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Roles of women in society 1920 and today
The great gatsby allegory to fitzgeralds life
The grapes of wrath john steinbeck rhetorical essay
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The role of females during much of the Twentieth Century is domestic. Two well-known authors during this time period have conflicting views of how women fulfill these roles. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the women portray two very different perspectives on the roles of women within families and the values they instill within their families. The value the women share about money is one of the most prominent perceptions the authors portray. Both pieces of Modern literature differ in the perception of a woman’s rightful role as well as the importance of family in relation to monetary wealth. Fitzgerald and Steinbeck’s views conflict on the value and portrayal of women. A woman in this century rarely challenges a man’s superiority, nor thinks or acts independently. Two mothers, Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby and Ma Joad from The Grapes of Wrath, both follow this unspoken rule yet the authors portray their roles in very different ways. Daisy seems to be skimming the surface of her family life instead of actually interacting with her family. One of the few instances in which Fitzgerald mentions Daisy’s daughter, Daisy wishes for her daughter to be, “the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald, 1925). Men want nothing to do with women who posses the ability and intelligence to voice their own opinions and react to the inequality at that time, so in Daisy’s opinion, her daughter should just hope to be beautiful. Contrary to a woman’s job at this time, Fitzgerald never depicts her as a typical housewife: cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the children. Daisy is subject to a cheating husband, displaying a lack of respect for her... ... middle of paper ... ... to their jobs within the family as well as their value of family. Fitzgerald shows the portrayal of a woman who is a selfish mother and neglects her child in her quest for happiness through the things money can buy. However, within this same role of women, Steinbeck portrays a selfless mother who plays an immense role within her family without money being a driving force. References: D'Adamo, P. (2011). Carbohydrates: more than just calories. Retrieved from http://n-equals-one.com/blogs/ Fitzgerald, F. Scott. (1925). The great Gatsby. New York, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons Stansberry, G. (2009, June 2). 64 funny, inspiring and stupid money quotes from famous people. Retrieved from http://www.wisebread.com/64-funny-inspiring-and-stupid-money-quotes-from-famous-people Steinbeck, J. (1939). The grapes of wrath. New York, New York: Penguin Classics
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, having lived through the era of the “New Women” in the 1920’s, uses two female protagonists in both his novel Great Gatsby (e.g. Daisy Buchanan) and his short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” (e.g. Marjorie Harvey). As such, he personifies his desired theme to define the female presence shaped by shifts in society during the 1920’s. He uses an apathetic and cynical tone that paints each character in a negative light. In other words, American women were known as having unequal rights as compared to men; they were often entrapped in oppressive marriages and seen as the inferior sex. Women are portrayed as inferior to men through Fitzgerald’s writings of both the Great Gatsby and “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.”
After the success of antislavery movement in the early nineteenth century, activist women in the United States took another step toward claiming themselves a voice in politics. They were known as the suffragists. It took those women a lot of efforts and some decades to seek for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her essay “The Next Generation of Suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch and Grassroots Politics,” Ellen Carol Dubois notes some hardships American suffragists faced in order to achieve the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Along with that essay, the film Iron-Jawed Angels somehow helps to paint a vivid image of the obstacles in the fight for women’s suffrage. In the essay “Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II,” Ruth Milkman highlights the segregation between men and women at works during wartime some decades after the success of women suffrage movement. Similarly, women in the Glamour Girls of 1943 were segregated by men that they could only do the jobs temporarily and would not able to go back to work once the war over. In other words, many American women did help to claim themselves a voice by voting and giving hands in World War II but they were not fully great enough to change the public eyes about women.
On September 24, 1896, a man was born who would to become one of the greatest authors in American history. Short story writer and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the classic American novel The Great Gatsby, used his experiences and relationships during the early 1900s to inspire his writing. In specific regards to The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s relationship with his wife Zelda directly corresponds to his creation of the character Daisy Buchanan, and informs his critique of the American elite of the 1920s. Zelda directly inspired Daisy; this can be seen through the similarities in their upbringings and in their personalities. Zelda and Daisy were each brought up in very wealthy, old-money families in the southeast. Both women were social-climbing women interested in marrying up the social ladder, and both were materialistic, attention-seeking, and recklessly uninhibited. Additionally, through his negative portrayal of Daisy in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s critique of the American elite can be seen to stem from his relationship with his wife. It was the relationship with Zelda that led to Fitzgerald’s critique of wealthy America, and the character of Daisy directly represents her.
