The Great Gatsby Women Essay

Just under five years ago, on the 9th of October 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head, the bullet traveled through her neck and lodged in her shoulder. The Taliban had issued death threats towards Malala for her activism, such as going to her exam when girls were not permitted to receive education. Subsequently, in her defiance, Malala put herself in danger, nonetheless, the 15 year old was undeterred in her fight for what she believed in. F.Scott Fitzgerald embodied this drive in his characters, even his female ones. Although, The Great Gatsby was not entertained around Jordan Baker, Myrtle Wilson, and Daisy Buchanan, the women in Fitzgerald’s story each held feminine power, this power was shown in their physical beauty,

The 19th amendment to the American Constitution states “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” . Despite the apparent equality implied by the change in the legal system, sexism and misogynistic behaviour was – and is – still prevalent in American society. Due to this, it is often evident in American literature that the female characters gravitate towards the idea of becoming free. Whilst each character finds freedom in different scenarios, the desire is still evident. In ‘The Great Gatsby’, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 – five years after the 19th amendment was passed – the character of Jordan Baker perfectly exemplifies the desire for female

Over the past decades, women experienced significant changes in the 1920s. Women were to do domestic chores like taking care of the kids and clean. They were subservient to men and were not allowed to use their knowledge in any situation and their opinions were not listened to. They were treated lower than men and were described as weak and dependant to their husband, but this did not last long. The shifts have created a way for women to be equal to men like when the 19th Amendment passed, it enabled them to vote and to take part in politics. We can see some of these incorporated in the The Great Gatsby. Daisy Buchanan is portrayed as the stereotypical women because she was submissive and Jordan Baker is seen as the changing women since she is a professional golf player and unmarried. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, women did not achieve the american dream because of the differences in traditional values and modern views which caused inequality between men and women.

In the story Great Gatsby Daisy and Myrtle are representing the feminist struggle for the women in the 1920s in America. The main objective of this topic is that the daisy and myrtle are trying to find love, and is in the midst of being treated unfairly by their husbands.

Feminist economists, sociologists and many other scholars from different social disciplines have been analyzing the tangled relations between factors of production and their connection to reproduction. (Toğrul & Memiş 2011, 4) Reproductive work, increasingly referred as social reproduction, helps to create supporting and servicing facilities for current and future work force and mostly known care giving and domestic duties but it has a broader scope than the biological reproduction. Reproductive work includes baring and caring children, taking them to school, preparing food, dishing, cleaning and so on. For instance, when child gets sick, someone has to sit and hold hands of him/her at nights. They are all reproducing society

The female characters are put into three categories in The Great Gatsby: the wife, the independent, and the mistress. Daisy is the wife of Tom Buchanan and also the lover of Gatsby. Myrtle is the mistress of Tom Buchanan, but she’s also married to George Wilson, who is not as wealthy as Buchanan. And there’s Jordan, who is much more different than these other two female characters. Jordan is more of the individualistic type. What makes these three women is that they all want money, power, and looks. Myrtle wants Tom to leave Daisy and take her away, but that’s just a dream that won’t come true. Myrtle becomes a victim of her dream, for Tom because she gets hit running out to his car but actually it was Daisy and Gatsby. Myrtle is a devastating

Out of the three criticisms provided: psychoanalytic, marxism, and feminism, I believe that feminism best suits Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. For those that have read the book, it can be obvious on why I chose this criticism as the best fitting. The book features three female main characters from different backgrounds: Daisy Buchanan, a rich (old money) housewife, Jordan Baker, a professional golfer with a much more modern taste than that of Daisy, and Myrtle Wilson, the mistress of Tom Buchanan. These women all live in inequitable society in which women are considered inferior to men, and those that do not meet the standards are seen as “out of place”.

