Gender Inequality In The Great Gatsby

When will society stop letting race, gender, and class, rule human agency and ability for new opportunities? Charlotte Perkins Stetson's Yellow Wallpaper, F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, and Kirsten Valdez Quades Youth From Every Quarter; These texts examine how race, class, and gender continue to shape agency. Throughout the study of these texts, one can conclude that societal expectations limit freedom and tangle class with race and gender. Therefore complicating opportunities.

The short story Youth From Every Quarter explores the sense that racism and class restrict one's ability to improve and grow as an individual. The self-driven, hard working, and intelligent student Ana, came from a family a part of the proletariat class. Ana's

Ana attended the Elliot boarding summer school, Elliot was not very diverse, which made Ana stand out. The Elliot school was for children that came from bourgeois families.“The summer school was kind of a cash cow, trading on the Elliot reputation, catering to a wealthy and not very diverse student body” (Quado 102). Ana had a much different background than her classmates, her family did not have much money which gave her a hard time getting to the school. She knew she had to do her best because her mom was spending a lot of money which they did not have, for Ana's education. She listened to their stories about what their lives were like at home knowing it was nothing compared to hers. “...and her new elliot friends stayed up laughing late into the night talking about parties and hookups and drinking....They whispered and rolled their eyes at Ana, who, on the other side of the room, tried to do homework or fake sleep.” (Quade 102). Ana was not given the same luxuries as other students. “I understand, of course, that these other, wealthier kids belonged to a world where their needs were accommodated, and that Ana did not, but with my advocacy, surely,

The short story takes place in the 1800s, during this time women of the upper class were expected to stay home and take care of their husbands. The woman in the YWP was married to a wealthy and controlling man, John. Throughout the story the women mentioned things that JOhn did not approve of. She kept a journal and would write, and when she cried John would tell her not to, not in a comforting way. “There comes John, and I must put this away, — he hates to have me write a word.” (Stetson 649). The woman was convinced everything John was doing was good, and the best for her, when he was commodifying her and treating her as if she wasnt an adult and incapable of living alone. She was not allowed to leave the house and was not allowed to make any decisions for herself. “John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. But I don't want to go there at all'' (Stetson 650). The wife was ill and John threatened to send her away even if it was to help her she didn’t want to leave home. When they got in fights the women took the blame and just thought John was always right and he knows what's best, she can't see that he is controlling her. “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous