Examples Of Social Norms In The Great Gatsby

Across the world, traditional social norms vary greatly as they carry an influence of the time periods, cultural views, and religious values. They determine and dictate how people behave, dress, and present themselves in a social setting. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, follows the life of Nick Carraway through his pursuit of love, wealth, and the American Dream during the Jazz Age. During this time period, women start to challenge gender norms but were still expected to be innocent and compliant toward male figures (Freedman). Daisy, Nick’s cousin, is represented as an idealistic woman who is praised for her passivity and compliance, while Jordan, Daisy’s friend, is represented as a strong independent woman who is looked down

Daisy is deeply influenced by the conventions of the upper class and has been groomed to marry into wealth and privilege. Her character is revealed when her voice is described to be "full of money” (128). Daisy is a woman whose very being is defined by her beauty, and she accepts that her role in life is to acquire money through marriage and to maintain that beauty. However, after acquiring both of these things, her life is far from satisfactory. When Gatsby and Daisy first started seeing each other, Gatsby states how the idea that many men “already loved Daisy” only “increased her value in his eyes” (158-159). Daisy’s “value” increasing because of the amount of men she had been with before contributes to the idea of her being objectified. This idea restricts Daisy from being treated like anything other than an object by the male figures in the novel. Jordan, on the other hand does not define herself by her money or beauty, but rather by her skill and ambition. Jordan’s continuation of playing golf despite her break from Nick expresses how she does not let her relationships get in the way of her life priorities. When Nick starts seeing Jordan, he describes her as “incurably dishonest” and ridicules her because she “avoided clever shrewd men” to feel “safer” (11, 63-64). Nick is an example of society’s double standard, as he has no problem with the

Daisy is a traditional, feminine woman who is bound by her class and society's expectations. After Daisy crashes into Myrtle and kills her, she goes back to her house where she and Tom “were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale” (Fitzgerald 155). At first, it may seem that Daisy is not punished for her actions as she gets away with murder and chooses to stay with Tom; however, there is a perceived illusion of choice. In a society where women do not have an authoritative position, Daisy is forced to fall back on someone who can give her the security and stability that she needs, Tom. She is stuck in a loveless marriage and is unable to pursue her desire, which is to be with her true love, Gatsby. On the other hand, Jordan is a powerful individual who is unafraid of challenging social norms. When she and Nick break up, Jordan states how she is “engaged to another man” and how she does not “give a damn about” Nick (189). Jordan did not rely or build her life on her relationship with Nick in any way. Jordan has a choice, unlike Daisy, to either fight to maintain her relationship with Nick or let