Netherland-The Great Gatsby Essay
The Great Gatsby and Netherland both tell very compelling stories, but at what cost? The cost of degrading and demeaning women like no other, treating them as if they had no rights or say in anything and everything. In The Great Gatsby this is mainly shown through the character Daisy whom the book revolves around. Daisy is a female who lived in Louisville and met Gatsby at a party before his departure for the Great War. They fell in love that night, and Gatsby promised to marry Daisy upon his return and like most stories, this never happened. Daisy likely didn't expect Gatsby to return, especially after all the news and rumours spreading about the travesties that were occurring in the war. However, when Gatsby …show more content…
One example of women using men for pleasure, and their wealth is the relationship that forms between Daisy and Gatsby. Gatsby is known to be the man that first stole Daisy’s heart, the man that was eventually going to take her hand in marriage also. However, this never occurred, Daisy ended up with a different man, but as we see later on in the book, her desire for Gatsby still lingered. But it was re-awakened when Gatsby first met with Daisy privately at a tea party Gatsby had told Nick to set up for them. At the end of the tea party, when Klipspringer began playing the piano for Gatsby and Daisy, Nick realises the following: “They had forgotten about me… Gatsby didn’t know me now at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room… leaving them together” (Fitzgerald 103). This shows an example of how egoistical women become in The Great Gatsby, how they forget about the people around them, and worry only about what is in front. And when they are done with whatever their current victim is providing they leave him in the dark: “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him… but she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them” ( Fitzgerald 175). However, for couples deeply in love, this can …show more content…
For example, in The Great Gatsby when Tom first introduces Nick to the women he is having an affair with, Myrtle, near the end of their encounter at the party, we see Myrtle start to defy Tom and spout out Daisy’s name. Obviously since Tom is having an affair while married to Daisy, he must not like her and even after telling Myrtle to stop, she continues to tease Tom. This alone shows how stupid Myrtle is portrayed, but to add to the matter, when Tom, “Making [a] short deft movement… [breaks] her nose” (Fitzgerald 40), even after this she continues to want to be with Tom. When she and Wilson broke out into an argument, Myrtle “rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting” (Fitzgerald 146) that is, after seeing a glimpse of a yellow car approaching. Earlier that day she saw Tom, the very same Tom who broke her nose, go past her house into town. Obviously hoping to run away with him due to the argument she had with Wilson, she doesn’t even think that it might be someone else’s car, or that instead of running blindly into the middle of the road, wait by the side and call his name. No, in this case, she simply runs to her suicide. However, this mistake can be seen as a thrill of the moment, it would have been hard to think logically after being in a heated argument with someone, so it may make sense. What
The Great Gatsby and Netherland both tell very compelling stories, but at what cost? The cost of degrading and demeaning women like no other, treating them as if they had no rights or say in anything and everything. In The Great Gatsby this is mainly shown through the character Daisy whom the book revolves around. Daisy is a female who lived in Louisville and met Gatsby at a party before his departure for the Great War. They fell in love that night, and Gatsby promised to marry Daisy upon his return and like most stories, this never happened. Daisy likely didn't expect Gatsby to return, especially after all the news and rumours spreading about the travesties that were occurring in the war. However, when Gatsby …show more content…
One example of women using men for pleasure, and their wealth is the relationship that forms between Daisy and Gatsby. Gatsby is known to be the man that first stole Daisy’s heart, the man that was eventually going to take her hand in marriage also. However, this never occurred, Daisy ended up with a different man, but as we see later on in the book, her desire for Gatsby still lingered. But it was re-awakened when Gatsby first met with Daisy privately at a tea party Gatsby had told Nick to set up for them. At the end of the tea party, when Klipspringer began playing the piano for Gatsby and Daisy, Nick realises the following: “They had forgotten about me… Gatsby didn’t know me now at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room… leaving them together” (Fitzgerald 103). This shows an example of how egoistical women become in The Great Gatsby, how they forget about the people around them, and worry only about what is in front. And when they are done with whatever their current victim is providing they leave him in the dark: “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him… but she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them” ( Fitzgerald 175). However, for couples deeply in love, this can …show more content…
For example, in The Great Gatsby when Tom first introduces Nick to the women he is having an affair with, Myrtle, near the end of their encounter at the party, we see Myrtle start to defy Tom and spout out Daisy’s name. Obviously since Tom is having an affair while married to Daisy, he must not like her and even after telling Myrtle to stop, she continues to tease Tom. This alone shows how stupid Myrtle is portrayed, but to add to the matter, when Tom, “Making [a] short deft movement… [breaks] her nose” (Fitzgerald 40), even after this she continues to want to be with Tom. When she and Wilson broke out into an argument, Myrtle “rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting” (Fitzgerald 146) that is, after seeing a glimpse of a yellow car approaching. Earlier that day she saw Tom, the very same Tom who broke her nose, go past her house into town. Obviously hoping to run away with him due to the argument she had with Wilson, she doesn’t even think that it might be someone else’s car, or that instead of running blindly into the middle of the road, wait by the side and call his name. No, in this case, she simply runs to her suicide. However, this mistake can be seen as a thrill of the moment, it would have been hard to think logically after being in a heated argument with someone, so it may make sense. What