Femininity In The Great Gatsby

While the Roaring 20s are marked by the many decadent lifestyles, lavish parties, and radical cultural changes, much of the nation was still living on the countryside, struggling to make ends meet. It was every poor boy’s dream to become one of the wealthy men standing next to his beautiful wife on the cover of the newspaper. F. Scott Fitzgerald was once one of those poor boys, who was fortunate enough to do this. Fitzgerald owes his riches to the many novels he would meticulously rewrite over and over again. The novel The Great Gatsby is deemed one of the best portrayals of the counterculture of the 20s, giving way to the popularized image of the flapper. Daisy, the female lead, epitomizes the ideal woman with “bright eyes and a bright passionate …show more content…
Time and time again he was unable to court these women who infatuated him due to his lower social class. He formed his opinions on women through the eyes of a poor boy after often being told he should not even bother. Once he finally had found the woman of his dreams, he earned enough money to support her and so began his transformation to one of the men he had idolized and strived to be. This woman was Zelda Sayre, a wild and confident girl. “Hailed as King and Queen of the Jazz age,” Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald often embodied what the ‘20s meant to many (O'Hearn). Despite their dysfunctional relationship, the pair was an iconic couple of the time who often indulged in the drunken and reckless behavior that was heavily glamorized within the emerging counterculture. While they may have brought out the best in each other at times, more often than not, they brought out the worst. As they struggled to hold together their crippled marriage, Fitzgerald’s writing was so immersed in his life that many parallels are drawn from the book. Daisy is an almost direct mirror image of Zelda; a spoiled, careless girl, yet incredibly beautiful and desired …show more content…
Fitzgerald himself once said “[Tom and Daisy] were careless people… they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made (Fitzgerald [1925])” (Lena). Fitzgerald purposely placed these careless personality traits onto this opulent couple to show the destruction caused by wealth; while Tom represents the violent and ignorant side of destruction, Daisy represents the careless and uncooperative nature. Daisy lives her life, unsure of what she wants or needs, all she is sure of, is that she is very disappointed in it no matter what. This indecisive outlook on life often affects the characters in which she interacts with. While Tom and Daisy are the epitome of the gold standard for those below them, they continue to destroy whatever they please without a second thought. In spite of Daisy’s unhappiness and Tom’s multiple affairs, the two of them found familiarity and comfort within their mutual