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Gender in 20th century literature
Gender in 20th century literature
Gender in 20th century literature
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender in 20th century literature
Gender in 20th century literature
Gender in 20th century literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In her literary criticism of The Great Gatsby titled “Herstory” and Daisy Buchanan, Leland S. Person Jr. describes the conflict that Daisy comes into with both Tom and Gatsby. Person describes Daisy as a victim of the actions of the men in her life, reasoning that “She is victim first of Tom Buchanan’s ‘cruel’ power, but then of Gatsby’s increasingly depersonalized vision of her” (Person Jr. 250). While Daisy is victimized and objectified by both Gatsby and Tom more and more as the novel wares on, she ultimately has the opportunity to choose the more malleable if not lesser of the two evils. In Daisy’s relationship with Tom, Tom holds the majority of the power and is thus able to dictate her actions much more easily. However, when she is with Gatsby, it is by her own decision.
Daisy shows her struggles with the social status of women through her daughter and relationship with Tom. Jordan proves that being a “new” women of the 1920s comes with a price of judgment and accusations of dishonesty. Myrtle seeks to become a member of the
1. Diction Regarding her baby, Daisy reveals, “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” (Fitzgerald 17). Fitzgerald employs unique syntax in associating the word “fool” with Daisy’s hopes for her infant daughter. Daisy is aware of the subordinate role that women are expected to play, such as quietly tolerating the extramarital affairs of their spouses.
Her physicality serves as a metaphorical representation of the allure and illusion associated with the American Dream. Daisy becomes an object of desire and a symbol of unattainable perfection for Gatsby and other male characters, ultimately highlighting the emptiness and futility of their pursuits. Beneath Daisy's enchanting facade lies a complex web of internal conflicts. On one hand, she possesses a romantic yearning for true love and emotional connection. Yet, on the other hand, she is trapped within the societal expectations of her time, constrained by the materialistic values and superficial relationships that define the upper
Her internal struggle is revealed in this instant when her hedonistic desires cause her to feel conflicted. Mrs. Buchanan tends to act extremely selfish, especially during the moments when she cannot resist the temptation of hedonism. When Daisy impatiently awaits Gatsby’s return from war, “there [is] a quality of nervous despair in [her] letters” (151). Daisy’s egocentric nature ultimately causes her to believe that the world revolves around herself. Her tragic downfall is made clear when she decides to marry Mr. Buchanan and pursue old wealth.
Jordan’s physical appearance shows her as a “blonde and very athletic, physical, tan, and angular” (Best Character Analysis). In contrast, Daisy is described as a more fragile figure with dark hair and she is married, unlike Jordan. In the book, Daisy is perceived as one of the most socially acceptable woman of the time. During the 1920’s, women were expected to marry, especially wealthy women. Staying home with the children was the main job of women during this time.
In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a modern woman; she is sophisticated, careless and beautifully shallow. Daisy knows who she is, and what it takes for her to be able to keep the lifestyle she grew up in, and this adds to her carelessness and her feigned interest in life. In all, Daisy is a woman who will not sacrifice material desires or comfort for love or for others, and her character is politely cruel in this way. Daisy’s main strength, which buoyed her throughout her youth and when she was in Louisville, is her ability to know what was expected of her and feign cluelessness.
Women in The Great Gatsby Throughout the 1920’s, the role women played in society was changing. Fitzgerald shows this in The Great Gatsby by the characters: Daisy, and Jordan. The morals and iimages of the woman changed. During this time period females began to go against the “norms” of society.
Later into the novel, however, Daisy’s attitudes towards actions start to unfold. As specified by Fitzgerald, Daisy’s “face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget” (Fitzgerald 9). Certainly, the readers can deem favorable characteristics from Daisy; she has the impression of being a lovable and
In my English 1020 class during summer 2015, my writing style was continuously tested along with my ability to understand and evaluate each aspect of assigned projects. There were four projects that were assigned in this class to improve our skills in writing, reading and researching. Those four projects were an annotated bibliography, definition argument paper, genre analysis and rhetorical analysis. Each of these papers was based on our choice of a fan community and my choice was Rajinikanth, an Indian actor. I was pleased with my choice as it was interesting to learn how fan community works and what fan community needs to be active in order for them to consider as a discourse community.
These authors, like everyone in the world, have different opinions of many issues. There is not one way to judge Daisy because everyone perceives her in a different way. Leland Person’s claims were based on his own opinions, but they were very valid. The first point he made was, “She is
He refers to her as “this woman” when he describes how she “rushed out at [them];” his attitude towards this person he just ran over was less than of her being a human being and more like she was some stray animal destined to be roadkill. Between these three characters, they are all part of a web that was the vision of women in the 1920s. In a particularly powerful interaction between Daisy, the typical, submissive, beautiful woman; and Jordan, the accomplished, defiant and trouble seeking woman; we see these two personas mingle on an extremely hot summer day. Daisy is whining and crying about how she sees no future in the unbelievable heat, showing her strong tendency for overreaction and her inability to see beyond now. Jordan, however, replies to her, saying to Daisy to not be “morbid” and that “life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall”, showing her progressive
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of themes of wealth, love, and tragedy, as well as a subtle but powerful representation of gender. During the time this book was written, women’s suffrage had begun, so women were taking their first steps towards equality with men. The three main women characters in the novel - Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker- all have things in common but can be vastly different; they reflect both man and society’s view of women in the early 20th century. The Great Gatsby portrays the characters Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan as stereotypes of women during the 1920s, which is shown through their behavior, beliefs, and ultimate fates and their personalities display both powerful and potentially harmful stereotypes of women at this time.
When Daisy appears for the first time in the book, the author associates her character with light, purity and innocence. With her dress, “they were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering”(8), she
Fitzgerald depicts the women of the novel as deceitful, sexual beings that are naturally subordinate to men through Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle. Daisy exemplifies the naturally inferior role of women relying on the wealth of men in their lives to take care of them. When Daisy talks about her daughter she claims, “a fool–that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(21) establishing women’s subordinate role in which they are ignorant to the affairs of their husbands and expected to rely on their beauty to carry them through life. When Daisy is accused of infidelity with Gatsby in the hotel, Gatsby claims that Daisy is attracted to men of wealth and, “only married [Tom] because [Gatsby] was poor and she was tired of waiting for [him]”(137).