What Does The Flower Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

A poet named Erin Van Vuren once wrote, “I will not be another flower, picked for my beauty and left to die.” The United States during the 1920s era consisted of social and political change that F. Scott Fitzgerald captured in his writing. This new era consisted of contemporary music known as jazz, prohibition, and technological breakthroughs such as radio arose. The American Dream, an idealistic train of thought that incorporated US citizens obtaining equal opportunities to achieve success and prosperity all built on hard-work, determination, and initiative, was on most agendas, however, this delusion slowly came to a halt once it was made clear that it was nothing more than an idea. This then largely impacted how Fitzgerald wrote and how

Women were thought to be a man’s object who had no say in what they wanted and had to live up to men’s ideals. These ideals shaped women and how they behaved and were distinguished amongst society. A woman who came from money for example was thought to be so wholesome and unadulterated as well as dazzling in appearance; Fitzgerald was able to portray this through his character Daisy Buchanan. Daisy perfectly mimicked these standards. In her adult years, she wasn’t allowed to have a voice or be her own person. Daisy explains her own pain when talking about her daughter to Nick Carraway, her cousin and dear friend who also served as the narrator, “I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). Being nostalgic of her younger years when she was to some extent her own person, Daisy reminisces when comparing the real world to her daughter’s future and how her daughter will never in theory be or do what she wants, only what someone else wants. When implying “a beautiful little fool”, Daisy knows that as long as her daughter can always be classically authentic and somewhat respected for who she is and that will take her far. This is also a snapshot as to what women’s intelligence was thought to be; foolish. Being eye-catching and nonsensical is in short the ideal woman. A flower in this case is related because children and women are seen as growing

Gatsby had such a deep, passionate love for Daisy that his dreams usually got ahead of reality thus giving him a false perspective of what was legitimate. One of these dreams was that Daisy would leave Tom for Gatsby. Nick revealed, “He broke off and began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers” (Fitzgerald 109). Daisy never did leave Tom for Gatsby, even after he thought he had convinced her to do so by proving his love would always be for real and for true. The flowers are showing how Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was no longer preserved and how she never did have a choice of leaving Tom since divorce was unacceptable. Gatsby saw Daisy as an exquisite china doll who could easily be maneuvered like a puppet, or in this case swayed into doing whatever it was Gatsby wished. Considering another disturbing instance of women being treated as if they were objects, opposed to human beings, Wilson treats Myrtle with no respect. Although Myrtle did cheat on her husband and he found out, he began to make major life decisions for her as a punishment. Wilson explains, “‘And now she’s going whether she wants to or not’” (Fitzgerald 123). Myrtle was recognized as an incompetent thing by her husband and because of this he chose to pick up everything and move West without any warning or without any input