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Women's movement in the early 20th century
Fitzgerald portrayals of woman essays assignment in the great gatsby
’to what extent has the image of the ‘flapper’ obscured the reality of life for american women in the 1920’s?’’
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Recommended: Women's movement in the early 20th century
Hunter Barnes
Mrs.Barnes
Honors English 3
The Great Gatsby
Women had very different lives leading up to the 1920s . They were expected to be completely covered and be very modest. They were also expected to follow all the rules that they were given and be very “lady like”. The 1920s gave women the opportunity to rebel from the normal of that time period. Women started cutting their hair short into a bob. Women also started partying and showing more skin. These women were referred to as flappers. In Fitzgerald’s books The Great Gatsby they portray the women of the era with three main female characters. The three main female characters are Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson. Each of these women show a different perspective of life in the 20s. Myrtle Wilson is a very different type of woman. She’s is more shapely. She has a very strong will and I very sure of what she wants in life. She is married to George Wilson who owns a small car shop. She says “ i only married him because i thought i loved him” ( chapter 2)George is a very nice man who likes living his simple live with his wife. Myrtle on the other hand doesn’t like her simple
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Jordan is a professional golfer which it was kinda odd to have a women as a professional athlete. Another thing about jordan was the fact that she was a lier and a cheater. She openly had a cheating problem. She say "Nevertheless you did throw me over," said Jordan suddenly. "You threw me over on the telephone. I don't give a damn about you now, but it was a new experience for me, and I felt a little dizzy for a while." ( chapter 1)She happens to bond really well with Nick Carraway who is the narrator of this story. Nick knows that she's bad news but he’s still intrigued. It was very tabo for women of this time to be acting or doing the things that Jordan was participating in. Fitzgerald uses her character as kinda a black sheep of
She only wants to be with Tom for his money and for the material things that he gives to her. Myrtle does not care that she is being unfaithful to the man she married, all she cares about is the fact that Tom is person of old money and can buy her expensive things. Women's views on faithfulness and money are flawed
innumerable characteristics to enhance the plot of The Great Gatsby. Jazz became hugely popular in the 1920's. Couples just could not stop dancing. Flappers defied the norms of dress and behavior and their only goal was to please themselves. The women who attended Gatsby's parties were flappers which includes Gatsby's love Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker. Prohibition was in full swing in the 1920's and Al Capone led the way in illegal liquor business. The fictional character of Jay Gatsby was deeply involved in. Readers can take a look through the era's greatest memoir, The Great Gatsby, and other writings by Fitzgerald and find that the 1920's were a time of decadence, frivolity, and escape. No matter rich or poor, people lived in the moment, loved their lives and the young (and sometimes old) partied like there was no tomorrow.
Set in the Roaring ‘20s, The Great Gatsby focuses mainly on the lives of men as Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. However, it also clearly outlines the lives of several women : Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker. On the surface, the lives of these women couldn’t be more different. Daisy, a rich debutante, is torn between her husband, Tom, or her first love, Jay Gatsby. Lower on the social ladder is Myrtle, who is having an affair with Tom, hoping to rise above her station in life. Jordan, on the other hand, is unmarried and a successful golfer, who travels the country participating in tournaments. While these women may have seemed independent, they’re still subject to the will of society which sees them as inferior and objects to be controlled by men.
F. Scott Fitzgerald third book, “The Great Gatsby”, stands as the supreme achievement in his career. According to The New York Times, “The Great Gatsby” is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s. In the novel, the author described Daisy Buchanan as childish, materialistic, and charming. These characteristics describing Daisy is also description for the way women were seen during the 1920s.
3. Jordan symbolizes the revolutionary self sufficient women. She is independent and does not rely on men financially. She challenges the idea of a dependent woman.
Throughout the book, women take important roles and change the story, ultimately leading to Gatsby’s death. Myrtle, Jordan and Daisy are just the same as the men, each striving for what they want, whether it be love from another or material goods, only to be held back by sexism of the time. Her husband Wilson loves her, but turned out to be poorer than the man she thought she was marrying. Myrtle wants someone to love that loves her to go along with her wish of a life of luxury.
Even though she is a more miniscule character in the book, Myrtle Wilson wears a mask. Myrtle is unhappy in her marriage with her husband, George. When her and George met, she had thought that he was a man with a lot of money. Once they got married, she soon realized he wasn’t a rich man at all after he borrowed “somebody’s best suit to get married in.” Despite the fact that he didn’t have much money, Myrtle just puts a fake smile on her face and stays with him while still having an affair with Daisy’s husband Tom.
