Amanda Hardman Disillusionment and Great Gatsby Essay Period 2 April 16, 2013

Our Disillusioned Society

Although we do not like to admit it, disillusionment and isolation are both very common parts of our lives. For example, I often find myself disillusioned that I will be able to stay caught up on sleep as well as up to date on all of my assignments. However, I always end up with little or no sleep and barely finishing my assignments at the last minute. These themes of disillusionment and isolation have been prevalent in society throughout history. One time in which they were very prevalent was the early twentieth century, such as when the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was set. In the present, we are disillusioned and isolated just as society was during this time. We are similar by our isolation through social means to the early twentieth century as well as different in our disillusionment in marital fidelity. We are similar to the rich of the early twentieth century by our isolation through social means; we may find ourselves with multitudes of friends but with none who really care. In The Great Gatsby, through the beginning of the book, Gatsby hosts massive and extravagant parties almost constantly with multitudes of guests. These party goers came and went without having met Gatsby at all, not caring for him at all but only the fun he provides (pg 41). Although it would seem that he was popular, he was in actuality isolated as none of those who came to his house knew him. This also happens frequently today, but in a slightly different sense, due to social

media. Through these sites you can have exuberant numbers of friends, but they dont know a thing about you or dont care about you at all either. Also in The Great Gatsby, when Gatsby dies near the end of the novel, the narrator Nick tries to find other people who cared about him and will come to his funeral. Even though they delay and wait for more people to show, in the end nobody came to Gatsbys funeral (pg 174). Through this you see that none of the people that Gatsby had entertained every night actually were his friends. Even the man who practically lived in his house for a time cared more about the shoes he left there than the funeral of his host. The same thing would happen in the present if something were to happen to you and all you had were your friends from social networks. There would be nobody there for you, and you would find yourself truly isolated from a world you thought you were a part of. When extreme numbers of people become who you consider your friends, you are most likely in reality isolated as in almost all cases they do not know you in the slightest. Although we share disillusionment in marital fidelity, in the present we differ in the extremity of it from the early twentieth century. In the early twentieth century nearly everyone married, but many were unhappy in their marriage and had affairs. This can be seen in The Great Gatsby through Tom Buchanan. Though he is married to Daisy, and later in the book insists that he loves her, he has been having an affair with Mrs. Myrtle Wilson for quite some time. Not only was he known for his great wealth, but the fact that he had [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known (pg 24). Tom is

married to a beautiful girl whom he apparently loves, so he should be happy with his circumstance. Yet he is disillusioned for perfection, and can not find that in Daisy or Myrtle. In the present today we as a society too are disillusioned for perfection in marriage, but instead of usually leading us to affairs, we are simply not getting married. A census based article reported that Marriages fell to a record low last year (Article 2). This is not terribly surprising considering the trend that has been developing of a much delayed marriage if one at all. Although they can not be considered unfaithful in their marriage because they are not in one, they are morally unclean as they sleep with whomever they please and commonly are unfaithful even to their current boyfriend/girlfriend. We think that in order to get married your spouse and you must have a perfect relationship so that no conflicts will ever arise in your marriage to make you unhappy. Both today and in the early twentieth century, disillusionment concerning marital fidelity made people unhappy. Other people may disagree completely and think that we are not disillusioned or isolated as a society in the present because of numerous reasons. For example, some people may say that we are not disillusioned because we accept the reality that we are in a world wide recession. However, we can see that this is incorrect as college students take out loans and expect that they will be able to pay it off with the career-specific, wellpaying job that they will find coming out of school with a degree. Andrew Sum from Northeastern University noted that, Recent college graduates

[are] getting by on waitressing, bartending and odd jobs (Article 2). Instead of finding that good job they were expecting to use to pay off their debts, they are being forced to accept whatever job they can find to make it by due to the economy and lack of employment. Still others may also say that we are not disillusioned because the young people are still at least trying to get their own jobs so they can become independent. However, although they do want their independence and are trying to work towards it with their own job, there is an increase of young people who have given up on obtaining independence and are still living with their parents. According to a censusbased article, Roughly 5.9 million American 25-34 last year lived with their parents, an increase of 25 percent from before the recession. Many parents and students are in society today disillusioned that once out of high school, they will obtain independence. Although for some this is still true, for a large number of Americans, as stated in the article, this is still not attainable. As a society, as well as individually, we are still very much disillusioned and isolated in the present. Disillusionment and isolation have been prevalent themes throughout history, especially in the early twentieth century. In present times, in our isolation due to false social connections we are similar to this time, and also differ from it concerning our disillusionment in faithfulness in marriage. We can learn from the mistakes of the past so that we not only do not repeat them, but also so that we can apply them to other aspects of life. Such as with disillusionment and isolation, hopefully at some point in the future we as

a society will have learned our lesson and no longer find ourselves on these same hopeless paths that will inevitably lead us to unhappiness.