Isolation In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

People can tragically become lonely and isolated from society for the entirety of their lives. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about a lonely man, the ‘Great’ Gatsby, from the perspective of his neighbor, Nick Carraway. The entire West Egg, where the two men live, constantly buzzes with news about Gatsby’s lavish parties and mysterious history, but until Nick, no one at these gatherings has ever met him. As Nick becomes acquainted with Gatsby, he learns about the intimate relationship between Gatsby and Nick’s cousin, Daisy. Despite Daisy’s husband, Tom, and their child, Pammy, Gatsby, and Daisy begin to reconnect. While Daisy and Nick emerge as very lonely, Gatsby’s self-isolation from society and obsession with Daisy makes

With their opulent lifestyles, the characters, such as Nick, begin to lose track of time. Nick says, “I just remembered that today’s my birthday” and thinks to himself, “Thirty--the promise of a decade of loneliness,” (Fitzgerald 135). Nick, too, emerges as a lonesome character. He ironically blames his thirties for bringing loneliness while he has felt this way for some time. Nick can not differentiate between his feelings of past and future because of the odd passage of time in West Egg. Nick sticks out in the sense that he cannot buy into the manipulation of time. He says to Gatsby, “You can't repeat the past” as Gatsby passionately replies, “Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 110). This begins to reveal Gatsby’s obsession with getting the past back. He lives in the past, where he had Daisy, and refuses to form any new connections because they will take him away from his ‘reality’ with her. His obsession with the past goes back even further than just his fling with Daisy. David Cheatham agrees and adds, “Gatsby romanticizes the loneliness of his childhood” (Cheatham). He romanticizes this in order to justify his loneliness now. Gatsby lives alone before Daisy so now he must stay alone without her to get her back, even stepping away from platonic relationships. With this romanticizing and obsession, he isolates himself more through obsessing over a woman who has grown and has a family that cannot be ignored. He tries to force Daisy to repeat the past which results in her sobbing, “I love you now-isn't that enough? I can't help what's past” (132). She, just like Nick, refuses to go back because she has moved forward with her life. This moment indicates her separation from Gatsby and demonstrates the fact Gatsby’s obsession has no roots in reality. His actions push Daisy away and isolate him more, while he still continues to push. He truly believes