Theme Of Women In The Great Gatsby

The novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about societal difference between men and women the 1920s. Throughout the novel this theme is played through our main characters: Tom, Myrtle, and Daisy. Fitzgerald uses the possessive relationships between these characters to enlighten the reader about women’s social ranking. He demonstrates how men were able to control women by making them feel inferior. The author describes the importance of social class for women in the 1920’s through the possessive and ultimately destructive relationship of Tom and Myrtle.

In his 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, chronicles a story of complicated relationships between a group of men and women as they go about their lives in New York during the “roaring 20s”. Narrated by character Nick Carraway, the story exposes and endorses gender based stereotypes as the characters attempt to achieve their American dream. In 1920, women were granted the right the vote, which was a substantial step forward in the equal rights movement for women. Yet, even during the twenties, women still struggled to find an equal place in society and were often blocked from having the same chances of achieving the American dream as men. In the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald not only exposes sexist values of the time, but

The roaring twenties was the period known for its exuberant, overwhelming and free pop culture of all time. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, represent the past historical modernization of a male subjugated social system. The Great Gatsby is a mysterious love tale, and a social interpretation towards the American Life. This story explores the journey for happiness and wealth through the American Dream, and shows how perfectionism, deteriorated relationships, and deceitfulness occur during the Jazz Age. The Great Gatsby, however, is not the story about a woman’s journey for happiness and improperly shows the representation of females during 1920. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby shows the historically male controlled social system through women being portrayed as shallow beings, which are dominated by men, and seen as flawed individuals.

Since society has existed, women have been known as different from men. For the longest time, women have been known as the “weaker sex” when compared to the male. There purpose, especially in the olden days is to obey and please the men. However nowadays there seems to be a more equality between the two genders. But even today discrimination between male and female takes place all over the world. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, you can see a lot of discrimination between the two sexes. The story takes place in the 1930’s and it has a bad view on women, they just got the right to vote for presidents, mayors, and senators. However most men thought that the women should only stay home and raise children, that they should not be involved in politics, and their ideas were not valuable. Women were treated as “house slaves” at times when all what they did all day, every day, was work around the house trying to improve the living for their husband and kids.

In "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he shows women, treated and presented as worse than men, and are rather disregarded and neglected by the male characters. Even Fitzgerald describes and creates the traits of the women in the book in a negative manner.

Today, our society is a very judgemental and economic status based society. I will be looking throughout 3 stories using the Marxist lens. We tend to think that we are all split up into different class mainly based on wealthiness, race, gender and ethnicity. People tend to think that the more money you have the more economic status and power you should have over lower class people. Marxists believe that a human’s ability to produce goods and services means people can move past the conflicts of a society that is divided into classes. “First class and coach land at the same runway at the same time.” The person who said this quote was steve jobs and I really loved it because it showed how the classes arent that different. People should not be treated any differently based on economic status and wealth.

Feminism, the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is an often ignored view of the women’s perspective. It brings attention to how women have no expectations to go far in life, or have a reason for live beyond being used to reproduce. The most absurd thing is that the women in the story don’t have any interest to break out of the stereotype, and try to make a life for themselves. Throughout the story, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson are treated as possessions rather than humans.

Throughout literature women are often displayed as idealized characters. Women in the eyes of society are plagued with the stereotype of being kind, nurturing, and tender individuals while men are established as ambitious, assertive, and tough. However, when the time comes for women to possess the qualities of men and men of women, a turnaround of events can occur. Women were the individuals that then shape the males into their ending personna. Shakespeare's Macbeth, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrated the reversal of gender roles through portraying women as the instigator of the male character’s ultimate demise.

In the 1920’s, women were a big problem and social belief. Women gained rights, but not all of them. The number of divorces doubled because women could not stand their husbands. Also,the number of working women increased by 25% (“The Changing Role of American Women in the 1920s”). In the novel, when Mrs Wilson says, “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy,I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-”.“Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand”(Fitzgerald 37).  This shows that men could use women, and treat them however they wanted too, and not get punished for it.

