The Great Gatsby Women

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the Great Gatsby with no respect or acknowledgement to the gender, female. This book is filled with many examples of how women are treated as possessions, not people, they are made out to be evil and dependent people when they are not, and how men overpower women, causing them to feel dependent of a man. F. Scott can apparently write a best seller, but he however obviously has no respect for women. What’s more important in this world?
Let’s first learn a little about this gem of a man, F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was an American novelist whose short stories were mostly written around the Jazz Age. He is sometimes referred to as one of the greatest writers in the 20th century. (But once again is this actually important
if you don’t know how to respect a woman?) He was considered part of the Lost Generation. He was born in Minnesota to an upper class family. Although, he didn’t live the life of riches and no worries. He had lost both of his sisters before he was even born. (You think he’d have more respect for females.) He even met a woman that can stand his anti-feminist ways, named Zelda. (What a lucky woman!) He still pursued his writing career at Princeton University, but at Princeton developed a drinking problem. This did a number on his health, which he was of course embarrassed by, so he claimed to have tuberculosis. He suffered two heart attacks and was told by physicians to take it easy, and get some rest. The next day he at a candy bar, fell over, had a heart attack and was dead. (Wikipedia, F. Scott Fitzgerald)
First I want to give everyone a little idea of what feminism ACTUALLY is. Some men would refer to it as just some girl’s whining and complaining about everything. But it’s not. Feminism is the study of the role of women. It is wanting the same rights as men, and wanting to have the same roles in life as them. Feminism is also based on whether or not women are treated with the respect they deserve and whether they are viewed with the same power, intelligence, and rights as men have been giving since the beginning of time. Feminism is not an excuse for girls to whine and complain about everything. Or it is also not when its girl’s ‘time of the month,’ so stops saying that because you sound idiotic and ignorant.
The novel is based on mostly seven characters. Nick Carraway, The Buchanans, (SPOILER ALERT DAISY DOESN’T GET HER OWN NAME), Jay Gatsby, Jordan Baker, Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson. There’s Nick, who is watching everything unfold throughout the novel. There’s Jay Gatsby who has an obsession with Daisy and tries to gain money and fame to win her back. Tom is a conceited millionaire who is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. But when his wife begins having an affair it’s like they have entered WW3. Sounds like equal roles right? There’s Myrtle who is only used for sex (of course, because women are not really needed for much else, right?) and ends up dying in the end. There’s Jordan Baker who doesn’t need a man and this actually makes her undesirable at times. There’s George Wilson the obedient husband of Myrtle who ends up killing Gatsby in the end. And Daisy who’s just the girl that’s been so emotionally and physically abused she just wants to feel safe which leads her to marry for money. This book has a lot of twists and turns the reader doesn’t expect. But it also has a lot of anti-feminist comments that the lovely Fitzgerald placed in this novel.
Okay, now let’s get to The Great Gatsby.
First, women are constantly looked down upon in this book. “Though I was curious to see her, I had no desire to meet her….”I want you to meet my girl,” (Fitzgerald, 24) didn’t realize someone’s name could be ‘my girl.’ Oh wait. This quote demonstrates the resistance towards females throughout the entire novel. It also demonstrates the superiority of men in the book. Her name should have been used, or simply a “Ms.” But this would let women feel like they have an equal roles at all. “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanan’s.” (Fitzgerald 15) This quote is actually comical to the average girl. The Tom Buchanan’s? As if Daisy is irrelevant in the marriage to have her own name be used for ONCE. This also shows that Daisy has let this man taken over her life. Daisy is no longer whom Gatsby fell in love with; she is now a Tom Buchanan. (Feminist Criticism Of The Great Gatsby English Literature
Essay.)
One of the major themes in this book is that money is the force behind every decision women make.
“In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago… and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” (Fitzgerald 75) This quote is implying that women are beyond money-hungry and don’t actually care about the man that feeds this hungry. It also represents the idea that money buys happiness and love. The plot in general pretty much implies that women are so money hungry and anyone that can feed that hunger is the man for them. A man changes his entire life just to get this girl to fall in love with him. He does anything in his power to make the money he needs to ‘impress her’ or ‘win her back’ when in reality if he just treated her like a normal human and maybe asked her on a date he might’ve gotten her back easy. But men don’t give women that credit in this noel. Women only care about one thing, and one thing only. “She never loved you, do you hear?” he cried. “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.”(Fitzgerald 130) This is another prime example of how Daisy’s main focus was all about the money. I mean I totally understand where she’s coming from though. What was she expected to do? Wait for the man she loved to become rich? Of course not. Us girls don’t have that kind of time. WRONG. Daisy is made out to look like a gold digger and really only care about the money not whether she
actually loved Gatsby or not. The fact that Myrtle Wilson decided to have an affair with Tom was another example of how women could just be bought. This happens throughout the book and Fitzgerald definitely make us girls look like we’re the spawns of Satan or something. (Feminist Interpretations of The Great Gatsby)
Finally we get to the actually disgusting part of this whole book. These women were treated with such little value and respect for so long they didn’t know how else to even act. “All right, I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Fitzgerald, 16) This is showing that Daisy has been hypnotized at the fact that the intellect of women is not respected or recognized at all. She doesn’t feel like she can defend herself anymore or she will just be ignored or even worse abused more than she already has been abused. “I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Daisy!..” (Fitzgerald 37) This quote said by Myrtle was followed with an open handed slap to the face. Tom breaks her nose by talking about his wife. Although he is openly cheating on his wife, he is offended she is talking down on her. This gives the idea that having more than one woman in your life is okay. But there is a strong difference in a mistress, and a wife. If this was today’s time and this same situation happened the woman either would’ve fought back or called law enforcements but not in this novel. Tom constantly mentally abuses daisy. She knows Tom is cheating on her and even though she is portrayed as only caring about the money, she doesn’t She does have feelings for Tom, whether Fitzgerald wants to say she does or not. Watching the one you love blatantly be with someone else is traumatizing. She felt overpowered again. What was she going to do? Her life had been built with Tom. She even had kids. Men had no regard to women’s feelings in this story and continuously made them feel like they were less. It is as if the women have accepted the fact that they are lesser than the men in the story. This caused the women to feel the need to dependent on men. They knew no other way. When Daisy and Gatsby had gotten into the accident with Myrtle Daisy had been driving the car. Gatsby however took the fall. But this is implying that women don’t take responsibility for their actions and are just dependent on a man that will take the fall. This isn’t true at all, obviously. (Shmoop Editorial Team.)
The Great Gatsby has a terrific plot, and is a book I actually didn’t fall asleep while reading in English class however it does degrade women immensely. The book is filled with many examples of how women are treated as possessions, not people, they are made out to be evil and dependent people when they are not, and how men overpower women, causing them to feel dependent of a man. Feminism is not your girlfriend freaking out when you didn’t get her the right thing to eat; it’s a serious movement that we are still dealing with today. Women are still trying to gain equal roles and rights that men have. A lot of men take it lightly and jokingly today, but I’m sure they wouldn’t feel the same if it was the other way around.