The Great Gatsby is a love story about two people meeting again and the meeting changes the course of their lives forever. In the novel, Fitzgerald portrays women as playing a subordinate role to men, but he also includes self-sufficient women as well. A feminist look on The Great Gatsby focuses on the female characters presented in the novel such as Daisy, Myrtle, Jordan, and other minor female roles. Fitzgerald uses these characters to make a point about women and the American society in the 1920s. Throughout The Great Gatsby, dependent women are common. Two women who fit the dependent stereotype are Myrtle and Daisy. First, these women are portrayed as reliant on men. Myrtle is unhappy with her husband, Wilson, who is very poor and is
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Jordan Baker is the main autonomous woman throughout the novel. Jordan does not conform to the accepted lifestyle of women in this society. She represents a new type of woman in the way that she is self-made and she does not rely on anyone to guide her through life. Even in her appearance, a difference is seen in Jordan from other women. In this quote Nick describes Jordan when they first meet, “She was slender, small-breasted girl with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet.” (Fitzgerald 11). To look at this quote from another perspective, Jordan has a slight masculine body type, yet still remaining feminine. Even in her appearance, Jordan looms different from other women. Furthermore, Jordan is also a championship golfer and during this time period golf is considered a man’s sport. Unlike dependent women, Jordan earns her fortune on her own. Not only is Jordan triumphant, she is outspoken as well. Jordan blurts out a big secret when the phone rings as she, Tom, Nick, and Daisy are having …show more content…
I went over there with another girl.” (Fitzgerald 34).
Instead of staying at home with a husband or family, Catherine chooses to go out and see the world, sharing her accommodation with a girl friend. Jordan and Catherine are strong representations of the new, autonomous women of the 1920s. At the time Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby, five years have gone by since the nineteenth amendment was passed. The nineteenth amendment not only gave women the right to vote, it also gave women a new freedom and an acceptance of independence in the American society. Myrtle and Daisy are representations of how women have been portrayed for hundreds of years, dependent on men. Even though Myrtle and Daisy have been given new freedoms, they stick to the status quo for women. Jordan and Catherine represent a new type of woman, they are taking the new acceptance into society and using it to better themselves and break away from the stereotype for
Jordan Baker is the main autonomous woman throughout the novel. Jordan does not conform to the accepted lifestyle of women in this society. She represents a new type of woman in the way that she is self-made and she does not rely on anyone to guide her through life. Even in her appearance, a difference is seen in Jordan from other women. In this quote Nick describes Jordan when they first meet, “She was slender, small-breasted girl with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet.” (Fitzgerald 11). To look at this quote from another perspective, Jordan has a slight masculine body type, yet still remaining feminine. Even in her appearance, Jordan looms different from other women. Furthermore, Jordan is also a championship golfer and during this time period golf is considered a man’s sport. Unlike dependent women, Jordan earns her fortune on her own. Not only is Jordan triumphant, she is outspoken as well. Jordan blurts out a big secret when the phone rings as she, Tom, Nick, and Daisy are having …show more content…
I went over there with another girl.” (Fitzgerald 34).
Instead of staying at home with a husband or family, Catherine chooses to go out and see the world, sharing her accommodation with a girl friend. Jordan and Catherine are strong representations of the new, autonomous women of the 1920s. At the time Fitzgerald writes The Great Gatsby, five years have gone by since the nineteenth amendment was passed. The nineteenth amendment not only gave women the right to vote, it also gave women a new freedom and an acceptance of independence in the American society. Myrtle and Daisy are representations of how women have been portrayed for hundreds of years, dependent on men. Even though Myrtle and Daisy have been given new freedoms, they stick to the status quo for women. Jordan and Catherine represent a new type of woman, they are taking the new acceptance into society and using it to better themselves and break away from the stereotype for