Women

Women. No definition.

Why are women defined? Why are women categorized? Why are women expected to stay at home and take of the children? It’s disrespectful that women are pushed in a box and forced to remain there. Each woman in The Great Gatsby is pushed in a labeled box. Daisy is portrayed as indecisive, careless, and greedy for more. Even though she is a married woman with a child, she hasn’t been able to cope with the responsibilities of being an adult. Jordan Baker is shown to be hard, direct, and pessimistic personality.  Unlike Daisy, who is bubbly and foolish, Jordan is deceptive and smart about what she wants; “Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men…”(57). Along with Jordan and Daisy, Myrtle is depicted as a vicious character who has no morals. Like Gatsby, Myrtle tries to climb out of her inborn social class. She feels that she married below her “rightful” position and strive to become better and richer. However, Gatsby is depicted as a tragic hero, while Myrtle is an ignorant fool.

William Fitzgerald had a very clear outlook on women in the book. He displayed a woman as a deceitful, selfish, greedy… Fitzgerald was definitely no feminist, consequently, neither was Nick. Nick is considered “observant,” which is supposed to gain credibility in the reader’s eyes. However, Nick transforms from being observant to meddling in relationships and creating subjective statements about events that occur in the book. For example, in the second chapter, Nick is heavily influenced by alcohol, which is connected to being an unreliable narrator. As any person in the book, Nick has his own flaws. Therefore, what gives him the right to give a label to any of the women? From what aspect is he allowed to give the accurate representation of Daisy or Jordan or Myrtle? His perspective is NOT accurate.