F Scott Fitzgerald's Portrayal Of Women In The Great Gatsby

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The Roaring Twenties was a decade of change. All around the United States, there were rich cultural developments and great economic prosperities that allowed for Americans to finally have extra money to spend. With the eventual development of universal suffrage and the success of cars, the Roaring Twenties allowed for much inspiration. Experiencing this change in lifestyle first handedly, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores this era in many of his works. Through many of his characters, Fitzgerald portrays the newfound freedom that females attained during this era. In Fitzgerald's works, such as The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned and Winter Dreams, his depiction of women directly reflects the perception and stigma that his society then held for them. Women were viewed as beautiful but empty, fragile creatures that men idolize. Contrary to this belief, Fitzgerald chose to…show more content…
Through revealing the vanity and extreme egotism of women, Fitzgerald clearly shows that women become the survivors of the world in which they live. His wife Zelda was in many ways the inspiration behind his female heroines. He introduced to the public the image of flappers – young woman in the 1920s who bobbed their hair, wore short skirts, and with a carefree attitude. They were seen to be insolent and arrogant with their excessive make up, drinking and smoking, and in general, breaking the norms of society. Thousands of women all across the country took up flappers as their inspiration and wished to be like them. “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.” (Great Gatsby) With

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