How Does Janie Create Power In The Great Gatsby

Cycle of Love
The novel “The Great Gatsby” written in 1924 by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates many modernist themes, such as the corruption of the American dream, sexism, alienation, and abuse of power. Nic, the narrator, along with Gatsby, a wealthy man whose story is not entirely known, set out on a journey full of bumps in the road. Many of the modernist views within The Great Gatsby can be related to today’s world and the so-called “American dream.” Men working their whole lives to make a living in the world, slowly corrupting into ashes. The great Gatsby signifies the power-hungry, the weak, and the imbalances between the two.

One of the main modernist views within the great Gatsby is the working class vs wealthy. The working class and

Janie and Nick are constantly forced to alter their perspectives through their experiences. Tea Cake's influence on Janie creates false trust within Janie’s character which is proved when Tea Cake steals $200 dollars from her. And Nick is influenced by Gatsby with his great storytelling and fame. Janie continues to believe what Tea Cake declares even after Janie’s friends persist that she takes Tea Cake with a grain of salt and not to believe everything he says. Janie has been through enough to know how to deal with a man but sometimes her kindness gets the best of her ultimately leading her into difficult situations with others where she begins to feel as if she's just being used. This harsh reality of sexism and the corruption of femininity is further maintained in the article “FEMALE POWER IN THE GREAT GATSBY” by; Gretchen Danielle Fischle when he states, “She is only able to bask effortlessly when she is talked about in relationship to the men around her…Daisy and Jordan both rebuke societal expectations and assert their power, but are hemmed in because of the overwhelming suppression of patriarchal discourse” (26). The effects of a woman living in a man’s world limit women from showing there power and femininity, the inequality of genders is a common recurrence within both Fitzgeralds and Hurston’s novels. Janie is forced to put on a false character of who she really is. Throughout the whole book Janie was with men that treated her wrong and did her bad. They always had Janie doing what they wanted her to do she could never do. Janie’s relationship with Joe Starks was a clear representation of women not having their say in the 1900’s, In Chapter 5 Joe stops Janie from speaking at the opening of his store, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin’ bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home”