She views her husband as nothing as clearly illustrated in The Great Gatsby when the novel states “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye.” walking through him is showing she doesn't even view George, Her husband, as though he is in the room, She just goes straight to Tom because he’s her ticket out of this life Myrtle put herself into. She then says to her George, “Get some chairs, why don’t you, so somebody can sit down.” She just wants to make plans with Tom. Her husband is only distraction to her. She has no relationship with her husband. As soon as she found out that he had borrowed his suit she knew her would all be going downhill. Myrtle was now a victim of her own desperation, because of her marriage to
Unlike the other two main female characters, Jordan seems uninterested in typical female pursuits and conducts herself in a masculine manner. In fact, Fitzgerald describes Jordan as “a slender, little breasted girl with an erect carriage that she accentuated by throwing her body backwards at the shoulder blades just like a youthful cadet” (Fitzgerald 11). According to Fitzgerald, women who act masculine also look masculine themselves. Since Jordan possesses almost none of the desired feminine qualities in her personality and manner, Fitzgerald declines to give her any physical feminine qualities also. In doing so, Fitzgerald insinuates that women who do not pursue feminine hobbies are not real women, but instead are unattractive, androgynous pseudo-men. In addition to her physical male qualities, Jordan also professionally plays golf which is a traditionally male-dominated sport. Describing a tournament that Jordan played in during the summer, Fitzgerald writes, “There was a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round. The thing approached the proportion of a scandal—then died away” (Fitzgerald 57). Not only does Jordan commit the offense of moving into the male sphere, but she also cheats and lies to get ahead. Clearly, Fitzgerald believes that women are not naturally talented enough to take part in masculine activities, and
F. Scott Fitzgerald was accurate in his portrayal of the aristocratic flamboyancy and indifference of the 1920s. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores many aspects of indifference and flamboyancy. A large influence on this society was the pursuit of the American Dream. Gangsters played a heavily influential role in the new money aristocracy of the 1920s. The indifference was mainly due to the advent of Prohibition in 1920. One major societal revolution in this period was that of the “new women,” who expressed new actions and beliefs. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald accurately portrayed his characters Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, and the novel’s eponym, Jay Gatsby, as a part of the society of the 1920s.
Daisy Buchanan is the most significant female character in The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald writes her as the most significant female because she is most like his wife, Zelda (Donaldson). Daisy is Gatsby’s motivation for wealth and why he wants to accomplish so much. He has longed for her because she has always been unattainable. Fitzgerald, like Gatsby, was often rejected by women in a class higher than him (Donaldson).
During the 1920’s, the role women had under men was making a drastic change, and it is shown in The Great Gatsby by two of the main female characters: Daisy and Jordan. One was domesticated and immobile while the other was not. Both of them portray different and important characteristics of the normal woman growing up in the 1920’s. The image of the woman was changing along with morals. Females began to challenge the government and the society. Things like this upset people, especially the men. The men were upset because this showed that they were losing their long-term dominance over the female society.
Overall, Fitzgerald does a fantastic job in reflecting the 1920s society onto The Great Gatsby. He mentions discrimination, women changing, war, industrial revolution, prohibition, and every important part that took place during that era. The significance of the “new women “ is that to this day women now have the same rights as men and are now treated equally. In conclusion, events that occurred during the 1920s greatly impacted and influenced our society to the modern world we live in.
Jordan's androgynous name and cool, collected style masculinize her more than any other female character. However, in the end, Nick does exert his dominance over her by ending the relationship. The women in the novel are an interesting group, because they do not divide into the traditional groups of Mary Magdalene and Madonna figures, instead, none of them are pure. Myrtle is the most obviously sensual, but the fact that Jordan and Daisy wear white dresses only highlights their corruption.
Women are seen from a biased point of view in pop culture as they are often criticized and portrayed in degrading ways. The Great Gatsby takes place in the early part of the 20th century which is also known as the Roaring 20's. In regards to feminism, the women in The Great Gatsby are mainly depicted as second class to men. The story gives readers an insight of the roles that gender played in past World War I America. In The Great Gatsby, the author Scott Fitzgerald shines a light on the submissiveness of females toward males during the Roaring Twenties by giving the women in the novel an unfair representation as they are often identified as passive or negative “objects”.