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Gender Roles In The Great Gatsby

780 Words4 Pages

Leah Ballin
Mrs. Beaird
LAIII
4 October 2016
Social Roles in the 1920’s
Everyone strives to live the perfect life, it’s the American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays this in The Great Gatsby. The years in which this book was set were a time when many social roles were present. The Great Gatsby accurately portrays ethnic prejudices and highlights gender roles present during the 1920’s.
In the 1920’s, race was an important factor in deciding how you were treated and what your role was in society. The First World War resulted in a huge economic boom in the United States. Factory production rose quickly to meet the needs of the war. Once the war was over, countries continued to buy American goods. The increased demand led to production lines …show more content…

In The Great Gatsby, Tom talks about a book he has read that has the way to fix the problem. “Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “I’ve gotten to be a pessimist about things. Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard? (Fitzgerald, 17). Tom goes on to explain the ideas in the book. “This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominate race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things,” (Fitzgerald, 17). Even the women have the same idea. Daisy goes on the say, “We’ve got to beat them down,” (Fitzgerald, …show more content…

The women of this time were like the bridge between how things used to be and how they are today. In this era, women became more self-confident, more independent, and more emancipated, more like we are today (Ole Reinsch 1). Ladies liked to go out along with their husband and party, but once they got home, it was the woman’s job to take care of household chores. In upper class families, they had hired help to do these jobs. “Only one-third of the women entitled to vote actually did go voting” (Ole Reinsch 1). As exciting as gaining suffrage was for women, a lot of them didn’t feel confident in their right to vote. For so many years it had been totally wrong for ladies to go voting, so for many years after this change in legislation women didn’t feel like they really had the right to vote. Even if the voting didn’t work for some ladies there were still some perks to being a woman in the 1920’s. “The Roaring Twenties heralded a period of prosperity for many access to electricity provided American women with the power required to run new labor saving appliances and enjoy the new inventions and innovations of the period.“

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