The great Gatsby gives us an accurate insight into the 1920s zeitgeist regarding the role of women in society. America was in a state of an economic boom and rapid change. Society had become less conservative after world war one. The role of women was revolutionary during this time and although women had a lot more freedom now; they were still confined to their sexist role within society; Men were still seen as the dominant gender. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the extremities of gender and social class, and the lack of independence this brought upon women. This essay will discuss the three major female characters and the ideas that Fitzgerald confronts of female stereotypes of the 1920s.

Her actions are viewed as foolish, creating the stigma around women, and though Daisy does not see herself as a fool, surprisingly she expresses that “the best thing a girl can be in this world [is] a beautiful little fool (Fitzgerald, pg 17).” Yet, Daisy is not a fool; she is merely a victim of her environment which is influenced by gender, money, and status. This leads to Daisy having no power or control over her own life and feeling as though women can only be “beautiful fools” as stated earlier.

Daisy Buchanan’s in the Great Gatsby is Jay Gatsby’s one true love. He throws huge parties in hopes of gaining her attention and winning her over. Her role throughout the Great Gatsby was that her beauty drew the attention of everyone. She is the definition of the American Dream and Gatsby seen her as part of his American Dream. “He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be” (Fitzgerald,149). This quote shows how Gatsby knew that Daisy was right for him. In spite of this women's roles were still not equal to men. For example, it was okay for Tom to cheat on Daisy, but it was absurd for her to cheat on Tom with Gatsby. In the 1920 the ideal woman was supposed to find a husband to take care of them.Marriage was almost a necessity as a means of support or protection. There often was pressure to produce children. (Women’s Rights, 4)

Societal ‘norms’ surrounding gender have continuously remained prominent internationally. Although these standards and expectations continue to shift, women still face oppression today. The novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, demonstrates the expectations of women and their relationships to men in 1920’s New York City through one of the main characters, Daisy Buchanan. A vast majority of Daisy’s actions are to entice and cater to the superior men of the novel. Through this, I was able to reflect upon the evolution of society’s stereotypes surrounding women from the 1920’s. Initially, from reading the novel, I learned about the period of the roaring twenties and how the aspect of class affects the

Looking at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby through a feminist perspective, it’s apparent the text supports and challenges the assumptions of a patriarchal society. Interrogating this text with a critical feminist viewpoint reveals the men and women appear to be victims of social and cultural norms of the 1920s, which were firmly entrenched. However, some of the characters attempt to redefine these, especially the women in order to renegotiate the gender norms. Jordan resists social pressure to conform to feminine expectations and, despite Daisy and Myrtle living more traditionally, they are both willing to have affairs. The female characters approach feminism in a multitude of ways, representing different layers of narrative voices through a time of a feminist movement.

Furthermore, women in The Great Gatsby are marginalized by the social patterns of the Jazz Age resulting in a deprivation of their own identity. Despite their recent liberation, women are replicas of each other; nothing more than impersonal, faceless objects. In August, 1920, the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, gave way to the emancipated women. Women or flappers, as they are referred to, with their short hair and shiny dresses are identical in appearance, with little or no individuality. While reflecting on the attendees at Gatsby’s parties, Nick infers, “Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same ones in physical person, but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before” (Fitzgerald 62). As Nick observes, due to their similarity it makes it difficult to determine if it is a woman’s first time at one of Gatsby’s parties. This exemplifies women’s conformity to an unwritten social code and their morphism into undistinguishable beings, simply an object of men’s desires. Additionally, Nick’s nightmare after Gatsby’s death illustrates another example of women’s marginalization as a result of their adherence to the social standards of the times. He dreams about a drunken woman in a white evening dress being carried home by four men. “Gravely the men turn in at a house – the wrong house. But no one