The novel， The Great Gatsby， told a great story about a man who use his all life to do everything for one purpose， making the past lover return to him. Gatsby has done the most secular issue but owned the most pure heart. Under all these extravagant life hide the desire for love. The deepest impression of this novel left to me is that in all Gatsby’s life he was besieged by the childhood traumas. He used his lifetime to cure the pain that left to him when he was a child. He disavowed he is the son of the poor parents. He claimed that he is the son of God. The poor life and the experience of leaving home in a very young age made him diffident， unconfident and indecisive.
　　The poor life in his childhood urged him to pursue more material in his later life. So he was left and to look for a different life. The story told us that Gatsby’s original family is quite poor， which may imply that his parents can not give him so many love. Maybe， nowadays， many TV programs revealed that even a people burn in a poor family he also will gain as much as love from parents. Of course， we know parents will love their children whatever the situation is. However， the reality is that parents’ love in such a family only can keep children to be warm and well-fed. They have no time to share the feeling of children， company the child all the time. In other words， they have no time to know you. Gatsby’s parents have no spare time to understand their son， maybe they just know that their son is safe and not hungry. But they may have no idea of the thought of their son. Feeding a child to grow up can not be seen the love of parents.
　　The result of this kind of deficiency make Gatsby can not understand what the real love is and he has no idea about what his lover really need. He hope his lover to love him again， whereas in his own mind the necessary condition of it is that he need to become enough rich. Therefore， he spent five years to gain a plenty of wealth. However， Daisy did not go with him after he reached the aim. A person as smart as Gatsby did not know what Daisy really want at that time. Daisy born in a notable and rich family， what she lacks most is not wealth. Does the prosperous house and property of Gatsby really touch Daisy’s heart？ I guess it didn’t.
　　The another deficiency of Gatsby is that he really have no confidence about the background of his education and successful business. This kind of deficiency may be caused by his terrible childhood. A family like that of Gatsby may have no appropriate environment to build the confidence of children. Besides， the poor education of Gatsby’s parents limit the understanding about the importance of confident to a child. The confidence of a person who born in a peaceful， happy and rich family， cannot be imitated by a person who come from a turbulent， depressed and poor family. So the pretended confidence of Gatsby is exposed easily. Meanwhile， the most lamentable thing is that Gatsby cannot recognize such a trap that come from these upper-class people. For instance， after he succeed he did not want to tell people what the real business of him. Meanwhile， he told many unbelievable experiences of himself to Daisy. Maybe many of them are lies. Moreover， he was frightened when others mentioned his birth and education background. 　　His bad childhood left the third deficiency， indecisive， to him， which lastly make him lost his lover and his own life. Nick’s words told us that the aim of Gatsby has hold so many parties is to want Daisy can come. According to the stories， we know he hold such parties already in a long time， almost a year. But he just wait. He want to Daisy can come by herself. And he bought the house opposite Daisy’s house， while the first met between he and Daisy is because of Nick’s invitation. We can guess if Nick not appear， maybe he will hold the meaningless parties forever. At their first met， he almost lost this chance again， because he run away. Fortunately， he came back lastly. When they dated for many times， he wanted Daisy to tell her husband that she never love him. But Daisy always did not do that. Gatsby just tell Nick that Daisy need more time. Until in the meeting of Daisy’s house， this woman still can not tell her husband that she never love him. While Gatsby still can not admit that Daisy did not love him so much just as five years ago. Finally， he was enraged by Daisy’s husband and lost Daisy’s heart forever.
　　This story is a process of curing Gatsby’s pain of childhood. And the end he failed it. The cause of that is not Gatsby himself， it is the hypocritical upper-class. We may infer this ending early. Although Gatsby owned a lot of money， he still keep a pure heart. While these upper-class people who own a large amount of wealth and selfish heart simultaneously. Gatsby never can be these people. So he was hurt again and again.
　　【作者簡介】朱燕，兰州交通大学外国语学院。