Social Norms In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is persuaded by gendered norms of the 1920s that expected men to prioritize financial success over all else, and in particular, over the love for a woman. He is a commentary on the friction between societal expectations and personal happiness. Gatsby does everything right: he closes himself off from the woman he loves, Daisy, to become financially successful meanwhile, expecting to reclaim his lost love upon achieving the aforementioned material success. Through the character of Jay Gatsby, the novel illustrates societal pressures for men in this period and how a narrow interpretation of success could ultimately undermine the attainment of a successful life defined more broadly.

Gatsby is depicted as a young man who is determined to climb the “ladder” of wealth and status. The ladder symbolizes Gatsby's purposeful rise to financial success. However, Gatsby also believes that he must climb this ladder “alone,” without Daisy. Gatsby expects Daisy’s love to be waiting for him at the top of the ladder. Once he achieves success, he hopes to reach a “point” where he can stop striving for more, and enjoy the pleasures of life, such as the “incomparable milk of wonder.” The use of maternal and feminine language in these quotes suggests that Gatsby desires not only material success, but also emotional connections and intimacy, similar to a mother's love for her child but in a more adult and romantic sense for

Gatsby’s loss of Daisy is indicated in the dissonance between Gatsby's glorification of the past and the way Nick describes it. While Gatsby describes his past with Daisy as beautiful and full of love and light, Nick describes the past as “lurking” in the “shadow[s].” Something that lurks and is shadowy is unpleasant, un-seen, and out of reach, the opposite of the way Gatsby so positively glorifies his past with Daisy. This description of the past is juxtaposed with Gatsby’s supposed emotional and passionate kiss with Daisy, thus indicating that Daisy is slipping through his fingers. After kissing Daisy, Nick describes the kiss as “elusive” and “uncommunicable forever.” In describing the kiss as inaudible or, in a sense, un-repeatable or unachievable, the dissonance is formed a second time. Ultimately, the disconnect between Gatsby’s perceived connection to Daisy and the elusive, inaudible, and shadowy way in which their connection is described demonstrates that, despite Gatsby’s attainment of wealth and status, a life with his past love remains out of reach