夢と幻滅 : F. Scott FITZGERALDの世界
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概要
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This is an attempt to portray F. Scott FITZGERALD from the angle of dream and disllusion. As a man and a writer, he must first be viewed in the light of his age which is characterized by its cultural confusion and its striking contrast between the first and the second half. He was one of those who ignored the old moral code in search of new freedom and authority. He was lucky enough to cut a conspicuous figure in the literary world when very young and take the lead among the younger generation for the gorgeous decade after World War I. His predominance, however, had to fall to the ground, as he stuck to his emotion alone even after the financial panic cast a dark shadow over the following decade which was to be marked with general destitution and strife between capital and labour. Indeed he was, so to speak, a child of the age ; not only his rise and fall contrasting with the gaiety and gloom of the times, but also he himself being a strange mixture of opposing dispositions. He was both romantic and cynical. Under his superficiality and sentimentality lurked his deep insight into reality and pathos got from the depth of life. He may well be called a snob, but his strong worldly_ desire is connected with his craving for infinity. What he wanted was not association with glittering things and glittering people, but glittering things themselves. Wealth for him was something to build his aircastle on, and not anything to secure the rest of his life. He yearned for the realization of his desire in his dream, which resulted in his tragedy om this side of paradise. This subtle duality of his character gives light upon his assertion that he may be a big liar and yet he does not lie to himself. Accordingly you may regard his works as his fiction and a genre picture of his age, but you must also admit they are his confession and a mental manifestation of his age as well. It was a strange fate for this disillusioned dreamer that the very writing should have maintained his dignity beyond every weakness and meanness he had, as it later rescued his name from being consigned to oblivion. In this essay, not only did I try to show him to be the very symbol of his age, but also I.ventured, chiefly trudging along the story of 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz', to tell how he cherished his dream which was to fade away into sad disillusionment and how in its ruins he went through fire and water to grasp his last dream that will never vanish, namely, to convert his chequered career into art.
- 1953-03-30