winter clothes and so on". It is this extravagance and waste, coupled with poor investment and financial management, that has led to a sharp decline in their family's economic situation. [5]

Beatrice received an elite education when she was young. Although this kind of education is at the "end of the elite era", she still wants to instill this kind of education in her son Emory. Therefore, unlike other rich children, Emory received a very special education from his mother, such as eating breakfast in bed and reading in the bathtub, while his mother was complacent about his "femininity". Influenced by his mother, Emory became more and more like his mother when he was 13 years old. Under the careful cultivation of his mother, he established a sense of superiority far superior to others. Although this sense of superiority suffered a heavy blow in Minneapolis's two-year life, Emory formed his original philosophy, the principle of his life, that is, a kind of aristocratic egoism: [5]

"Emory calls himself a lucky young man, with great plasticity, good and bad. He doesn't consider himself a "strong-willed" person, but relies on his own talent (accepting things quite quickly) and outstanding intelligence (reading widely). He is proud that he can climb other peaks besides being a technical or scientific genius. " [5]

However, at St. Regis Middle School, although Emory thought he was a talented and intelligent person, everyone around him thought he was arrogant and generally hated him. It was not until he made a splash in the football match in the second school year and fully enjoyed his heroic and tenacious heroism that Emory regained his former complacency, had his first reflection and began to subtly hide the influence exerted by his mother. Emory looks completely different from himself, but the essence has not changed. [5]

Emory thinks that although the students of Princeton University are lazy, they are all beautiful and aristocratic, so they have always had a heart for Princeton University. After entering Princeton University, Emory made up his mind to get ahead. After some efforts, he joined the editorial board of Princeton People, participated in the music tour of the Triangle Club, joined the "Country House" club, and was elected as the preparatory committee member of the second-grade dance. At this time, he not only made many excellent new friends, but also fell in love with Isabella. However, the lazy nature of aristocratic egoism made him encounter a series of setbacks after reaching the high point of vanity and the peak of egoism in his youth. Frustrated love with Isabella just stopped a romantic history in time for him, and it was even more fatal for Emory to be forced to leave the editorial department of Princeton Men because of the failure of the make-up exam and lose the opportunity to enter the leadership of the senior student union. For a time, Amauri fell into negative decadence, until the demon's "pale face twisted by some heavy evil" awakened Amauri. In the last two years of college life, Emory also felt his growth and maturity from his old friend Bourne Holiday. "He became more cynical, sneered at everything that stood in his way, and thought that people could not be perfect." This second reflection is actually the problem of aristocratic egoism before. Subsequently, the war continued, so that American teenager Emory finally got out of his illusion and left the campus for overseas training camps. [5]

In the second part, after experiencing the disillusionment of love with rosalind, the experiment of regrouping, self-mockery and arrogant sacrifice, Emory finally gave birth to a brand-new self from Father Darcy's funeral: "He found what he always wanted now, in the past and in the future-not the admiration he was afraid of, not the love he once persuaded himself to get, but the person who made himself necessary and indispensable". This third reflection made Emory feel a strong desire to give people a sense of security, so he turned to socialist belief. Just like the pilgrim in fable, Emory set off for Princeton University with a complex mood of disillusionment and rebirth. The towers, spires and bells of Princeton University made him realize as if he were a new student, "The spirit of the past is incubating a new generation of elite young people from a chaotic and unpurified world. They still romantically draw nourishment from the mistakes and forgotten dreams left by late politicians and poets. Here is a new generation, shouting old slogans, learning old beliefs and indulging in long dreams day and night. Finally, I will inevitably come out and walk into that dirty, gray whirlpool to pursue love and pride. " At this point, Emory experienced the fourth and most important reflection, and finally came out of the illusion of "romantic egoist", opened his arms to the glittering sky and shouted out the Socratic wisdom "I know myself". [5]

