Authorial techniques are employed by F Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby (1925) and by Ian McEwan in Atonement (2001) to express the loneliness of their characters. In these books, isolation dominates the mood and events of the story; however, the loneliness of the characters often reflects the cultural restrictions of their historical setting. Arguably, the motif of social change and tension also impacts the moods of the books, to a lesser extent. In the Great Gatsby, the moral decay of the 1920s is epitomized by the juxtaposed valley of ashes and the Eggs, while in Atonement, the sweltering weather of Part One could be to illustrate the tension simmering between characters and the impending change apparent in wider society, for example …show more content…
Fitzgerald was a follower of the Modernist movement, which is reflected in his use of non-chronological storytelling and an unreliable narrator (a feature of both Atonement and The Great Gatsby) which isolate the reader by keeping them only partially informed of what is happening and only allowing them to see events through the eyes of the undependable narrator. There is a distance between reader and plot, which enhances the sense of isolation felt within the story. In Atonement, the isolation of Cecelia from Robbie at Cambridge University because of their “different circles” (dictated by their “different” social classes) can be compared with the isolation of Gatsby and Daisy, because, as Daisy Fay told Gatsby, “rich girls don’t marry poor boys.” However, while the isolation of lovers because of social class is permanent throughout The Great Gatsby, McEwan’s Atonement is set a decade later, and thus the changes happening in wider society at the time are reflected in the fact that Robbie and Cecelia disregard countless taboos during their brief affair. This difference in each text’s representation of isolation and loneliness and how it is used to orchestrate the mood of the books can be attributed to the typical prose genre of the decades in which each book is set. How the societal norms of the day influence whether or not characters allow themselves to be isolated is shown in the way Cecelia reacts to Robbie’s crude letter – her quiet acceptance is contrary to what was expected of women in the 1930s. However, in The Great Gatsby, Daisy tells Nick that she woke after giving birth to her daughter with an "utterly abandoned feeling” – Daisy gives birth to her child alone and Tom is “nowhere to be found”. The word “abandoned” implies a sense of helplessness – Tom needs Daisy less than Daisy needs Tom, and he can