The Female Role in The Great Gatsby

Essay by chloe98High School, 11th gradeA-, September 2014

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Female Roles in Chapter 1 of the Great Gatsby! ! ! In literature, gender roles have an important impact on messages the author is trying to give to the reader. In the Great Gatsby, one of Fitzgerald's overall meaning is to accurately describe the hypocrisy of the nineteen-twenties. ! ! ! ! Through out the first few chapters of the Great Gatsby patriarchal values are important for the character development of Tom Buchanan. Fitzgerald places Daisy and Myrtle in a passive and oblivious position very necessary to enhance Tom's arrogance. The two females' roles also further display Tom's wealth and power. With this you can see that Tom places his value on women by a sort of material trapping. Both Daisy and Myrtle live to satisfy the men in their lives (even though Daisy is quite selfish), representing the passive female role in the book. ! ! The quote by Daisy, "'All right,' I said, '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'" (21) can also give the reader more perspective of gender roles in the book as well as the time setting. This quote makes the point that the women in the nineteen-twenties have nothing more to look forward to than to look pretty and to be oblivious. Later in the chapter Daisy mentions how she has "seen and done everything", emphasizing that ignorance is bliss, and once you question life you find it's more complicated. In essence- she is saying that what she doesn't know wont hurt her. This gives women an unintelligent and unmindful persona. ! ! Female characters in the book are often refereed to as 'girls' instead of women. Fitzgerald writes them this...