Throughout history, wealth, gender and race have determined one's social rank. F. Scott Fitzgerald explores this in his writing of The Great Gatsby. Despite the women’s rights movements happening during the 1920’s when the book was written, it is obvious that Fitzgerald still implies female inferiority through his writing. This is usually shown through mannerisms of male characters or comments made by women due to societal pressures. It is clear that in their society, the portrayal of women as sexual objects, the expectation of female dependence and the idea that women are the property of men has been normalized.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the 1920’s were seen as a time of glamour and excitement. It was the first time that women were recognized as a major influence on the American Culture. Novels The Great Gatsby takes our interest because they involve people whose lives that be as complicated as our own. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses women as characters to build up the characters to build the American Dream by portraying their social status, their beauty, and their individuality. All of the women in The Great Gatsby are completely different from one another. They all differ in their own ways. The way each of the characters looks in the book is significantly different. Their social statuses vary from one another. They each act their own way and are different from one another. Each of the women was facing different challenges in the novel and representing different ideas.

“That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world- a beautiful little fool.” ‘The Roaring Twenties’ heralded a period of prosperity for many, which F. Scott Fitzgerald captures vibrantly in his tale of The Great Gatsby along with the roles of the sexes. The 20s held a wide spread attitude of male and female roles not overlapping and this idea of ‘separate spheres’ caused women to face a lack of rights. After the first world war women arrived at the conclusion that there should be more to life than looking after children and their house. Fitzgerald uses three very different people, Jordan Baker, Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson as different versions of ‘New Women’.

The Great Gatsby was written in a time period were many women began to go against society’s view of a perfect women. This novel was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald based in the 1920s. The narrator of this book is Nick Carraway; Nick moves to New York City to get into bond business. He lives next to the Jay Gatsby, the protagonist of the novel. Nick’s cousin Daisy is Tom's wife and Jordan Baker's close friend. Gatsby has known Daisy from the past and wants to get back with her. Tom has been known to already cheat on Daisy with Myrtle. Tom and Gatsby get into an argument when Tom realizes his wife was cheating on him. Tom wins the argument due to Gatsby having a mental breakdown. From there Daisy basically choses to stay with Tom. the novel builds up to the death of Myrtle Wilson which then leads to Mr. Wilson shooting Gatsby. This text will explore the roles Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle represent for the women in the 1920s.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, there are three unique female figures presented. The three characters, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, each fit into cookie-cutter stereotypes of women in the 1920s. These archetypes are the golden girl, the independent woman, and the gold digger, respectively. The concept of women being categorized into three very narrow-minded boxes is one of misogynistic ignorance displayed by Fitzgerald, similar to his peers during the time.

The 1920s was known as the Jazz Age, an astonishing time period filled with greed for money, alcohol, and beautiful women. The Great Gatsby had a lot of events that occurred in the 1920s. It really showed the importance of women and what they meant to the American Dream. There was three major women who had the most influence in the book, Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle. In this text I will explore the roles the women played in the book. Next I will talk about the new women of New York City and what they are about. Lastly I will explain the power women wield and their social class.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, women were most often used to be shown off, and were objects unable to express their opinions and have individual opinions, it is true that life wasn’t easy then, but it was even harder for women. Being a women in these times meant that being free seemed almost impossible, because to society more often than not, women were viewed as just housekeepers, wives, or mothers. Women did not have a right to have dreams or be ambitious. In the end all women, rich or poor all wanted the same thing, to be free. Essentially, The Great Gatsby, portrayed three powerful women known as Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson and Jordan Baker. Each of these women are alike, yet very different, as each play a different role in society. Women were very ironic in this book, because they had no direct power in the household they came from, and yet they controlled everything indirectly.

Since the 1920s a woman’s life has never been the same. Women are no longer to bound to a life of cooking, cleaning and caring for children. Women have gained the right to dress however they wish, drink as they please and more importantly have a political voice. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is set in the peak of this evolutionary time period. The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, an aspiring bondsman who is thrown into the upscale, scandalous lives of Long Islanders. He forms relationships with various men and women with contrasting personalities. The author uses the lives of these women to show the new desires, freedoms, and changes that came with the Jazz Age.