In” The Great Gatsby” the social, cultural, and emotional expectation of women seems to be in contradiction to women who are meant to empower others. The three main women within the story are not given substance; instead they are more defined by their relationships. Women are dependent upon their partners because marriage defined ones social status or success. This dependency stemmed from the idea of success. Unfortunately Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan’s lives are defined by their partners, and are left up to the status of whom they marry. For instance Daisy, despite her love for Gatsby, it is apparent wealth and status overruled her love for him. She
Throughout time, women in movies and other similar texts are shown to be generally focused on men. This might make sense if every movie ever made was set in a time where women had absolutely no rights but of course, that is not the case. Older and more modern depictions of women in media, both show women whose lives revolve around men. Even movies that market their female characters as strong and powerful are still shown to be dependent on the male leads and puts them first. Also, since women in movies have more of a focus on men, female to female relationships suffer in the same films. There are very few exceptions to this unfortunate truth.
It is this so called “perfect female” that is engraved in our minds, both male and female, and because of this there are many young girls, specifically between the ages of 14 to mid-20s, are being hurt by this. Women are portrayed in almost every possible thing. But they are pictured as a thin, tall, Caucasian female. Women want to be that female. That is what they are constantly telling themselves. When a woman gets the figure they always dreamt of, they are yet not satisfied. Being beautiful is not enough for them. A few want more, and when they cannot get to that point of harming themselves. Young girls are getting the wrong message thru media. In the film, “MissRepresentation” it gives the facts on how the media has influenced women with this “perfect figure,” even those young girls still in middle school. They are being abused physically, emotionally, and mentally because of what media is showing.
The way in which Steinbeck portrays his female characters in The Grapes of Wrath, as caretakers, but also leaders is contrary to their accepted role in the family at that time period and also throughout literature. There have been many misunderstandings of women’s roles in the past. Many literary works contain the classic “damsel in distress” story; everyone grew up with them, the stories where the handsome prince comes to rescue the frail, beautiful and feminine princess, unlike these other stories, The Grapes of Wrath is written as a testament to the strength of all women. If only Shakespeare had known Ma Joad.
Daisy Buchanan is The Great Gatsby’s most impenetrable and disappointing character. Although Fitzgerald attempts to deem Daisy worthy of Gatsby’s infinite devotion, in the end, she reveals herself for what kind of person she truly is. Despite her flirtatious charm and undeniable beauty, Daisy is merely an insensitive and self-absorbed woman. Gatsby convinces himself that he is wholeheartedly in love with Daisy, when in fact, he is only in love with the idea of her. Although Fitzgerald makes Daisy seem pure and innocent, in actuality, she is the opposite of what she is presented to be.
In addition to the important roles of women within the texts, the inclusion of children within the works of fiction allows the reader to view the authors points regarding the dysfunctional relationship that is the male lead “American family.” Examples of children being used to exemplify problems in the “American family” model can be found in both A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby. Though both texts use children to emphasizes points about problems within marriage, the execution and purpose behind the inclusion of children within the stories differ substantially. The Great Gatsby uses children as a means to show the reader a disconnect the character of Tom and Daisy Buchanan have with their family in addition to demonstrating their lack
Imagine that you were placed in the 1920s, married to a young and wealthy man. You two had fallen in love and were happily married, at least for a while. As the years went by, your husband began to only worry about materials items, especially money, and you became less and less important. You were treated as if you were of little importance and nothing was expected of you anymore, you were kind of just there. Your husband began to even make you feel as if you were inferior to him, and so did most men around the world. This is how the woman of the 1920s were treated most of the time, as inferior and worth little. Some independent and courageous women like Jordan Baker defy the stereotypes associated with women in the 1920s; others, like
In F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the main female character, Daisy Buchanan, is portrayed by, Nick, the narrator, only by her superficial qualities. “Guided only by Nick’s limited view of her, readers often judge Daisy solely on the basis of her superficial qualities” (Fryer 43). What the reader sees through the eyes of Nick only appears as a woman whose impatience and desire for wealth and luxury cost her the love of her life, Gatsby. Nick’s narrow perception does not allow one to see that “…[Daisy’s] silly manner conceals a woman of feeling or that her final ‘irresponsibility’ towards Gatsby stems from an acute sense of responsibility towards herself” and that Nick “…clearly does not understand what motivates her” (Fryer 43). One can easily view Daisy as a victim. Fitzgerald distinctly exposes Daisy’s need for stability, which, according to Fitzgerald or perhaps the mentality of the time period, can only be found in a man. “Her need for stability was immediate, and she attempted to satisfy that need through something tangible, something close at hand” (Fryer 51). This “need” that Fitzg...
Daisy is a true “Golden Girl” in Fitzgerald’s story. She’s a wealthy, careless, romantic debutante who is what society wants her to be. She is the perfect girl: pretty, sweet, kind, and not too smart. She is the American Dream, with bright eyes and a “voice full of money” (127). Daisy doesn’t talk back to her husband, and she
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.
The roles and expectations of women have varied through cultures as well as time, itself. Often some women held greater power and importance in governments whereas others hardly had a voice. As time has progressed, there have been many things that have changed for the female sex. However, there have also been many things that remained the same, including the fact that women in the 20th century had more advantages in health, involvement in war and politics, and legal rights.