Social Norms In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The shift from traditional to modern values in the 1920s created conflicts among genders, hindering women from achieving the American Dream. Prior to the 1920s, traditional values were more conservative, and proper etiquette was more prominent in society. Traditionally, men also had more rights than women , who were mostly expected to be housewives. The 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote resulted in a shift towards more rights and equality for women, but traditional ideas still opposed these modern changes. Daisy and Tom who were born into wealth, represent the traditional ideas and morals in The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a historical novel published in 1925, illustrated the social norms that suppressed women and took away their equality in the 1920s, these norms hindered women's

Women of the 1920s could not easily achieve the American Dream because of social norms illustrated in The Great Gatsby that suppressed their opinions, which hindered their ability to achieve the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a historical fiction of the 1920s, a wealthy woman named Daisy speaks to Nick about her daughter's birth, “She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept.‘All right,’ I said, ‘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, beautiful little fool’” (Fitzgerald 17). A beautiful fool symbolizes the traditional expectation men had of women, which was women should not voice their opinion in a man's world. It is easier to remain a beautiful fool because the opinions of women in the 1920s were suppressed by men. The expectation for women to remain quiet did not allow women to express themselves and work toward achieving their personal American Dream. An anti-suffrage women, Molly