jella 2013-fall presentation Sangji 2014 presentation

1. 좌절과 희망사이:
<거리의 여인 매기>와 <위대한 개츠비>에 나타난
아메리칸 드림의 재현 양상
Representing the American Dream between Frustration and Hope in
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and The Great Gatsby
상지대학교 / 박 용 준

2. Table of Contents
1. Introduction:
-1. Defining the meaning of American Dream
(Historical background)
2. Purpose of the Article:
Historical Transition of Representing American Dream
from Frustration into (potential) Hope
3. Analysis of the work 1: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
4. Analysis of the work 2: The Great Gatsby
5. Conclusion: Why we study the stream in meaning of
American Dream?

3. Introduction:
-1. Defining the meaning of American Dream
(Historical Background)
1st period: from Immigration to Independence
- The new „Promised Land‟, „Chosen people‟, „Garden of
Eden‟(Religious / Ethical propaganda in politics)
- Puritanism in American culture has been something mystified as the
birth myth of the nation, and it really spread out as Americaness.=>
Universality and Consensus in culture and thought of American
Society
2nd period: Parallel bn. Idealism and Materialism
- Social/Economical/Scientific Development
- American Civil War, Immigration

4. Introduction:
3rd period: Destruction of Ideal Value for
Materialization
- After the Civil War: Industrial Revolution, Dominance of Material
Value
- Mark Twain: “Gilded Age”(鍍金時代 )
- Decay of Ideal value, Destruction of Ideal Human value, Frustration
4th period: Continuous Roaring; Quest for Ideal
Value
- Struggle for Regaining Ideal Value ; Confusion bn. Ideal and Material
- Longing for True Existence of Individual (potential Hope)
5th period: Resistance to Absurd Social System
- World Wars, Social Conflict, Existentialism

5. Purpose of the Articl
e Historical Transition of Representing American
Dream from Frustration into (potential) Hope.
American Realist Novel of 1890s(as in Maggie):
- Changing ways of Description in common life
- Approach to Social Conflict like Poor and Severe Life of the City
Modernist Novel of 1920~30s (as in Gatsby):
- Roaring Twenties
- After the World War I: Serious Revelation of Social Absurdity
- Quest of Potential Value of Hope

6. Analysis 1- Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Confusion and Destruction of Ideal Value
- Overflow in ways of Materialistic thought
- Charles Darwin‟s Origin of Species: Survival of the Fittest
- Realistic and Naturalistic Approaches to Social Disorder
Puritan/Calvinistic Rigorism Ethical Barrenness
- Destruction of Family(Community) Relationship
- Social Disregard and Indifference
- Stephen Crane‟s main object for symbolic and detailed description
European Influences of thought:
- Darwin, Auguste Comte‟s Positivism, Karl Marx‟s Deterministic
Materialism, Emile Zola‟s Naturalistic Theory in Therese Raquin

7. Analysis 1- Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
•
Main Topics of Maggie:
- Seduction and Betrayal: Tragedy of Bowery Life in New York
- Destruction of Human Relationship
- Detailed description: colors, repetition, violence, slang,
madness, image of the fin-de-siecle era
- Illusions wrought by pride and conceit of human mind
- Moral consequences of human delusion
- Example of Total Depravity ; Reversal of genteel tradition
- Brutal violence of lower class
- Demand blind obedience without hope or dream
- Disguised moral standard ; Negation of Biblical Image
•
Paradoxical Warning for Decay of American Absurd
Scene

8. Analysis 2- The Great Gatsby (1929)
•
•
Main Topics of The Great Gatsby:
- The Story of Jazz Age(Roaring Twenties)
- Contemporary record of the age: Absurd Illusion on The Age
of Material Prosperity
- Reversal of Mythical Success & Love Story : Absurd Hope
- Dramatization of the betrayal of the naïve American Dream in
a corrupt American society (Naïve hope? Quest for New
Hope?)
- Withering of American Dream?
- Description of dim but hopeful course of conquest by Gatsby
- Material Success vs. Ideal Success(Love)
- Accept vs. Deny Reality of Characters
- Gatsby: Symbolic figure of the essence of American Dream
A Chronological Study of the Essence of American Dream:
Positive proposal despite all the absurdity of Society

9. Conclusion:
Why we study the stream in meaning of
American Dream?
Maggie:
-description of the unstable and apathetic environment
- struggling for staying alive, but no concern each other
- description for their pure and real intentions of dreams were
distorted as frustration of reality.
The Great Gatsby:
-trying to find the ideal values of American Dream by the various
aspects of American society.
- wrong way of pursuit of dreams, but be able to find the positive
meaning of American dream
Dual representation for the reality of American Dream
Contemporary Application to find the American reality

10. Thank you.
Any Question
s?