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영어

This paper aimed at revaluing the meaning of American Dream by examining the novels of 1920s and 1930s, The Great Gatsby and Miss Lonelyhearts. The Great Gatsby showed the ideal values of American Dream by the various aspects of American society. Though we tried and defined the positive meaning of American Dream from the novel, but the process of Gatsby’s dream had negative ways for pursuing it. And the absurdities of the American society after the materialization made their lives degenerated from their ethics for hope and success. From those point of view, we might find the dual representation for the reality of American Dream in The Great Gatsby. And in Miss Lonelyhearts, West presented the hopeless American society of the 1930s by the superrealistic description for the hideous reality after the Great Depression period. Miss Lonelyhearts wrote the columns to save the minds of the people, but the real intention of the columns were distorted by the materialistic desire. West described this absurd reality from the disgusting and frightful representation for the American society at that era. In conclusion, we might find some aspects for the true meaning of American dream that was just the way of expressing their ideal hope without reality. And the novels examined in this article presented the opposing way of understanding the reality of American ideals and their society.