Flappers In The Great Gatsby

Females’ roles in the society were rapidly changing ever since The Great War. New feminist values were developed and females demanded not only political equalities, but also social equalities; they started to change their fashion and began to imitate boyish behaviors. However, the over-whelming prosperities of the Jazz Age had caused groups of young women to lose their rationalities and morals. These young females are often referred as New Women, or flappers. F. Scott Fitzgerald was famous for his literary depiction of the flappers and his vivid recreation of corrupted atmosphere in post-war days. The Great Gatsby has remained as one of the most successful novels written by Fitzgerald. In this novel, Fitzgerald reflected different types of

Jordan Baker is the purer depiction of flappers. Young women in the post-war days became more independent and they were achieved in sports such as tennis, golf, and swimming. Jordan Baker is a golfer; she has her own lifestyle and builds up her success independently. Nick’s first impression of Jordan is that “Almost any exhibition of complete self-sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.”. Her life experience duplicates financially independent New Women in the 1920s. Furthermore, flappers were uninterested in relationships and not in need of marriages. Jordan belongs to the upper class, but she is not expecting marriage with wealthy families. She is attracted to Nick because she sees the potential of freedom in their relationship. Jordan’s relationship has proven that Fitzgerald did not deliberately judge women. Her selections of companions have reflected freedom’s priority and marriage’s insignificance for New Women in the Twenties. Young women in the Jazz Age were rebellious; they would not accept the advice of others just as Jordan refuses to take Nick’s advice and think more for other drivers. Her irresponsibility, dishonesty, and carelessness revealed in the novel are not the product of Fitzgerald’s misogynistic bias but are all methods that flappers in the 1920s used to continuously achieve independence while keeping themselves away from the disadvantage. At the end of the novel, Jordan’s idealized relationship comes to an end because Nick is unable to accept her boyish flappers traits. Her relationship failure has mirrored the fact that the most men at that time in the society could neither understand nor accept the existence of flappers. Jordan reflects the women who are confident and brave to hold on to their beliefs, and those who are reluctant to be limited or