The Changing Role Of Women In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Register to read the introduction… Daisy is not really a flapper, but she does fit in with the time. Hilliardem, the author of the “Flappers and Old Sports” page of The Great American Novel: 1900-1965 website, wrote about how Daisy’s style is different than most of the women in her day. The website explains how Daisy’s style is more traditional and consistent especially compared to Myrtle, the woman Tom is having an affair with, who changes her clothes often (Hilliardem). Daisy is an example of how the people in the 1920s were careless. This is seen in how she has an affair with Gatsby and says that she loves him but then does not leave Tom for him and does not care about his feelings. Michael J. Whyly writes about Daisy’s carelessness in Understanding the Great Gatsby: Understanding Great Literature. He said, “The reality of Daisy is that she is too much like Tom—she is willing to use Gatsby like Tom uses Myrtle, but in the end she will, like Tom, retreat back into the careless power of their money” (Whyly 59). This shows how Daisy does not really care about anyone else’s feelings and that she feels that her money can fix anything. Fitzgerald reiterates Daisy’s carelessness when he writes, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—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” …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald uses the characters, Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan, to show the change in the role of women in the 1920s. In the 1920s, women were presented with new freedoms and opportunities. There were still a few setbacks for women that resulted in fewer leadership roles for women in the workplace and some opposition from men and parents to give women so much freedom. Despite such setbacks, the new opportunities included new jobs, the ability for single women to live on their own and support themselves, and less parental supervision. Women took on the flapper lifestyle. Flappers were independent and dressed in a new way. Jordan Baker is the best representation of a flapper in The Great Gatsby. Daisy Buchanan shows the carelessness of the women in the 1920s. The changing role of women in the 1920s shows an early step in the growing independence for women in how they dress, where they work, and how they act. This will continue to grow, producing the modern lifestyle of women in the United States.

Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Collier Books, 1991. Print.
“Flappers.” US History: Pre-Colombian to the New Millennium. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Hilliardem. "Flappers and Old Sports." The Great American Novel: 1900-1965. WordPress, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
“Image and Lifestyle.” Clash of Cultures in the 1910s and 1920s. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
“Work, Education, and Reform.” Clash of Cultures in