WELCOME STUDENTS!
This is a place for us to discuss openly and honestly the literature we are reading. Here we are all just communicating our thoughts on what we are reading. There are no right and wrong answers. However, you are expected to be polite, mature, and on topic.
9 comments:
The Great Gatsby is said to be a literary manifestation of the 1920's. Unlike the women of the 19th century, the women of this era are rebellious and are starting to fight for equality among men. However, the way that many of the women saw fit to start for this push is by changing their appearances to appear more like men. These "flappers" cut their hair short, bound their breasts and started sporting more men-like clothing. They attached themselves to nothing and did as they pleased. Jordan appears to us as such a woman. The novel also portrays these women at Gatsby's grand parties, women in beautiful dresses drinking and acting freely. However, the novel also emphasizes the undeniable weakness of women of this time. The women are always described with analogies to light objects (moths and balloons) and are always linked to men. "Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name.'Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai ––' Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand." Myrtle is not referred to by her name; she is known as Mrs. Wilson. This exerpt also shows how women are knocked back into place by the men. Here, the woman's power is found in her words, but the man uses his fists.
In The Great Gatsby, the role of women is vital to the storyline and, ultimately, the book as a whole. However, throughout the book women are seen as little better than objects that are toyed with for fun by the dominant male characters. Women's lives are basically defined by who they are married to. Upon Nick's initial visit to the Buchanan house, Fitzgerald writes, "...the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans." Instead of just calling them the Buchanans, Daisy and Tom are instead referred to as the Tom Buchanans. This is a excellent example of how the dominance of the males in the book shadow the lives of the women. It is also interesting to note that throughout the book, the word "women" is mostly used in reference to lower class ladies, such as Myrtle, while the upper class ladies are referred to as "girls". This further proves the point that the female characters of the book are defined by who they marry. While Daisy marries a rich man and is labeled as a vivacious young girl, Myrtle marries a poor mechanic and is often characterized as a run-down, ragged woman. Fitzgerald shows us the restrictions of women in a time of supposed liberation through his description of the role of women in The Great Gatsby.
"And I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful fool." Daisy says this in reference to her daughter because she believes that it is best for a woman to marry someone who is wealthy and remain ignorant of unwanted affairs. Throughout The Great Gatsby, women foolishly persue a lavish lifestyle rather than a life with true love. Fitzgerald uses women to show that people of all classes, whether upper class like Daisy or lower class like Myrtle, are blinded by this desire for wealth. Myrtle willingly cheated on George just because Tom had more money. Daisy did not wait for Gatsby because he left to do what he could to make something of himself for her. These women shied away from the men who truly loved them in order to live life in a more elegant way, showing the corruption that money has over most of humanity. Daisy hopes (as no mother should) that her daughter will be, "a beautiful fool." If she does, it is because she gets it from her greedy mother.
In The Great Gatsby, the women represent dreams which are so often crushed by harsh reality. Take for example the character of Myrtle. When Myrtle is first introduced in the novel, she cannot wait to go off with Tom and get away from the workshop and her husband. It is Myrtle's dream to become rich and to live with Tom instead of in the workshop with her husband George Wilson. Both she and her sister believe that she deserves to have an affair with Tom, just as many people believe that they have a right to the fulfillment of their dreams. However, Tome deliberately lies to Myrtle, telling her that he cannot marry her because Daisy is a Catholic and does not believe in divorce. However, Myrtle is so fixed on attaining her desire to become rich that she continues to badger Tom about his wife, all the while believing that he will eventually divorce Daisy and marry her instead. Nick notes, "...Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. 'Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!' shouted Mrs. Wilson. 'I'll say it whenever I want to! Dai--' ...Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand." This event displays how Myrtle cannot see the truth - that she will never marry Tom and become rich because she does not have the social status that Tom possesses - and even after being struck in the face with reality, she continues to believe that Tom will marry her; eventually this dream causes her death. The character of Daisy also describes this relationship between unattainable desires and crushing reality. Daisy's voice is described as having a sing-song quality which causes a person to become enthralled with her every word. Just as people become attached to and chase after their dreams, Gatsby attaches himself to Daisy because her voice is representative of his life-long dream - the attainment of money. Nick says, "It was full of money - that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it...high in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl..." Daisy wants nothing more than to marry Gatsby; however, as the novel progresses, Daisy realizes that she cannot run off and marry Gatsby because she is already in a relationship with Tom which has resulted in a daughter. This realization crushes her and Nick says, "But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so that he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room."
The Great Gatsby depicts women as just some side item or toy that can be tossed aside when men are finished with them. This is so evident in chapter four. For example, "Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same ones in physical person, but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before, I have forgotten their names..." This shows that women were seen as all the same and had no value. These "flappers" looked the same in appearance because they rebelled against the time and era. They cut their hair short, wore boyish clothing, and smoked like men do. Therefore, women in The Great Gatsby were looked at as less superior to men.
In The Great Gatsby, without women, the story and novel would be nothing. During the time setting of the book, the women would usually be flappers. They were getting more freedom and girls wanted more than just love at the time. For example, in The Great Gatsby, we see Myrtle and Daisy go after Tom for his money. Even Gatsby said about Daisy that "Her voice is full of money." Daisy has only ever wanted money and she is willing to do anything for it. Another woman in the story was Jordan Baker. Like the flappers in the 1920's, Jordan was very reckless and deceitful. In the book, Jordan even calls herself reckless when she is driving. Fitzgerald is saying that women only want money and material things. Although they are trying to gain power, women will only be second to the man they marry. That is why, they tried to marry rich men.
In The Great Gatsby, the role of women is an underlying truth to how women are often viewed. In the novel they are viewed more of as objects and something to be obtained. Gatsby's dream is to be with Daisy as if she is some kind of prize- a hole grail. Not only this, but they are viewed as sort of ditzy and weak. Whenever Daisy fears confrontation she makes excuses to avoid it like when she wants everyone to go to town when there is tension between Tom and Gatsby. Many of the things she says are often off-the-wall and like she is unable to process reality around her.
In some ways in the novel, women are depicted as helpless and clueless. Daisy is an accurate description of this. In the house during the hot day, she says, "What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon? and the day after that, and the next thirty years?" Daisy does not know what to do with herself and follows orders from others. Overall, the role of women can be depicted as clueless of what to do with their lives, in a sense.
The setting of the Great Gatsby is in the 1920s women were fighting for equal rights in. The women in this novel were depicted as week and they were often looked over. In the first chapter it nick say “I drove over to dinner at Tom Buchanan’s house” He could have said the Buchanans’ house, however he did not acknowledge Daisy. This shows how women were unnoticed in some ways in this book.
Post a Comment