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Theme Of Women In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

Economic prosperity following a hard-fought war created a decade of marvelous nonsense—filled with mischief and merriment—that often marks the beginning of modern America. The 1920s was an era of festivity; it was a time that stressed wealth excessively. F. Scott Fitzgerald showcases this strong emphasis on the lavish, materialistic lifestyles in his powerful novel, The Great Gatsby, designing episodic recounts of a man’s summer amongst his rich male friends. In the midst of these men’s prosperity exist women who are forced to submit to men’s supposed superiority. Male dominance presents these female characters as subhuman and engenders their oppression. Fitzgerald pummels these ideas of feminine inferiority and objectification, repeatedly attacking feminine dignity through the manifestations of his distinctively invented characters. Fitzgerald’s discriminatory representation of women’s capabilities leads to feminine objectification, which epitomizes the author’s degrading view of femininity. Females in the novel are displayed superficially, portrayed merely as devices of men’s pleasure. In marriage, Tom Buchanan essentially possesses Daisy; they do not share a relationship as equals. Nick Carraway regards their household by only the man’s name, stating that he has “dinner with the Tom Buchanans” (Fitzgerald 5). Nick refers only to Tom’s name instead of to the couple’s familial name, replacing Daisy’s existence as a human with her existence as an object and proving that

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