Role Of Men In The Great Gatsby

According to the Oxford English Dictionary a novel is defined as "A long fictional prose narrative, usually filling one or more volumes and typically representing character and action with some degree of realism and complexity." The American novel has developed greatly over time and first emerged in the United States of American at the ending of the eighteenth century. According to the book A Companion to the American Novel, "It is the genre that scholars most often turn to when they try to define the distinctive characteristics of American life and the specific qualities that mark the American imagination. (Benixen, 2012)” Two great American novelists William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald are not only regarded as American writers because

For example Mr. Wilson was married to Mrs. Wilson and he owned a garage. Men were portrayed as being more dominant than women and used their physical strength to emphasise this. The use of physical strength in regards to emphasising male dominance was clearly noted when Tom took Nick and Mrs. Wilson, Tom's mistress, to New York. During this visit they were all drinking and talking, Mrs. Wilson brought up Tom's wife, Daisy, into the conversation and as a result Mrs. Wilson's nose bled because Tom slapped her. Tom used his physical strength to subdue this female character because she did something that he did not approve of. Therefore, the dominant nature of the male character created a sense of pressure within the interpersonal relationship that Tom and Mrs. Wilson shared. Role reversal however is seen between Jordan and Nick, where Jordan is characterized as being a drinker, smoker and party girl. She is the closest female characterized as being a new age woman rather than following the roles of the traditional woman. She is not married and does not have children, unlike the other prominent female characters. The fact that Jordan's name is also masculine helps with the role reversal within her relationship with Nick. However, at the end of the novel Nick still exerts his male dominance by ending the relationship with Jordan. In regards to sexuality, none of the women are pure. This can be as a result of most of them being married and although Fitzgerald does not explicitly say that they did have sexual relationships before marriage except in the case of Daisy who was clearly characterized as having a sexual relationship with Jay Gatsby prior to her marriage to Tom, it is hinted that they may have had lovers prior to their marriages. Despite this fact, their purity still cannot be argues because both prominent married female characters, Myrtle and Daisy