Great gatsby essay

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald written in 1920’s criticizes the new woman by promoting patriarchy. Thought the story The Great Gatsby criticizes the new woman by displaying Feminist ideologies. The ideologies are as follows: Patriarchy, a society in which men hold most power: Traditional Gender Roles, where women are weak, emotional, while men are strong, and decisive: Good Girls/Bad Girls is where women who obey the traditional gender roles are “angels” while women who disobey them are displayed as “bad girls”. The
Great Gatsby criticizes the new woman. The Great Gatsby promotes patriarchy by criticizing the new women. The men hold most power such as when Tom Buchanan “broke her nose with his open hand”(41).Since Myrtle disobeyed Tom he was “forced” to slap her to put her back into her traditional gender roles which is to obey the men and to be weak .During the 1920’s the men tried to do anything to keep their women in place, they will even keep their “wife’s locked in up there”(143). Mr.
Wilson locked up his wife in their room because she was out of control. Myrtle was cheating on
Wilson and he found out and as a result to that he locked her in. women are treated like dogs and the men are like their owners. Another example of the new woman being controlled by patriarchy happens at one of Gatsby’s parties. The wife and husband were having an argument about leaving the party when “the dispute end[s] in a short struggle and both wives were lifted kicking into the night”(57).Men have control over the women and the women have no choice but to do what the men say. This scene makes women appear to be weak and inferior to the men. Women who disobey the traditional gender roles often get displayed in such a bad way such as the tragic accident with Myrtle. When Myrtle was killed “her left breast was swinging loose like a flap”(145). Myrtle was displayed like this because she did not follow the traditional
gender