The Great Gatsby Chapter 6

"It stands out in my memory from Gatsby's other parties that summer. There were the same people, or at least the same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many-colored, many-keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn't been there before. Or perhaps I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being so, and now I was looking at it again, through Daisy's eyes. It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment" (Fitzgerald 110-111).

This passage reflects upon the ideas of isolation and blindness. West Egg is described as "a world within itself", which expresses society's separateness from the surrounding world. However, this isolation was something that Nick had "grown used to". In the beginning of the novel, Nick states that he is free from judgment, proving himself to be an outsider that looks in upon society. By accepting its isolation and "growing used to" society's ways, Nick is slowly becoming a member of society instead of a resting on the outskirts. He is becoming blind, like the other people in society; he only sees what he wants to see, and is therefore saddened when he sees Daisy's perspective. Like the others, Nick had established his "own powers of adjustment" and his own ways to transform the unfavorable aspects of society into something he approves of. At this point, Daisy is more realistic than Nick, though she has lived amongst society for much longer than he has. If Nick is saddened by her perspective, he clearly saw an unfavorable view on the society that he is now a part of. Daisy sees and is disgusted by society's isolation and its superficiality, while Nick is now accustomed to and accepting of it.

Fitzgerald also uses repetition and commas to describe Nick's thought process and reveal a change in Nick. The sentences in the passage are overly drawn out, and run into each other as a result of excessive comma usage. Perhaps this shows a state of drunkenness and Nick's inability to think coherently. Fitzgerald also repeats "the same", "many", and "grown" throughout the passage, which shows Nick's inability to stand out from society. Though he makes these observations, these thoughts repeat themselves the sentence structure within the passage is very similar. The way he narrates is "the same", mirroring his observation of society's members. By drawing out his thoughts with commas, Fitzgerald shows Nick's uncertainty with what he is saying and his inability to think clearly and coherently. He is not an individual who does not judge and therefore is unique from society, but he is becoming another one of its members.