Social Isolation in The Great Gatsby In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters experience many situations where they have to remain alone due to the different “worlds” in which they live. The geographical locations the characters live in during the 1920’s divide them into two sides separated by one thing: money. The journey Jay Gatsby strives so hard to complete is to overcome the ultimate divide. The contrasting worlds of new money and old money in the 1920’s reinforce perpetual isolation. One reason the worlds that Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Nick Carraway live in are so different is because the way the upper classes divides themselves into two different worlds. The novel is set in Long Island, New
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The East Egg consisted of families who inherited their wealth from previous generations. This would mean that generations dating hundreds years back in time started a legacy that continued on the hard work and dedication to their family’s wealth. They inherited satisfactory names in their towns and the highest position of social class that could be achieved without doing anything. Tom Buchanan, a major character in the novel, is a member of this elite group. Tom, who is the husband of Daisy, has a substantial amount of power in New York at this time. He is a product of “old money” and this makes him filthy rich. Nick makes it a point in the novel to explain to the readers how wealthy the Buchanans are, “.. on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay” (Fitzgerald 10-11). Nick states, “Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together” (Fitzgerald 10). The emphasis of them going anywhere they want for no reason demonstrates the lavish amount of funds Tom has available. This also displays how much greater old money was than new money during this time. “Gatsby’s hard-earned money, the opposite of the self-made man: inherited ‘Old Money’” Gatsby worked for his money, unlike Tom which also sets Gatsby apart in society (Lindberg
The East Egg consisted of families who inherited their wealth from previous generations. This would mean that generations dating hundreds years back in time started a legacy that continued on the hard work and dedication to their family’s wealth. They inherited satisfactory names in their towns and the highest position of social class that could be achieved without doing anything. Tom Buchanan, a major character in the novel, is a member of this elite group. Tom, who is the husband of Daisy, has a substantial amount of power in New York at this time. He is a product of “old money” and this makes him filthy rich. Nick makes it a point in the novel to explain to the readers how wealthy the Buchanans are, “.. on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay” (Fitzgerald 10-11). Nick states, “Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together” (Fitzgerald 10). The emphasis of them going anywhere they want for no reason demonstrates the lavish amount of funds Tom has available. This also displays how much greater old money was than new money during this time. “Gatsby’s hard-earned money, the opposite of the self-made man: inherited ‘Old Money’” Gatsby worked for his money, unlike Tom which also sets Gatsby apart in society (Lindberg