Women In The Great Gatsby

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My research question, “how do the women in Fitzgerald’s fiction, specifically in the novels “The Beautiful and The Damned” and “The Great Gatsby”, relate to the stereotypical 1920’s woman in the authors perspective?” allows me to explore the female characters in two of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s popular novels, which I read throughout my summer vacation. Both of these novels have a similar setting and many of the characters in both plots are similar in several ways. I decided to investigate this area because while reading both of these novels I always noticed the author seemed to portray women in the novels in a comparable way and since women in the past had less opportunities and a different role in society as the modern women, I was curious as…show more content…
The significance of this topic is immense because the novels of Fitzgerald are perfect examples of how the “lost generation” is seen from the outside looking in. This topic is worthy of investigation because as time passes, the role of women has changed and evolved and in order to see how to improve the current issues and empower women we need to look back and see how far we’ve come. I truly believe analyzing the women in these novels will give me an inside look on the 1920’s woman because F. Scott Fitzgerald used the women from his own life as a template which he built up, for dramatic and literary reasons, in order to write his novels. The roaring twenties were an era of optimism and aspiration, where crowds where captivated by lavishness and power. It was a time where the rise of individuals who achieved wealth in the search for happiness was daily. Women in this era started to play an important role in…show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald, is present in both novels. The flapper is considered one of the most important characters in American Literature and is a version of a woman who was more sexualized and was intended at alluring men. In The Great Gatsby the character of Jordan Baker was written by the author to oppose the stereotypical 1920s rich woman stereotype. We can firstly see this by her name “Jordan” the name is considered gender neutral. Jordan is also a professional golfer and an individual who does what she wants, these characteristics fitting the name given to her by the author. This image of a working young woman who doesn’t need a man became popularized for the first time in America. Jordan is the symbol of the new woman of the era, qualities such as her ambitiousness, her sovereignty and the fact that she does not limit herself to the traditional roles established for women, make her the perfect example of a flapper. Jordan is not married nor has children, instead of a home life; she has a career as a pro athlete. Her professional career breaks the stereotypes of that time since golf was treated as a sport only for males. Jordan is a symbol of the change in civilization in the novel. Jordan’s physical appearance, described by Nick Caraway (the narrator of the novel), as “A slender, small breasted girl, with an erect carriage” (Chapter 1) and “like a young cadet” (Chapter 1), tell us her body shape
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