Isolation In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The worst cruelty that can be inflicted on a human being is isolation,” stated Sukarno. This quote indicates that isolation causes physical and emotional conflicts within and between people, and that it can have a brutal impact. The relationship between the themes of separation and isolation is cause and effect, because isolation is the effect of separation, yet isolation can cause separation as well. Both isolation and separation are able to provoke feelings of low self-esteem in a person, and this idea is expressed thoroughly by the novel, The Great Gatsby, and the poem, “(love song, with two goldfish)”. The authors produced main characters that had a sense of loneliness and depression as the stories progressed. They declared that separation

can become an obstacle to impact a person greatly, causing social conflicts and weaker relationships. Therefore, the excerpt from The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the poem, “(love song, with two goldfish),” by Grace Chua, both express the themes of isolation and separation with the use of symbolizing characters and emphasizing their relationships through conflicts.

Jay Gatsby’s character, portrayed in the novel, The Great Gatsby, resembled the qualities and characteristics of the male fish in “(love song, with two goldfish).” Primarily, these two lonely characters had the same motivation for most of their actions and decisions later on in their separate stories, which was the separation from the women they loved the most. According to Fitzgerald, “He stayed there a week, walking the streets where their footsteps had clicked together through the November night…” (Fitzgerald 1). This quote indicated that Gatsby had been separated from Daisy, his first and only love, yet she didn’t feel the same way about him in that moment. Since Gatsby had been walking in Daisy and her husband’s footsteps, it highlighted her significance in his life, and how strongly he yearned and desired her love. In addition, Gatsby was so flustered and distraught by Daisy’s lack of presence in his life that separation had caused him to isolate from the outside world. Similarly, Chua stated, “(His heart sinks like a fish… Drowns those sorrows, stares emptily through the glass)” (Chua 4). This quote illustrated that the female fish left the male fish in isolation with a feeling of emptiness

because she separated herself from him, demonstrating that she was easily able to break his heart and move on. The male fish longed for her love and attention, yet she ignored him when he couldn’t give her what she wanted. This situation is similar to how Daisy left Gatsby when she found someone who could provide her security and comfort in a man who had more wealth than Gatsby, and was capable of giving her everything she wanted. The male fish loved the female fish, and towards the beginning she loved him too, but over time she fell out of love, due to his lack of initiative. She broke his heart and used him for his promised ambitious dreams, related to the novel, The Great Gatsby, when Daisy Buchanan broke Jay Gatsby’s heart by leaving him for a wealthier man. As shown, both quotes demonstrated that both Gatsby and the male fish were powerful and positive when Daisy and the female fish supposedly love them, yet when the women left, they lost all hope of love. Losing hope brought these two men to a state of isolation and depression that greatly impacted them to become apathetic characters who never had the chance to fully recover.
Fitzgerald’s character, Daisy Buchanan, and Chua’s character, the female fish, are alike in many ways because they impacted the lives of the characters who they separated from greatly. The women had identical desires and goals in life that didn’t match the goals of their original significant others, causing them to isolate the characters they loved. For instance, Fitzgerald wrote, “But it was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever” (Fitzgerald 3). In other words, Gatsby had realized that he needed to be with Daisy every day in order to survive, due to the fact that she was the best and most influential person to appear in his life. Without her, he was an empty man who felt as if he had lost himself when he lost her. Daisy distracted Gatsby from real life by isolating him from the rest of the world and leaving him for another man, unexpectedly. She was a greedy and self-centered person who resembled the female fish in “(love song, with two goldfish),” who was also egotistical. Moreover, Chua stated, “(He’s a drifter, always floating around her, has nowhere else to go)” (Chua 1). This quote told the reader that the male fish was dependent on the female fish, while she was independent and didn’t need him. This situation indicated that when the superior female fish separated herself from the vulnerable male fish, he experienced panic and distress. The female fish and Daisy are similar in that Daisy drags Gatsby around, trapping him in all of her secrets and causing Gatsby to barely survive without her love. The female fish shared her “(deepest secrets)” to the male fish, provoking feelings of desire and admiration, even though she abandoned him. It’s clear that the female fish and Daisy were both selfish and neglectful characters that began as protagonists and eventually revealed their antagonistic side towards the end. Neither of the two women were satisfied with happiness based off of love. For instance, they felt as if they needed money, or a larger fish bowl to determine their happiness. In the resolution of both the novel and the poem, the men were left alone with broken hearts and dreams, which was an effect of the deceiving female figures who were depicted as detrimental characters.
Separation lead to isolation, which eventually lead to conflicts within love and relationships.

Throughout the two passages, complications and problems within relationships between characters who loved each other in the past caused a shift in mood that began as pleasant and bright, yet slowly transitioned into somber and melancholy. As written in the novel, “... over the vanishing city where she had drawn her breath” (Fitzgerald 3). The descriptive diction used in this phrase, such as the word “vanishing,” demonstrated that Daisy parted from Gatsby without a warning. This signified that she was isolating him intentionally and for her benefit, even though she knew it would break his heart. Since Daisy didn’t care about Gatsby in the way that he cherished and worshipped her, a conflict eventually arose in their relationship when they finally formed a more powerful connection five years after they split apart. She didn’t leave a trace for Gatsby to follow, showing that she didn’t love him when she left, and highlighting the turning point in their relationship. Likewise, the female fish in “(love song, with two goldfish),” didn’t express how much she cared for the male fish, who she obviously loved, while he instantly fell in love with her. Additionally, Chua expressed in the poem, “(and he could not give) a life beyond the (bowl)” (Chua 5). This quote highlights that the female fish was selfish, due to the fact that she only wanted the male fish because of the dreams and goals

he promised to achieve in her honor. She was greedy and gluttonous, similar to Daisy Buchanan, and when the male fish couldn’t give her what she wanted, she forced herself to leave. The phrase, “... a life beyond the...” was the only line in the poem not surrounded by parenthesis, signifying that it was out of reach and unattainable for the male fish. Every stanza and line in the poem was isolated by parenthesis, almost as if it were hidden. This resembled how the author depicted the female’s feelings towards the male fish. She hid how she felt until he promised her the world and an adventure of a lifetime, yet when he expressed his hesitation, she left the parentheses to describe her perfect life away from their fishbowl. He was holding her back, similar to how Gatsby’s poor economic situation held Daisy back from her dream of wealth and luxury. It was apparent that Gatsby constantly searched for and obsessed over Daisy, which gave him faith that she would return one day. Daisy only reappeared after Gatsby passed away, establishing that the conflict inflicted by separation was never resolved, similar to the failed relationship between the two fish. Overall, a common theme amongst the two passages was isolation and separation, and although there were different characters illustrated by different authors, the same conflict arose during the climax of both stories, destroying true love and happiness.
The excerpt from The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the poem, “(love song, with two goldfish),” by Grace Chua, both express topics of isolation and separation through the use of symbolizing characters and emphasizing their relationships through conflicts. Gatsby was affected by social isolation because he was surrounded by people who separated themselves from him, similar to how the female fish separated herself from the male fish. The people Gatsby surrounded himself with weren’t true friends, and he tended to fall for those who only loved him when it was beneficial for themselves, such as selfish and greedy people like Daisy and the female fish. From these two excerpts, it can be concluded that when someone becomes isolated, they seem to focus on themselves and become unaware of their surroundings and the dangerous consequences that come with it. Isolation and separation are very impactful themes that can be cruel and harsh towards the people and characters that experience it.