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.
Have you ever read The Great Gatsby, and if you have, have you ever analyzed it? Personally, I have specifically analyzed the female characters in The Great Gatsby, and the author's message to the readers about feminine power. Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan are the three main characters in The Great Gatsby and they make up the majority of the story. Fitzgerald’s, the author of The Great Gatsby, message to the readers about feminine power is that women are better off without a man. This is his point of view because he believes that a man will drag a woman down, and she won't be able to reach her full potential.
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’”
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).
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.
In society today, not only are gender roles demonstrated in people’s daily lives, but are also demonstrated in tragedies. Tragedies tend to consist gender roles throughout their story line by showing how people in society must act on their behalf. Tragedies also provide an example of what modern day society looked like based on the time period it was written in. Social constructs also change over time, making tragedies something important that marks what society looked like at the time. With this in mind, tragedies such as “Oedipus Cycle” by Sophocles and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald enforce gender roles by showing gender inequality and enforcing certain emotions and actions amongst men and women.
Gender impacts the identity Americans tend to believe that identity must be impacted by tons of things, especially the rigid social hierarchy, however, identity could also be impacted by one aspect, gender, it is obviously demonstrated in both The Great Gatsby and Little Women. Between 100 years since 1830s-1940s in Little Women and The Great Gatsby, though the society changed a lot by Industrial Revolution in US, the bias of gender did not change, in particular the females. Although both daisy and jo faced unfair treatments because of their gender in the US and changed their identity because of the dissatisfy of their marriage or self-achievements, Daisy wished to change her identity depending on Gatsby, she hoped him could help her to regain the passion of love and life, nevertheless, Jo changed herself by moving to the NY city to practice her writing skills and also met her husband, Mr. Bhaer, later. Both Daisy and Jo could reflect the issue faced by US female.
In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a modern woman; she is sophisticated, careless and beautifully shallow. Daisy knows who she is, and what it takes for her to be able to keep the lifestyle she grew up in, and this adds to her carelessness and her feigned interest in life. In all, Daisy is a woman who will not sacrifice material desires or comfort for love or for others, and her character is politely cruel in this way. Daisy’s main strength, which buoyed her throughout her youth and when she was in Louisville, is her ability to know what was expected of her and feign cluelessness.
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.
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.
Tashi Hope Nicolay ElA III 20 March 2018 The Great Gatsby Essay The women in Fitzgerald's book are described as careless ,selfish , and fierce .They show that they can do anything they want without responsibility, Daisy breaks Gatsby’s heart, Scott Fitzgerald he made it seem that women in the 1920’s were careless and boyish because of the way they acted at parties and anywhere else that Fitzgerald shows that with Daisy, she manipulated Gatsby, Daisy is one of those types of people that likes attention but not too much. She takes the bad vibe in the room and turns it to her like when Gatsby and Tom were fighting “ His hand, trembling with effort at self-control, bore to his lips the last of his glass of al,Daisy’s voice got us to our feet and out onto the blazing gravel drive,Are we just going to go?she said... oh lets have fun she begged him. It's too hot to fuss”( Daisy pg.119), Jordan is laid back Myrtle is reckless.
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.
