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Examples Of Feminism In The Great Gatsby

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Feminism has been a prominent topic in literature for decades and is still an essential subject to discuss. In this critique, we will explore the feminist perspective in The Great Gatsby novel's first two chapters. The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in 1925. The novel's central theme is the corruption of the American Dream, which leads to a tragic ending. The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, who moves to New York to work in the bond business. Nick's neighbor is the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, and the story follows their lives and the lives of the people around them. The novel's first two chapters introduce us to the main characters, and we can already see how women are portrayed and how they …show more content…

Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, and they are both from East Egg, which is known for its aristocratic pedigrees and social connections. Daisy is depicted as a beautiful, fragile woman who needs protection, while Tom is portrayed as a powerful, dominant figure who controls her. When Nick visits them for dinner, Tom starts talking about a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires, which promotes white supremacist attitudes. Daisy teases Tom about the book, but it is evident that she has no power to influence him. This scene demonstrates the gender roles of the time, where men had the power, and women had to obey.

Jordan Baker, Daisy's friend, is also introduced in the first chapter. Jordan is a competitive golfer who is portrayed as an independent, confident woman. However, her independence and confidence are not enough to break free from the male-dominated society she lives in. She is not taken seriously by the men around her, and her presence is only valued because she is beautiful and entertaining. Even though she is a successful athlete, her gender is still a barrier that prevents her from achieving her full

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, follows the struggles among characters living in Long Island, New York in 1922. The story centers around Jay Gatsby, a millionaire who is obsessed with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. This obsession leads to scandal, heartbreak, and death. Fitzgerald deftly uses East and West Egg, the billboard, and the green light as symbols to advance his plot and quality of the novel. Fitzgerald begins the novel by introducing the narrator, Nick Carraway, a young man from the Midwest who travels to New York to learn the ways of a bondman.

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Daisy Buchanan is a prime representation of a “new woman” through her usage of manipulation. This is evident in chapter When confronted by both her husband Tom, and previous lover Gatsby, Daisy is put into conflict. Daisy is asked by Gatsby, who she is having an affair with, whether she had ever loved Tom and after assuring Gatsby she didn’t Daisy says, “I did love him once — but I loved you too… ‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,’ she admitted in a pitiful voice. ‘It wouldn’t be true” (102). This demonstrates how Daisy uses her charm to manipulate the men around her.

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In chapters four and five the author further characterizes Daisy through her fixations and joy in the extravagancies of men. Jordan and Nick discuss Daisy’s past life and her marriage to Tom. After Daisy’s family rejected Gatsby due to his lack of wealth, she looked elsewhere for an eligible bachelor that her family accepts. Jordan explains the circumstances of the marriage to Nick saying, “‘In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before’” (Fitzgerald 50).

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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

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In today’s duplicitous society, men often pursue the “perfect woman”. This woman is construed to be; fit, provocative and ravishing. However, in greatly distinguished American novel, The Great Gatsby, the men have strayed from stalking women for their looks. Instead, Gatsby chases Daisy to achieve her as a prize of his bounty and any affection Gatsby demonstrates toward her, is simply to appease to her sense of status and wealth. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald, exhibits Gatsby’s these feelings for Daisy through the clever usage of connotation, symbolism and metaphors.

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When Polonius suspects Hamlet, he demonstrates symptoms of Paranoid Personality Disorder. Paranoid Personality Disorder is about behaviors of distrust and suspiciousness of other people and believe others’ motives are malevolent. According to the psychology disorder book DSM-V, one of the diagnostic criteria is “preoccupied with unjustified doubts about the loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates” (649). Polonius’ Paranoid Disorder is shown in Act 3 Scene 3, Polonius is trying to figure out what is going on with Hamlet, and he believes Hamlet will talk about that to the Queen in private. Shakespeare writes, “My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet.

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Jordan is two years younger than Daisy. Jordan is a cheater who is willing to do anything to achieve whatever it is that she wants. For example, she cheated during the golf tournament to win and she constantly lies to Nick Carraway. Coming from a rich family, she has attained everything she wanted. Thus, in her later life, she consistently cheats and lies to attain whatever she wants.

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She is married to Tom Buchanan, who is a wealthy man with little respect for her. Despite being treated as an object, lacking morality and responsibility, and being very charming, Daisy is able to influence the actions of the men in the novel: Tom, Gatsby, and Nick. Daisy is someone that other people, specifically men, want to have in their possession. To have her

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Reader’s perception is one of the most essential aspects of a novel, this refers to what the audience brings to the novel and determines whether a book is transcendent. The perception can be affected by several factors such as the format, the language and the message of the novel in general. A book can be interpreted differently according to culture, ideology, and even gender. The novel, The Great Gatsby written and published by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, is faced with reader-response criticism by two different social groups; feminist, that want to achieve equal cultural and social representation for women, question the treatment the women in book receive by the men, yet view the novel as an example of the empowerment of females in during the 1920’s. Then Marxists, who analyse class relations, social conflict and social transformation, interpret the book by analysing the representation of a materialistic elite class and the struggle of the middle class to fit into their world.

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The era’s “perfect woman”, Daisy Buchanan is a bubbly, conflicted woman whose choice is between two men: her husband, Tom Buchanan, and her

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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.

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1557 Words | 7 Pages

Jordan, Daisy, and Myrtle behave in a certain manner to avoid feeling hurt and suffering. The most obvious example is that of Daisy as she consistently fakes her innocence throughout the story. This can be observed when she admits to Nick that she believes “everything’s terrible” and that she has “been everywhere and seen everything and done everything”(17). This implies that she is not the pure and innocent being that she portrays herself as to others, contradicting her seemingly unknowing behavior. She most likely depicts herself as unaware and lesser-minded in hopes of remaining the picture perfect “golden girl” that she is often described as as well as to avoid conflict and confrontation.

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612 Words | 3 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Daisy possesses extreme power and control over Jay Gatsby. Daisy, though a woman in a predominantly male-dominated time period, uses her attractiveness to manipulate the ‘great’ Jay Gatsby to her advantage. As the novel progresses, Daisy has many different roles. She is initially portrayed as Tom’s trophy wife without much purpose, aside from representing Tom’s ‘prize’ for success. As we learn more, we find out about her and Gatsby’s past five-year relationship.

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1399 Words | 6 Pages

Conversely, Jordan presents her feminine power during Gatsby’s party when she tells Nick that the group they were associating with was too polite for her and that she wants to go find the host (Fitzgerald 45). Typically, in the higher class, the women do whatever the men deem appropriate or interesting to them, but Jordan, being the independent woman she is, chooses her own paths in life. Jordan is not attracted to the conversation at hand; therefore, she is going to present her feminine power and walk away from the cult of upperclassmen to pursue anything that she wants to, and no one is going to stop her.

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755 Words | 4 Pages

Pi could survive on the ocean for many months is a miracle, and he even stayed with a tiger during the venture. He probably was eaten by the tiger, but he didn’t. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi survival depended on his past experiences, Pi not only survives, he becomes stronger due to learning how to swim when he was young, believing in three religions, and stay with animals for a long time because he father used to own a zoo. Learning how to swim when Pi was young helps him to survive when he was in the sea.

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