Chapter 6.2 名师讲解

文本解析
James Gatz — that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career — when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior. It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach that afternoon in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants, but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a rowboat, pulled out to the Tuolomee and informed Cody that a wind might catch him and break him up in half an hour. (P62, Para.9~P63, Para.1)
剖析
1. 这段话中有两个强调句，分别是“It was James Gatz who…”和 “it was already Jay Gatsby who…”，这两个强调句形成对比，在这两件事前后，James Gatz就变成Jay Gatsby了。
2. “Tuolomee ”是游艇的名字，译为“托洛美号”。
词汇
anchor /'æŋkə/ n. 锚（drop anchor 抛锚）; insidious /ɪn'sɪdɪəs/ adj. 险恶的; flat /flæt/ n. 平地；loaf /ləʊf/ v. 游荡；jersey /'dʒɜːzɪ/ n. 运动衫；rowboat /'rəʊbəʊt/ n. 划艇，小船
翻译
詹姆斯·盖兹——这才是他的真名，至少在法律上是。他在十七岁时改了这个名字。那时是他事业的开端，也就是他看见丹·科迪的游艇在苏必利尔湖最险恶的沙洲上抛锚的时候。那天下午，詹姆斯·盖兹身穿一件破旧的绿色运动衫和一条帆布裤在沙滩上游荡，后来他借了一条小船，划到“托洛美号”，提醒科迪半小时内可能起大风让他的船覆没——这时他已经是杰伊·盖茨比了。


I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people — his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God — a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that — and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (P63, Para.2)


剖析
1. 通过对Gatsby父母的描述，我们可以知道Gatsby的出身是非常卑微的。
2. 这个部分讲到Gatsby的身世时，用了很多类似于“幻想、梦幻”这样的词，可以看出Gatsby从小就是一个喜欢幻想的人。
3. “a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty”，Gatsby始终追求一种博大、庸俗、华而不实的美。之后Gatsby追求的物质上的财富和Daisy，正是属于这样一种博大、庸俗、华而不实的美。
4. 17岁的Gatsby否认了自己的出身，忠实于自己的梦想并追求梦想。后来，他锲而不舍地追求Daisy，其实追求的也是他脑海中梦想的Daisy。我们可以看出Gatsby从17岁到后来，他的本质、本性是没有变的，他一直是有创造力的梦想者，并且义无反顾地坚持追求自己的梦想。这是他了不起的地方，也是他从贫穷的小伙子最后变成富豪的原因。从某种程度来看，这是美国梦的实现。但是他过于执迷于自己的幻想，这一点可能影响了最后结局的走向。
词汇
shiftless /'ʃɪftlɪs/ adj. 无能的，碌碌无为的；Platonic /plə'tɑnɪk/ adj. 柏拉图式的，理想的; vulgar /'vʌlgə/ adj. 庸俗的；meretricious /,merɪ'trɪʃəs/ adj. adj. 俗气的，华丽而庸俗的
翻译
我猜想他很久之前就想好了这个名字。他的父母都是碌碌无为的农民——在他的想象中，他从来都没有真正承认过他们是自己的父母。事实上长岛西卵的那个杰伊·盖茨比来自于他柏拉图式的理想。他是上帝之子——这个称号代表的就是字面上的意思——他必须为上帝工作，献身于一种博大、庸俗、华而不实的美。所以他创造了一个十七岁的男孩很可能会虚构的那种杰伊·盖茨比的形象，并始终忠于这个形象。










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