Examples Of Loneliness In The Great Gatsby

“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (Fitzgerald 79). In Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” the protagonists live lives of secrecy, one in which is full of despair and desperation. This desperation is caused by an emptiness that resonates from within and in order to further eliminate it from their mind and hearts they aspire to fill the void they experience. The idea “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” from Henry Thoreau’s “Walden” becomes present as the characters find themselves unsuccessful in fulfilling their life goals to find happiness through the attainment of wealth, status, love, etc. Several characters in the novel mistakenly believe utmost fortune cause the desperation to cease, while

Daisies, a flower with two flowers, with white petals and a yellow center, much like Daisy Buchanan, in The Great Gatsby, who appears innocent but is truly corrupted in the center. The novel was set in the 1920s which was a time of rapid industrialisation, materialism, and failure of the American dream. The wealthy enjoyed their lavish lifestyles, while the poor were left hopeless in grey nothingness. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, surrounds Jay Gatsby on his journey to achieve his American dream, a future with Daisy, all in which ends fatally. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald portrays Daisy as a despicable and loathsome character. Daisy is deceptive in her appearance, giving an impression of being innocent but in truth, materialistic and superficial. The indecisiveness and selfishness is evident through her careless behaviors. Furthermore, her ignorance and shallowness are key characterizations of her personality. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays Daisy Buchanan as the most despicable character due to her deceitful personality, her irresponsible decisions, and her facileness.

Loneliness is oftentimes considered one of the greatest plights of human existence. It is a feeling that when felt, any living creature looks to shed. It is perhaps for this reason that loneliness is such a powerful theme throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby. The plot itself follows that of a lonesome man looking for love, and each and every character reflect an aspect of loneliness within their core. The book even sets up a certain setting despite its grandiosity, and sets the place for this loneliness to flourish. The loneliness felt by each of the characters causes them all to commit terrible acts that might not necessarily have happened if their minds were not muddled by their feelings. At times they almost appear drunk upon this bleak

Nick Carraway, was a young man who moved from Minnesota, to New York in 1922 to learn about business. He finds a house in West Egg,a district of Long Island, an unfashionable but wealthy are populated by the newly rich, who hadn’t yet established social connections. Nick’s next door neighbor was a young man of named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a huge mansion and throws extravagant parties every night.

Throughout his novel, The Great Gatsby, Frances Scott Fitzgerald illuminates the true struggles of the 1920’s. People amassed fortunes overnight from merchandising illegal alcohol. Jealousy was a killer in a time where people just wanted to have fun. The parties were elaborate and eternal. However, this lifestyle was empty. Fitzgerald portrays the quest for happiness and self-fulfillment vicariously through his characters Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Jay Gatsby.

Loneliness can be concealed and be hidden through numerous different facades with various personality. It is hard to identify if someone is lonely as loneliness has many forms in distinct people. Isolation can lead to depression which then leads to suicide if it is not dealt with. Around 350 million people around the world have depression and around 50% of suicidal deaths have major depression (“Depression: Facts, Statistics & You”). In the book The Great Gatsby a character named Jay Gatsby has extravagant parties with hundreds of people. Gatsby knew many people but he didn’t truly know them. Gatsby encounters his demise in the end of the book and Gatsby’s desolation is inherently exhibited as nobody is present at Gatsby’s funeral. In the book Of Mice and Men two characters named Lennie and George are men who work on a ranch and consistently take care of each other. They are confidants with each other as they have been friends since childhood. In the end of Of Mice and Men, Lennie kills a woman and thus the whole ranch wants to lynch Lennie. George discovers Lennie and takes mercy on Lennie as the whole ranch wants to kill Lennie in an agonizing way. So George shoots Lennie in the back of the head. George feels true loneliness as his one true friend he knew most of his whole life is now gone forever. Steinbeck and Fitzgerald show characters who are isolated and lonely and show us friendship is important in everyone's lives.

Loneliness and aloneness are two very different feelings; loneliness could be a lack, a feeling that something is missing, or a pain. But aloneness is being completely alone, a being without friends or people. The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Cannery Row by John Steinbeck all connect to aloneness vs. loneliness. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby himself feels loneliness although Nick Carraway feels all alone; in Cannery Row, Doc feels loneliness, while the Chinaman prefers to be alone; In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman feels lonely trying to support his family but his sons seem never to appreciate his hard work.

