Harlem Renaissance In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald was a prime piece of literature during the Harlem Renaissance, otherwise known as the Jazz Age (coined by Fitzgerald). The Harlem Renaissance was a spike in jazz music, black culture, and more. Fitzgerald’s novel encapsulated this age in America. While Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the artists and authors of the Harlem Renaissance share black people achieving the American Dream in common, only The Great Gatsby portrays this ambition as inaccessible and unachievable for women.

Authors and artists of the Harlem Renaissance along with F. Scott Fitzgerald believes that the American Dream is accessible and achievable for people of all colors. In February of 1926, Black History Month was installed

Scott Fitzgerald suggests that only men can access and achieve the American Dream in The Great Gatsby, contrary to the claims of authors of the Harlem Renaissance that this dream is accessible and achievable for all. A character in The Great Gatsby, Daisy, was speaking about her child. The doctor “...told [Daisy] it was a girl, and so [she] turned [her] head away and wept. 'All right,' [she] said, [She’s] glad it's a girl. And [she hopes the baby’ll] be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool'" (Fitzgerald 17). Women have to act dumb and have to rely on other men for their success. Many of the women of this time period would likely see the sexism around them, but it was against social norms for them to speak up about it since it was a topic they ‘couldn’t understand’, and sexism was not seen as an issue at all. Since women had to rely on their husbands for their own success, if the woman ever succeeded at anything, that success would not be hers, it would be her husbands’. Daisy is certainly not stupid, however the social environment she originated from did not see a woman’s intelligence. She fits into the social mold of femininity during this time period, since she believed that girls have more fun if they are just simple and beautiful. Breaking this social standard could result in loss of social status and other unfavorable outcomes. Consequently, the American Dream to women of this time period was more of an elusive dream than something achievable and accessible. For this dream to be accessible to them, they could only seek out a man who most embodies the American