In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays women in an extremely negative light. The idea Fitzgerald gives off is that women are only good for their looks and their bodies and that they should just be a sex symbol rather than actually use their heads. He treats women like objects and the male characters in the novel use women, abuse women, and throw them aside. I believe that Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are prime examples of women in The Great Gatsby being treated poorly.
Thesis: In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays Daisy as the classic American girl, thus Fitzgerald uses social expectations of white women to characterize Daisy as a two dimensional stereotype. In the beginning of the novel, Daisy is introduced as the wife of Tom, together creating the exemplar of American couples; however, these social expectations limit the identity of Daisy as she is served as a complimentary character to Tom. Daisy demonstrates Tom’s power and authority when by diminishing her dignity.
Foremost, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses characters to symbolize the diabolical traits within a person. For instance, Daisy 's husband, Tom represented pride. Tom was a despicable character throughout the book, he was conceited and arrogant to everyone around him. For example, Tom tells Nick that he is more masculine then he is and parades his house around boasting about his accomplishments and wealth (Ch 1. Pg 7).
The 1920s is a time of technological, economical, and social exploration. Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan display the full image of what it is like to be a women in New York during the 1920s. They each have a personal struggle with society and the fight between what they want and what is expected of them. Each of these women wants to experience the glamor of the 1920s but has to maintain some of the traditional elegance of a woman. If the neglect to do so, they are treated harshly by society.
Fitzgerald utilizes parallel structure and a rhetorical question to highlight the nature of Daisy’s personality. Daisy has a desire to become aware of minor events which she somehow seems important, however, she becomes easily distracted in finding pleasure. This also demonstrates Daisy’s sense of haste and egotism, as she didn’t care to wait for anyone else’s answer, and is concerned with her only her own.
In today’s duplicitous society, men often pursue the “perfect woman”. This woman is construed to be; fit, provocative and ravishing. However, in greatly distinguished American novel, The Great Gatsby, the men have strayed from stalking women for their looks. Instead, Gatsby chases Daisy to achieve her as a prize of his bounty and any affection Gatsby demonstrates toward her, is simply to appease to her sense of status and wealth. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald, exhibits Gatsby’s these feelings for Daisy through the clever usage of connotation, symbolism and metaphors.
The Roaring Twenties Have you ever wondered what the stereotypes of women were in the 1920’s? Well, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, there are three major different types of stereotypes of women. In this book, a man named Nick Carraway moves near a millionaire who goes by the name Gatsby. Gatsby hosts frequent parties which include several different types of people, such as gold diggers, golden girls, and the new women. Throughout this book, Nick gets to meet all three types of these girls, and gets to spend time with them.
Things like this upset people, mostly the men in particular. The men were upset because this showed that they were losing the dominance they had over the female society. In the story, the narrator, Nick Carraway meets Daisy and Jordan, two women who are greatly impacted by the effects of society. Fitzgerald uses the role of women to demonstrate the impact of society on women during this time.
In this novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, feminists question the treatment the women in book receive by the men. An example of this is when the author writes, “Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same in physical personal, but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before” (p.63). This quotes shows the way women were treated in the society of the 1920’s, this was the time in which women started changing their behaviour
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.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of themes of wealth, love, and tragedy, as well as a subtle but powerful representation of gender. 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 both man and society’s 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, which is shown through their behavior, beliefs, and ultimate fates and their personalities display both powerful and potentially harmful stereotypes of women at this time.
“I hope she’ll be a fool--that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, beautiful little fool”(Fitzgerald 17). This line, stated by Daisy, accurately demonstrates the perception of women during the 1920s. Women were seen as objects and deemed incapable of intelligent thought. In The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays women based on similar stereotypes from this time period. Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker are all prominent female characters in the story whose behaviors and actions, although different, showcase the common desires and struggles of women at the time.
Through the empty lives of three characters from this novel—Myrtle, Daisy, and Jay Gatsby—Fitzgerald shows that chasing hollow dreams leads only to misery. All Myrtle wants is a perfect and luxurious life. The
Through use of comparison between Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s message about women and feminine power is that having a man deprives the women of their power, ranking higher in social standards deepens the wound of selfishness, and being deceptive
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).
