Isolation in Classic Novels

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Isolation in Classic Novels Isolation happens all the time, whether it is someone staying home ignoring the populous or a teenager ignoring his family it isn’t something new. In the two novels we have read this past quarter The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye isolation is one topic that is continually brought up. Different themes and issues are used in each book as a way to bring up and show isolation. Even though both novels use this topic The Catcher in the Rye does a better job of getting the reader to understand isolation than The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby isolation is shown through the hollowness of the upper-class. One instance that shows this quite well is in chapter one when Nick goes to visit his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom. Nick and Daisy are talking alone when she tells Nick what she first said when her child was born to explain why she has become cynical about everything: "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.'" (1.116-118). The upper-class are careless and inconsiderate because of the money they have, that they use to ease their minds. Daisy, even though she is very rich, gave birth alone. Tom couldn’t care less on how her birth went and she knows it. That is why Daisy says she wants her daughter to be a fool, because then she won’t notice the isolation when she is older. Later in the ... ... middle of paper ... ... In the book Holden is hurting himself with his need of contact with people but with his consent pushing of them away. Even though it is happening in a book it is still a valuable life lesson that one shouldn’t push others away just because they are scared. Even so, isolation still occurs, it could be something as simple as a kid not trying out for a group in fear of rejection or not joining a club because they are afraid of embarrassing themselves. In both cases the kid is keeping to themselves, scared that they might get hurt. The Catcher in the Rye shows real issues within its pages that are still applicable today. That is one reason it is considered a classic. Works Cited Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925 Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.

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