Fitzgerald's Portrayal Of Women In The Great Gatsby

The 1920s was a decade of superficial affluence, poverty, and disillusionment among American society. The Great War of the previous decade caused a lot of distress and made many Americans rethink their role in the world and how they viewed themselves. One of the greatest critics of the decade was a man named F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote many novels that evaluated the decade and many of its societal norms. In his greatest novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald follows the life of a man named Gatsby through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Despite the fact that this novel was written in a time long gone where the circumstances of life were very different, Fitzgerald’s novel is very relevant to 2018, and it still should be taught in classes

For instance, Daisy Buchanan, the wife of Tom Buchanan, is a supposedly happy woman who has everything that she could possibly want. However, under her facade, she is extremely unhappy in her relationship, and she makes the claim that the best thing that a woman can do is be a fool. In this moment, Fitzgerald is making an attack upon the prescribed roles of women as he is illustrating how many women are dissatisfied with who they marry as at the time, woman married for comfort rather than love. Similarly, there is also such dissatisfaction with the glass ceiling that many women face today. Although women today are more likely to marry for love, they are still marginalized by society as wage and job discrimination are still a common issue. Moreover, with issues such as sexual and physical harassment that occur to women, it still remains an issue that women are expected to remain silent despite the abuses upon them, and this is similar to how Daisy remains publicly quiet regarding her

In the novel there is great disparity among the various characters in the novel. The Wilsons live in this run down complex in the middle of a deserted and ash-ridden area, and the narrator lives in this small little house that is next door to a marvelous and stunning mansion, which provides a clear picture of the disparity in wealth that is being portrayed in the novel. In today’s society, there are similar instances of monetary and social disparity among American citizens. In the United States, there is a massive gap between the rich and the poor along with clear evidence of a shrinking middle class due tax laws, the poverty cycle, the ability of different groups of people to influence the politics of Washington. As a result, the rich own a good portion of the nation’s overall wealth while the poor are left to scrap whatever little wealth is leftover. This has left a good portion of the population living near the poverty line, and it’s very difficult for a family to get themselves out of poverty as people who are impoverished are unable to get the edge in job and educational opportunities as those who have a greater access to more resources. This notion presented in the novel is nothing new as since America’s inception, there have been many instances in which the rich own too much and own too little, and it’s still a problem today. The novel illustrates to the