Therefore, it can be said that Paradise on Earth is a masterpiece recognized by the world and a true portrayal of the "lost generation". In the novel, Fitzgerald vividly shows readers the serious moral confusion and spiritual crisis in the early stage of the formation of the "lost generation" in America. It profoundly reveals the spiritual emptiness and moral depravity of American young people during World War I, truly records the pleasure-seeking and bohemian lifestyle of the "lost generation" of young people in the United States, faithfully reflects the youthful turmoil in American society before the advent of the frivolous jazz age, and truly describes all kinds of puzzles and setbacks encountered by this generation on the road of life. Through a brand-new perspective and reasonable layout, Fitzgerald vividly shows the fantasy of young people's fanatical pursuit of the "American dream" and the theme of doomed failure in a perfect artistic form, which has produced a strong shock in people's hearts. With the theme of seeking self-worth and the young artist Emory Bryan as the basic content, Fitzgerald depicts an elegant and disillusioned hero, implying that the hero hides a romantic sadness under the elegant charm, profoundly revealing his confusion and melancholy, and showing the same experience of American "lost generation" writers by describing the hero's personal bumpy experience. [4]

In Paradise on Earth, Fitzgerald describes in detail the process of "fantasy-pursuit-disillusionment" of Emory, and "vividly shows the fantasy of young people's fanatical pursuit of the' American Dream' and the theme of doomed failure". Emory's experience is also an artistic representation of Fitzgerald's youth life to some extent. Fitzgerald "shows the young generation's wild and cathartic pursuit of the' American Dream' with a sense of understanding and even participation". Young emory desperately wanted to gain fame and status by virtue of his talent and intelligence, and later found that what he pursued, even love, was not worthy of praise, which fully demonstrated the nothingness of the "American dream." Just as Emory's strong desire for success is also manifested in Fitzgerald's later protagonists Gatsby and Dick Defoe. At the same time, Fitzgerald's portrayal of rosalind also leads to the theme of a series of later works, "... she is not completely spoiled. She is full of energy, she has a desire to grow and learn, she has unlimited confidence in endless romantic love, her courage and essential honesty-these things are not lost. However, they are doomed to disappear. It is precisely because his characters have gradually lost these qualities that they feel sympathy and pity for their failure. Besides, in Paradise on Earth, Fitzgerald not only "felt" the tremor of the times with his unique acumen and wisdom, but also recorded the social outlook and living atmosphere of that particular era with vivid words, and accurately captured the moral decay under the colorful and intoxicating appearance of prosperity in the 1920s, and expressed Emory's pursuit and disillusionment with gorgeous rhetoric. This kind of true description based on the observation of life and times has gradually become a lasting creative theme in his later novels. [5]

Artistic feature

The description of the novel is very vivid, the writing is quite fresh and lively, and people and things are vividly described, which has aroused a strong sense of * * * in the hearts of American readers. Emeri Bryan, the hero of the novel, is also a true portrayal of the author to a great extent. [4]

The language description of the characters in the novel Paradise on Earth is concise and accurate. Fitzgerald's technical level of using language and the accuracy of every word were unparalleled at that time. In other words, Fitzgerald is good at scrutinizing the wording language in order to achieve the best expression effect, so that future generations can not replace it with any similar words. For example, in the clip of Paradise on Earth, he said: "His father was originally a useless person who was not good at expressing himself, but he liked reading Byron's poems." Such an extremely simple sentence has indeed positioned this character extremely accurately. In this paper, this image feature, which has long been emphasized as weak and useless, will be greatly reduced if it is replaced by the original word area. Through the ingenious use of language in Paradise on Earth, it is fully proved that Fitzgerald is a perfectionist and has high requirements for creation.

Fitzgerald is very good at highlighting people through comparison. Fitzgerald's contrast mainly has two aspects. One is the difference between different personalities. Fitzgerald often makes a positive contrast between two characters with different personalities to highlight the central idea expressed. As described in the fragment of Paradise on Earth: "For many years, he has been wandering behind the scenes of family life, which is simply the image of a person who lacks self-confidence. But Beatrice Bryan is different! She is an amazing woman! " These two characters are in sharp contrast, one is cowardly and the other is brave. Cowardice is used to contrast and highlight the brave characteristics of Beya Tracy Bryan. This contrast technique has been used many times in the novel Paradise on Earth, which makes readers clear-headed, easy to understand the personality characteristics of the characters, and the characters are vivid and lifelike. [6]

The second is the comparison of the characters' own personalities, experiences and emotions. Fitzgerald used contrast freely, skillfully and horizontally, and horizontally and vertically in Paradise on Earth. Not only that, Fitzgerald divides contrast into bright ratio and dark ratio, among which dark ratio can highlight characters and vividly depict characters and details. For example, in Paradise on Earth, it is described that "Beya Tracy received an education that she could never get again". By comparing Beya Trish's present and future, this paper not only emphasizes the importance of Beya Trish's education now, but also shows that Fitzgerald's words are precise and accurate.

