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The great gatsby gender role
Woman's status in The great gatsby by f.scott.Fitzgerald
The great gatsby gender role
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The author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses Tom Buschan as a symbol of gender roles during the period of Roaring Twenties. Tom is the narrator, Nick's friend from college and they are having a reunion. Nick describes Tom as having, “Two arrogant eyes [that] had established dominance over his face,” (page 14). Fitzgerald chose to include the word “dominance” because men controlled almost everything during this time period. Tom is a prime example of men controlling their women, even with their eyes.
While talking to Nick about the birth of her daughter, Daisy mentions that she hopes her daughter will “...be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Fitzgerald 17). In Daisy’s eyes, a woman has no place in this world except to be dumb and pretty. Not only does this show her cynicism towards a female's place in the world, it also gives reason to why she stayed with Tom instead of leaving him for Gatsby. Her wealthy society and abusive husband have made her miserable and she feels as if she is incapable of doing anything because her only job is to be a trophy
Daisy’s statement that a girl can only be a beautiful fool shows what kind of take Daisy had on society and life in general. Daisy wasn’t raised and or surrounded by the people that would think or act outside the box, she's more of an it is
In “The Great Gatsby” writer F. Scott Fitzgerald unpacks gender roles using indirect characterization to show how society forces women to fit into the boxes built for them by the men in their lives by putting all the female characters into stereotypes made to be exactly what the male characters wanted. The most obvious example of this is in the very first chapter of the book when Fitzgerald introduces the character Daisy Buchannan, who is the stereotypical “golden girl”. He presents her in a very childlike manner, having her wear a big fluffy dress that is similar to a wedding dress which symbolizes her being pristine and shows she is upper class. Fitzgerald then has the first piece of dialogue from her being that she is simply “paralyzed with
They had gained status in society, however much of that remained tied to whom they married. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates gender inequality through social expectations, romantic relationships, and disproportionate financial realities. To begin, social expectations tell what people thought about how genders should behave and how society portrays them. Daisy states in The Great Gatsby “‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool’”
Does the male domination today compare to the extensive sexism of women throughout history? Today, sexist views are subconsciously prominent in various beliefs and expectations, such as biased women stereotypes and the pay gap. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fitzgerald, both coherently portray women in American history as submissive to male authority. The Scarlet Letter is a novel based in the 17th century where Hester Prynne, an adulteress, is stripped of her identity through public humiliation, but defies the societal views of her town and bravely accepts her faults. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is portrayed as a perfect and high-class woman whom men fall in love with the idea of her.
This is shown in her statement about her child: 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." Daisy acts like a fool, especially to Tom to cover her true feelings so she can have what she wants without consequence. After diner in chapter 1, when Tom asks Nick what Daisy and he talked about on the veranda, Daisy responds, "I can't seem to remember, but I think we talked about the Nordic race. Yes, I'm sure we did.
Women in The Great Gatsby Throughout the 1920’s, the role women played in society was changing. Fitzgerald shows this in The Great Gatsby by the characters: Daisy, and Jordan. The morals and iimages of the woman changed. During this time period females began to go against the “norms” of society.
Many people think that boys in our culture today are brought up to define their identities through heroic distinctiveness and competition, specifically through separation from home, friends, and family in an outdoors world of work and doing. Girls, on the other hand, are brought up to define their identities through connection, cooperation, self-sacrifice, domesticity, and community in an indoor world of love and caring. These views of different male and female roles can be seen throughout the literature read this semester in Humanities Literature. Gender roles continue to change throughout time as they are exaggerated by society. In fact, this can be seen in comparing the film A League of their Own and the novel The Great Gatsby.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of themes of wealth, love, and tragedy. Also during the time this book was written, women’s suffrage had begun, so women were taking their first steps towards equality with men. The three main women characters in the novel: Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker, all have things in common but can be vastly different; they reflect the view of women in the early 20th century. The Great Gatsby portrays the characters Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan as stereotypes of women during the 1920s, seen in their behavior, beliefs, and their ultimate fate.
For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold. In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents the female characters using the gender roles in the 1920s to suggest that because Myrtle rejects the gender standards, she faces failure whereas Daisy fulfills the gender expectations, is submissive to maintain stability in life. Fitzgerald presents the female character of Daisy Buchanan as submissive women through repetition and oxymoron to portray how she values traditional gender norms. Fitzgerald introduces the scene of delivery of Pammy through Daisy’s perspective to show the struggle of female gender in society.
In this the year, which marks, the centenary in which, women won the right to vote; this essay will be to ‘Discuss the presentation of the women in ‘The great Gatsby’. One cannot understand the writing of ‘The great Gatsby’ without considering the era in which it took place. The role of women first started to change after the First World War in United States of America. Before this war, women did not enjoy universal suffrage. However, that was to change.
Feminism is clearly evident in The Great Gatsby and can be shown by the contrast between the independent women such as Jordan Baker and Catherine and the dependent women, Daisy and Myrtle. They are different in their approach to their relationships even though their character qualities are similar.
Fitzgerald depicts the women of the novel as deceitful, sexual beings that are naturally subordinate to men through Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle. Daisy exemplifies the naturally inferior role of women relying on the wealth of men in their lives to take care of them. When Daisy talks about her daughter she claims, “a fool–that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(21) establishing women’s subordinate role in which they are ignorant to the affairs of their husbands and expected to rely on their beauty to carry them through life. When Daisy is accused of infidelity with Gatsby in the hotel, Gatsby claims that Daisy is attracted to men of wealth and, “only married [Tom] because [Gatsby] was poor and she was tired of waiting for [him]”(137).
Even Gatsby who loved Daisy elevated her status because of her wealth. This tells the reader that Gatsby viewed Daisy as another status symbol he wanted to acquire. This is evidence, again, that the male American Dream was based around wealth and objects, including women. Throughout the novel, the reader is lead to believe that Gatsby is one of the only men who respects women. His love for Daisy is demonstrated, yet we begin to see that he didn’t just love Daisy for Daisy, but for the status she brings him.