I connected the Gatsby’s two kinds of friends (one is the fair-weather friends, one is the real friend) to a real-life world issue. At present, people always are too two-faced, to mislead us easily. Sometimes we cannot find out who our real friends are. Moreover, these fake friends always fawn and betray us to achieve their secret goals, which makes us hurt deeply and do not want to trust anybody. Accordingly, I relate this to “The Great Gatsby”, the main character Gatsby. He is a rich and powerful man, which always holds parties every day and a great number of people come there whatever there were invited or not. It seems like there may be as the same number of people to attend Gatsby’s funeral as they go to the party, nevertheless, the only

Loneliness: the quality of being unfrequented and remote; isolation. Isolation breaks a being down to a fundamental level. The deepest level of the spirit can be scratched, bruised, or even broken when it feels alone. Unwanted. Unloved. It is a proven need in life. Company. Companionship. These ideas, are necessities. The body, mind, and soul need to feel desired. If they feel alone then it causes unknown amounts of damage. It can change the actions, thoughts, and feelings of a being. When we are alone, we are broken.

Do you fit in? Are you an alien to the society around you? In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the main characters do not fit in with the others around them. Throughout the book, you can see the theme of alienation and isolation. The characters hide their true selves from one another. Nick, a man who had just moved to the West Egg, was one who alienated and isolated himself the most. In the beginning of the book, it is clear to see that he wants to belong with the wealthy and become one of them, but he soon realizes that the wealthy were “ a Rotten Crowd” and that he, in fact, had nothing in common with them and did not belong and he soon realized that he, in fact, does not want to be part of this rude and fake crowd.

The idea that money can’t give you happiness is definitely a real thing, but some people refuse to admit it. An example, is high school students, all around the world, go through tons of drama in their life. They might not show the troubled side of it, but it’s definitely there and it exists but people just can’t admit it. Money can’t buy you popularity or friends or whatever. Happiness has to be found and not paid for. Gatsby was seen as becoming happier and happier each chapter because he was getting everything that he had always wanted and needed. But, behind the closed doors, he was actually losing happiness without even recognizing it. Throughout the book, Gatsby was always wanting something more. His main goal was to get Daisy back

Even though isolation in The Great Gatsby is not a major theme in the novel it is still a major drawback in the characters that led them to not reach their American Dream. There are many characters throughout the book that show their isolation but the main was from Gatsby. Everyone goes to his house when there is a party but at his funeral, no one came because Gatsby only had the parties for one particular person, Daisy. The no show from anyone at Gatsby’s funeral acknowledges that he did not make himself known or be social to anyone at the party “no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby's shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby's head for one link” (Fitzgerald, pg. 27). He only wanted Daisy to come

Wealth never equals happiness in Fitzgerald stories, in The Great Gatsby, Winter Dreams and Babylon Revisited the main characters are never truly happy with their life. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy that can be argued as the villain of the story is also never truly happy nor is Gatsby himself; he never gets, the chance to have even the possibility of a happy life (The Great Gatsby). In Winter Dreams Dexter Greene becomes wealthy, but never has the chance to enjoy with a wife (“Winter Dreams”). Charlie Wales just wants to have his daughter even if his wife has died, this is never achieved (“Babylon Revisited”). Between the three Fitzgerald Stories at least one character looks for happiness alongside wealth, but never finds them (“Babylon Revisited”). Some characters achieve their wealth, but never achieve the full American dream.

When people grow disheartened with the quest for love, they may begin to feel lonely and allow this feeling to consume their everyday thoughts. This feeling of loneliness can create a plentiful amount of negative emotions, including (but not limited to) disdain for peers and self-hate. The narrator of The Great Gatsby is a man named Nick Carraway, who turns thirty in the course of the novel. (read quote) As Nick’s birthday approaches, he realizes that most other men around his age have already found love, and that every day he waits he gets more and more unappealing to prospective dating partners.

Relationships between men and women do not always work; something always goes wrong. F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates this premise quite well in his development of the four major relationships influencing the plot of The Great Gatsby.