The Bankruptcy of a Promising Psychologist

Abstract

Tender Is the Night is another important work written by Fitzgerald, the spokesman of Jazz Age. It ranks 28^th among the best 100 novels in the Twentieth Century. The book takes the author years of hard work, because when he is writing it, his family experiences lots of vicissitudes—his wife’s insanity and economic problems. At the very beginning, he embraces high expectation of the novel, because he wants to regain his fame by it. But the expectation is spoiled by the cold receptions among readers and critics. Because of the loose structure and the unclear explanation of Dick’s bankruptcy, many critics and readers severely inveigh against the novel. This paper wants to illustrate the process of Dick’s bankruptcy from a promising psychologist with the aid of bildungsroman theory. At first, at the impact of two positive guides, Dick is a rising elite. But owing to the personal weakness and outer seductions, the innocent Dick meets sophisticated circumstances and goes bankrupt at last.