The Great Gatsby And The Open Boat Analysis

The Great Gatsby, The Yellow Wallpaper, and The Open Boat share characteristics that are seen through common threads. These threads are social standing, helplessness, isolation, and the pursuit of something fake. Emotions such as love, loneliness, and boredom cause the characters to find salvation in something that doesn’t exist. In these stories their pursuit of a fake “salvation” causes them to lose control of their fate.
The main social system that had an impact in these stories was social hierarchy. In Gatsby, this was emphasized by the discrimination of West Egg by East Egg as well as the relationship between Tom, Daisy, and Myrtle. When at Gatsby’s party, Daisy expresses her disgust of West Egg when Nick observes, “But the rest (West

While somewhat distant at first, the crew develops a strong bond through their isolation at sea that allows them to persevere. An example of this bond is described when the correspondent notes, “It would be difficult to describe the secure bond between men that was here established on the seas.…they were friends—friends in a more strangely iron-bound strength than may be ordinary” (Crane 3-4). The correspondent notes that their friendship is stronger than others because of their situation. They realize that they are in a perilous situation, and have to work together to survive, which creates a bond that is almost unbreakable. In the Yellow Wallpaper, the Woman does not have this bond, and instead sinks further into her own nightmarish fantasy. As a child, the woman had an active imagination as she writes, “I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in a toy-store” (Gilman 135). In her isolation, she is unable to do almost anything, and the only thing she can do entertain herself with her imagination. Her isolation causes her to see women in the wallpaper as she writes, “ The front pattern does move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!”(143). The woman behind the wallpaper symbolizes her life right now and as a wife. Considered below her husband, she has no control over her life, and the shaking represents her trying to escape. However, her “escape” was descending into insanity as she wrote, “I’ve got out at last!... And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (147). By losing her mind, she finally escaped the “cage” of her everyday life and the boredom of the not doing anything. By pulling of the paper, her sanity was truly lost and she can never be the same