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Theme Of Isolation In The Great Gatsby

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Though the full context of the story is unavailable, the beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald's final novel, The Great Gatsby, paints a disenchanted, bleak emotional landscape in contrast with the colorful material abundance of the Jazz Age. As Nick Carraway, the narrator, reports his impression of the wealthy of New York in the 1920s, the land of plenty contorts into an eerie and bizarre landscape of extremes. In the early chapters of the novel, Fitzgerald produces a story of social isolation rising from the acute contrasts of the post-war world.
Emanating from a callous attitude towards emptiness, the book centers on isolation in a variety of forms: physical solitude, emotional remove, and social disconnect. As Nick immerses himself in the absurd abundance of Jay Gatsby and the residents of East Egg, the more apparent Fitzgerald’s commentary on the unsettling scene becomes. The strength of the facade of happiness varies, ranging from Daisy and Tom Buchanan's marriage, fulfilling on only the most superficial level, to warmer characters such as Gatsby, who gives off an air of “eternal reassurance,” something that should breed connection (Fitzgerald, 48). However, even Gatsby remains as sealed off as the rest. As the debauchery of his party grows and at least physical connection seems possible, “no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touch Gatsby’s shoulder,” stranding him on a pillar of “correctness” among the growing circus (50). From the first chapter,

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