The most distinctive writing calligraphy of Paradise on Earth is the addition of monologues. When portraying the characters in Paradise on Earth, monologues are often cited as the finishing touch to highlight the characters' characteristics, further enhance their images and endow them with fresh souls and thoughts. In monologues, the inertial thinking of characters is usually described as a breakthrough point, which is not only a symbol of characters. For example, the fragment in Paradise on Earth: "For many years, he has been wandering behind the scenes of his family's life. He is simply the image of a person who lacks self-confidence. His stiff and soft hair covers half his face, and his mind is always thinking about' taking care of' his wife, and his heart is always distressed because he doesn't understand and can't understand his wife. " Monologue words such as "take care" and "don't understand" have become the label of this character, which not only locates this character, but also endows it with specific thoughts and ways of thinking, making the character vivid and intriguing. [6]

The influence of the work

Paradise on Earth is Fitzgerald's first novel. This novel is an autobiographical novel, which records Fitzgerald's own life experience. The plot of the novel is very simple, but the ideological content is quite profound and the structure is very rigorous. When 1920 was first published, it was immediately praised by readers and critics, and finally became an epoch-making work. [4]

In the preface to The Selected Works of Fitzgerald, John O'Hara, an American writer, emotionally recalled the sensational effect of Paradise on Earth among readers. "Twenty-five years ago, many young people read Paradise on Earth as a college entrance guide. Among male and female readers aged 25 to 30, about 500,000 people like this work. " [4]

Evaluation of works

H·L· Mencken, an American literary critic, once wrote and commented: "Paradise on Earth is indeed a groundbreaking novel that is astounding-it is quite original in structural treatment and exquisite in artistic expression, which is rare in American literature, just as honesty is rarely seen among people who manage state affairs in the United States ... this is the best American novel I have read recently." [4]

Burton Raskop, a literary critic, once wrote in the Chicago Tribune: "I think Paradise on Earth is enough for him to occupy a place among the few American novelists who are still engaged in literary creation. In my opinion, this novel is a work of genius, and it is the only work that has conducted in-depth research on the younger generation in the United States so far. " [4]

Thomas Hardy, English writer: Paradise on Earth is an impressive novel. [4]

Malcolm cowley, an American writer and literary critic, said: "The novel Paradise on Earth is enough to prove that Fitzgerald has begun to show his literary talent. The main features of this work are: clear and smooth narrative style, vivid characters, strong sense of comedy, and natural and realistic dialogue between characters. The most striking feature of this novel is to solemnly announce to the world that the standard of measuring everything has changed greatly ... Fitzgerald expressed the voices of his contemporaries with full passion, sincerity and frankness, which had a strong response among them, while his predecessors were listening to his voice. " [4]

Edmund wilson, an American literary critic, once commented on Paradise on Earth: "Paradise on Earth looks like an illusion, and there is no dominant idea to give it coherence and strength." [4]

Brief introduction of the author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is an American novelist in the 20th century. 1896 was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24th. Father is a furniture dealer. He tried to write a play when he was young. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to Princeton University. When I was at school, I organized my own troupe and wrote articles for the school's literary publications. Later, due to poor health, he dropped out of school. 19 17 joined the army. He is busy with military training all day and never goes abroad to fight. Insist on amateur writing after leaving the army. 1920, the novel Paradise on Earth was published, which made him famous. After the novel was published, he married Jishan II. After the marriage, he and his wife lived in Paris and met many American writers such as Anderson and Hemingway. 1925 the publication of the great Gatsby established his position in the history of modern American literature, and he became the spokesman of the jazz age in the 1920s and one of the representative writers of the lost generation. [7]