Comparing Women In The Great Gatsby And Of Mice And Men

There’s a trope of women being labeled as property, careless, and destructive as it has been shown and written in many texts of literature- The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men are two culprits of this trope. Women are the downfall of the American Dream in Of Mice and Men as well as The Great Gatsby according to the Marxist Theory, for there is a commodification of women, such as Daisy and Curley’s wife, which add to the failure of the American Dream as both women are seen as property of another, which makes men have a desire to compete after as these women as they give status and value to the men. The women all have inspired and caused the death of the following men: Gatsby, Wilson, and George, and had also killed the American Dream the men

had such as: possessing love, material wealth, and property respectively, which calls for the women to be portrayed temptresses and are blamed for all the wrongdoings and men’s suffering, meanwhile they also have to deal with the burden of getting their own American Dream destroyed by marriage, having to live with their shattered dreams as well as the men’s. Women are property, capable of destroying human lives.
A commodity is an object or a person who offers one/all of the the following words: use-value, exchange value, and sign-exchange value. According to the Marxism Theory section of Critical Theory Today, “a commodity’s value lies not in what it can do (use value) but in the money or other commodities for which it can be traded (exchange value) or in the social status it confers on its owner (sign-exchange value). An object becomes a commodity only when it has exchange value or sign-exchange value, and both forms of value are determined by the society in which the object is exchanged.” (62) The reason why this is important to know is because humans, such as all the females in the novels are seen as commodities, or property; especially when it comes to sign-exchange value. In Critical Theory Today it states that “ I commodify human beings when I structure my relations with them to promote my own advancement financially or socially. “ (62), which is exactly what happens inside the novels. The women of the novels are treated and are viewed as property or an upgrade for social status. For example, Daisy in Gatsby’s eyes was more valuable for “It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes. “ (The Great Gatsby: 158) This example is showing that Daisy is worth something socially for she is sought after by multiple men. Daisy was a wealthy character and an bourgeoisie gal who was also young and beautiful. Both Gatsby and Tom wanted to possess her for their own needs. Tom wanted a beautiful wife; Gatsby saw Daisy as this ticket to a larger and more successful life- something he’s been dreaming about since he was a younger man. He wanted her in every way possible, to own her, to use her, to only have her love him and only him, to relive the past. He truly wanted to possess Daisy which is only a dream since Tom already had married her; claiming her as his possession and only his. Myrtle was also a woman who was commodified in The Great Gatsby. She was known to be Wilson’s wife and Tom’s possession. She fell in love with Tom, or the idea of marrying Tom and escaping the life of a proletariat/living in the valley of ashes to which it had costed her life. Curley’s wife was only named Curley’s wife which shows that she was only just viewed as Curley’s possession.
The men all had their dreams: possessing material wealth, love, and property. Women had been the downfall of their American Dream. Wilson had wanted to stabilize his financial earnings and to have his wife love him back, but Daisy had ruined his dream when she killed over Myrtle. Gatsby’s American Dream was to have Daisy love him back, but instead of loving him back, she abandoned him. Daisy left Gatsby waiting for her to love him back only for him to die for he wouldn’t abandon his dream. Lennie and George’s American Dream was to own some farmland and tend rabbits/selling their own crops for once. Curley’s wife came in during a wrong time only to be killed by Lennie, causing George to kill Lennie for he was either going to be killed by someone else or would have to go to prison and suffer. The men aren’t blamed for how they acted or for what they’ve done, it was the women’s fault. Daisy was the careless figure in the story of The Great Gatsby for she had ruined three dreams. Curley’s wife was the one who got the blame for Lennie’s death. She had gone into the barn looking for trouble, and was shamed for how she dressed/looked. If she hadn’t done her hair that day, Lennie might have never touched her hair, causing her to not resist to him messing up her hair. But naturally, because she was a temptress figure; Lennie had killed her accidentally while falling under his urges to touch her hair, which is why she is under the spotlight for the blame.
While the women had destroyed the men’s dreams, their own American Dreams had been lost and shot down by marriage.

Daisy’s dream was to marry Gatsby, but was destroyed as soon as he had left to go overseas to help with The Great War. Gatsby was also from a lower socioeconomic caste and wasn’t financially stable for Daisy, which ultimately left Daisy with no choice but to accept Tom’s marriage arrangement. She was really close to her dream, and in one scene, she almost had gotten away from the marriage with Tom. "Here, deares'." She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. "Take 'em down-stairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mind. Say: 'Daisy's change' her mine!'" (The Great Gatsby 82) She nearly makes it to her dream, but she stayed with Tom, becoming a part of his possessions and has to deal with his disrespect and tendency to cheat. Myrtle had wanted to become rich as well as advance to a higher social status away from the proletariatian lifestyle; only to be fooled into believing that Wilson was her ticket to this life which ended her in an unsatisfying marriage. Then Tom had entered her life and she had resurfaced the thought that she had a chance to get another ticket- which ended in her death as she thought Tom was driving the yellow car she had seen him in earlier that day when really it was Daisy. Curley’s Wife had wanted to become a famous actor. She says, "I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself." ... "Maybe I will yet."... "Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an' I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. ... But the guy says I coulda. If I'd went, I wouldn't be livin' like this, you bet." (Of Mice and Men 44) Instead of achieving her dream, she had gotten married to Curley, making her live on a farm for the rest of her life, which is pretty short as we know. They normally

stereotype the man’s life falling apart due to a marriage, but as we see it, it’s quite the opposite.
To conclude the essay, women in the novels The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men are seen as the downfall of the American Dream. Daisy and Myrtle are held responsible for Gatsby and Wilson’s death while Curley’s wife’s own death results in the death of Lennie. The reasoning as to why they were the downfall of the American Dream was because they were commodified by the men; they were seen and treated as property to them, which other men had wanted or accidentally had taken away from the original man. Not only do they have to suffer the blame of the men’s downfall, they have their own dreams shattered in front of them by their marriages binding them to their suffering. This is the burden of women in literature; being sought after causes their downfall as well as men’s downfalls.