Daisy's Gender Roles In The Great Gatsby

The Roaring Twenties was an era that transformed America's views on women's gender roles and relationship standards. The Great Gatsby is a story of a wealthy man named Jay Gatsby told through the view of Nick Carraway. Gatsby has been living in the past his entire life with his one true goal of reuniting with his first love Daisy Buchanan. Throughout the story we see the ups and downs of being a rich elite in society and the values of life and scandals in the 1920s. Gender roles and relationships of the 1920s influenced F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby because Jordan defies the common girl gender role, Daisy wants her daughter to be a fool, and Tom abuses women physically and mentally.

The first example of how gender roles influenced

F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel is Jordan not conforming to the gender expectations of a female in the 1920s. “Economic changes and technological developments provided new contexts for gender roles, while political factors such as war and social movements substantially altered expectations for women and men in areas such as family responsibilities, social positions, and public behaviors” (Lair np). During this time period, the word feminism and feminist were just starting to get recognized. Before this, woman were supposed to sit straight, never curse, and submit themselves to their husbands. Jordan, being a professional golfer, is someone who is known publicly and should fit into the societal norm of being polite, sitting up straight, and acting mature. “She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet” (Fitzgerald 11). When Nick is describing Jordan he makes her figure seem to be very boy like. Fitzgerald uses a simile to compare Jordan to a young cadet. At this time in history woman did not join the army, so describing her as a young cadet showed her boy like physique. Fitzgerald could have used any other simile to describe Jordan but picked a cadet to emphasise the new feminist movements during this time and what they stand for. A feminist is someone who wants equality between men and woman. Jordan, being a woman, wants to have the same qualities as men, so being compared to a man gives the reader the sense that Fitzgerald wants Jordan to have traits representing feminists in the 1920s. During this time period it was not normal for a women to be as rich as Jordan without a mans support. Being that Jordan became successful without the upbringing of a husband into the elite society and having her own achievements shows how independent of a woman she is. Woman in the 1920s just started to become wealthy on their own which had rarely been seen before by society and was shocking for many which created an interesting character for people of the twentieth century to see.
Subsequently, Daisy wants her child to be a fool. “ She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And 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). Throughout the story Daisey is constantly being treated poorly by Tom and she does not feel that she matters much. The reader can infer from this quote that Daisy is not proud to be a woman. Daisy feels that her daughter will have a better and happier life if she does not notice the realities of the world. If Daisy’s daughter is ignorant she will not notice that woman are not appreciated and have no worth in the society. “Some states previously had given women the right to vote, but the decades long battle finally extended voting rights to almost all women” (Women's Suffrage 153). One way women were discriminated against was their right to vote. Women were not deemed smart enough or having enough common sense to be able to choose who they thought should be the president. This was one of the most evident ways that showed how worthless men thought women were during this time period. Since feminism just started becoming relevant during this time period, F.Scott Fitzgerald saw how women felt about being treated like they were nothing. This scene in the book was strongly influenced by the new feminism movement and woman speaking out about how insignificant they feel and that they do not want to feel ashamed for being a girl.
Lastly, Tom abuses women physically and mentally. To start, Tom abuses women physically. “Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. ‘Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!’ shouted Mrs. Wilson. "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 125-127). In today’s society it would not be acceptable to hit a women. In fact, it is very frowned upon and in some cases people have faced jail time for abusing their spouses. Tom claims that he loves Myrtle and enjoys having her on his arm. If he respected her and cared for her enough he would want her best interests at hand and would never hit someone he cares deeply for. This scene blaintinly illustrates how Tom feels about women. “In outrage at the double standard, she insists that the authorities impose more stringent punishments on men who trifle with women and then abandon them and their illegitimate children to shame and penury” (snodgrass np). In the 1920s men were not expected to respect their spouse enough to not hurt them. There was no action taken to help a women who had been troubled and abused by a man. As F.Scott Fitzgerald heard about these women who were speaking out about this topic of pain and feeling of worthlessness it highly impacted the way Tom treats the women in the story.
Furthermore, Tom also abuses woman mentally.

Throughout the story Tom is seen flaunting women around and making them think that he is in love with them when he could care less about them. “What I say is why go on living with them if they can’t stand them? If I was them I’d get a divorce and get married to each other right away...it's really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce. Daisy was no Catholic…”(Fitzgerald 33). Tom is making Myrtle think that he would marry her if only Daisy was not Catholic, but that is not the case. Tom just likes Myrtle to be there for him if he gets bored or annoyed with Daisy but would never want to marry her since she is not seen as significant in society being that she is not wealthy. “This surplus created the basis for economic inequality, and in turn prompted a ceaseless striving for upward mobility among people in the lower strata of society” (Medvedev 198). It is seen throughout the book that Myrtle tries to appear rich even though she has no money. Some of her love for Tom might be based on the fact that he has a lot of money and she wants to be wealthy considering many people during this era would look for anyway to move up in society. If Tom were to divorce Daisy who comes from a wealthy family and marry Myrtle who has no money, in his mind he would be moving down the “social ladder” which is the last thing Tom would want seeing that he strongly values his possessions. During the time period of the roaring twenties F. Scott Fitzgerald was very wealthy. Using his experiences with how he feels about being very important during this time, heavily affected the words he used to illustrate Tom’s character and his love for being rich and showing it off. Being a rich elite in the Jazz age was very thrilling and exciting because there were many new inventions and the United States was becoming very industrialized. A lower class individual during this time did not get to enjoy the

luxuries that the wealthy enjoyed. The thought of being impoverished during this time period was tragic for people who were used to affluence. Money being a big part of life during the 1920s made it effortless to create a character who was so in love with his money and possessions that he would torture someone else's feelings to come across more wealthy.
Jordan defying the common woman gender role, Daisy wanting her daughter to be a beautiful little fool, and Tom abusing women physically and mentally are all examples of how gender roles and relationships in the 1920s affected F.Scott FItzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
The 1920s was an important era in F.Scott Fitzgerald's life which made it convenient to use the things he knew most about and incorporate it into a novel in order to make it the most effective to the society. Throughout the 20th century political and moral views of Americans changed drastically which directly affected citizens views on women's gender roles and a typical relationship.