Personification Of The Ether In The Great Gatsby

"It'll show you how I've gotten to feel about – things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.' ( Fitzgerald 17). In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway, the narrator, learns that even when you are surrounded by friends you can still be very lonely. In the poem, Alone by Maya Angelou, we are told a story about the narrator laying in bed searching for answers

when she concludes no one successfully faces life alone. In the short story, from Walden by Henry D. Thoreau, we are told of a man that prefers to be alone. Through the interaction with another character, and the word choice of the author how each character lives their life of loneliness.
In The Great Gatsby Daisy Buchanan reflects back to the day that she had given birth to daughter explaining how her outlook on life has changed.

“It'll show you how I've gotten to feel about – things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Fitzgerald 17). After giving birth to their daughter Daisy realizes that her husband Tom didn’t show up for the birth of his child causing for Daisy to feel lonely. Upon learning that the child was a girl she begins to cry. Daisy fears that her daughter would have a similar fate as she had. As in marrying a man that would make it a habit of abandoning her in their

marriage.
As the feeling of loneliness grew throughout The Great Gatsby, we continue to see examples of loneliness. For example, “At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others – poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner – young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.” (Fitzgerald 3). As Nick seat in a New York restaurant full of people, and full of loneliness. Nick says that the feeling of poignant was very strong.
After Gatsby died the feeling of loneliness continued, “ Next morning I sent the butler to New York with a letter to Wolfsheim, which asked for information and urged him to come out on the next train. That request seemed superfluous when I wrote it. I was sure he'd start when he saw the newspapers, just as I was sure a there'd be a wire from Daisy before noon—but neither a wire nor Mr. Wolfsheim arrived; no one arrived except more police and photographers and newspaper men. When the butler brought back Wolfsheim's answer I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all.” (Fitzgerald 9). After Gatsby's death, he realizes how lonely Gatsby was. Gatsby was surrounded by tons of people at his parties always had to take private phone calls, but when he died no one came to his side. Nick realize that he was the only true friend that Gatsby had.
Although The Great Gatsby shows loneliness Alone by Maya Angelou tells of how to know one can successfully get through this world alone. Angelou repeats the lines:
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

She repeats these lines to reiterate that everyone needs companionship. Angelou says that she has come to the conclusion that everyone needs someone.

As she continues through the poem she gives an example of a wealthy family. She says that their wives run around like banshees and their children sing their blues. They have expensive doctors to try to cure their hearts of stones. But no one can make it out here alone. By giving an example of a millionaire she is telling us that money can't buy companionship as well as saying that not even their expensive doctors can give them anything to fill the void of companionship.

Angelou follows by saying that everyone needs someone for the times in their life when they are going through a storm. She can hear the human race crying because they are trying to go through life alone. She adds this part to her poem to give the reader evidence as to why they can’t go through life alone. The storms of life are too much for one person to go through alone. Having a companion makes the storms of life

bearable.
As the poem Alone was showing the need for companionship from Walden by Henry D Thoreau is the story of a man that believes that it wholesome to be alone. In the short story, Walden says, “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”(Thoreau). Walden says that to be in the company of your favorite person can soon grow tiresome. He has never found anything or anyone better than being alone.
The theme of a book can be interpreted many ways. The theme of loneliness is found in all three pieces of literature but can be perceived differently depending on how you take it. Some can view it as loneliness being a good thing, as it being depressing, or as it being distasteful.