The Women of Gatsby

The women of Gatsby are mostly flappers. Women had more freedom than they ever had and they were taking advantage of it. Marriage seemed to mean nothing to the men and women of the 1920’s. In the great Gatsby there are many of affairs that take place like one between Tom and Myrtle. In 1920 the 19^th amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote and they had some power over what was happening around them.

Even with these new freedoms, women were not thought of as equal to men. They were not paid as much and were still supposed to be dependent on their father or husband. Young women were still pressured to behave in the Victorian ways by their parents. Daisy had once said that " rich woman do not marry poor boys." This is why woman always wanted a richer man than the one they already had. They rebelled against this strict rule of their lives and the flappers were created. This is the time that woman partied and were very risky in the world.

The main woman in The Great Gatsby was Daisy Buchanans, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson. Daisy is married to Tom Buchanans and she is seeing Jay Gatsby secretly. Myrtle Wilson is married to as well and is cheating on him with Tom Buchanans behind their spouses. Jordan Baker is the only one that is not cheating on anyone, because she is not married. She is dating Nick Carraway. Daisy and Myrtle are both seeing men that are richer than their husbands. Jordan is seeing Nick, but he is not rich so she does not care about money.

Work Cited

"Women and Gatsby". Poca. 20 May 2010. http://boe.poca.k12.wv.us/pchs/Novels/gatsby/womenand%20gatsby.htm

Unrequited Love

Unrequited love is love that is not openly reciprocated, even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. The beloved may or may not be aware of the admirer's deep affections.Being in love with somebody who doesn't love you can be a heartbreaking experience. In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has unrequited love for Daisy. He loves Daisy a lot but she is now married to Tom and Gatsby has a hard time wrapping his head around the idea that Daisy truly loves Tom.

Work Cited

"Unrequited Love" You Tube. 19 May.2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gMwpB9W7a4>

East Egg vs. West Egg

East Egg

Map of Long Island Sound

West Egg

West Egg is where Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby live. "The less Fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them." It is the less fashionable city, but the West is more traditional. West Egg also is the older city of the two. The people that live there are newly rich, and once you are just rich you move on up to East Egg. The person that is well know on this Long Island is Jay Gatsby. People come from all over just to attend his fabulous parties.

Across the bay was East Egg the more fashionable and very rich place to live. That is were Daisy and Tom Buchanans, and Jordan Baker live. People here are in very good physical condition and the men wear nice clothes and they own horses and ponies. The woman are there just as fools, living the rich life and making other people jealous of their luxurious lives. "The East is connected to the moral decay and social cynicism of New York." The story takes place in both of these cities and New York.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota on September 29, 1896. His mother came from a very wealthy family therefor he lived a somewhat luxurious life. He attended a private school, in New Jersey. In 1913 Francis attended Princeton University, but dropped out and joined the United States Army as a second lieutenant. In 1920 he got married to Zelda Sayre. Fitzgerald published four books before The Great Gatsby in 1925, this was his most popular book. This book was focused on the indifference of wealth, the hollowness of the American myth, and the sleaziness of a rich lifestyle. He later published four more books. He had gained a lot of money for his books, but because him and his write loved to live in the most expensive way, they were barley able to pay off their bills. In his later years Fitzgerald had a rising alcoholism and physical illness. After two heart attacks he died on December 21, 1940, and his wife Zelda died seven years later in a fire.

Works Cited

"Encyclopedia of World Biography." php bb. 2007

Old vs New Money

New Money Vs Old Money

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Old money vs New Money relates to the Great Gatspy because Nick was living in a fairly good sized house for only eighty dollars and today some houses cost up to $292,600 or more. The value of money today is very different to back then . In society today $20 is like a 5 dollar bills and back then 20 was like 100 so you can see how the values have changed significantly.

Work Cited

"New Money Vs Old Money". Slide Share.14 May 2010

http://www.slideshare.net/CoolTeacher/new-money

Flappers

Some critics claimed that flappers were emulating men, seizing male power and freedom by looking like men. They were indeed like men in that they made their own choices and expressed their sexuality more freely than ever before. The flapper would have laughed at the ideal, chaste, Victorian maiden who considered a kiss tantamount to a proposal. But the flapper didn’t want to be a man. She wanted to be a woman, a New Woman, the woman of her own creation.

The word flapper came from British slang for an awkward teenage girl. The flappers, however, did not consider themselves little girls - they worked hard to be grown up and sophisticated. Along with their short skirts they wore short hair, lipstick, rouge, and powder. Some flappers even swore. Girls in their late teens or early twenties were the first to wear the short skirt as a statement that they were New Women, no longer bound by pre-war values. The old-fashioned long skirt came with an array of constricting undergarments. Corsets bound the female body into the current fashionable form, and petticoats created a barrier between the skirt and skin. Until the advent of the Twentieth Century, the female ankle and calf were hidden erotic zones. The flapper changed that. Freedom of movement was a core principle of flapper fashion. These are the kind of women that went to Gatsbys parties.

Work Cited

Mandel Sarah "Flapper skirts as Feminist symbols." FWWD magizine. 12 May.2010.

The 1920s

The 1920s had many names, "The Roaring Twenties", "The Era of Heroes", and "The Jazz Age", all names given to the time of change. It was full of all types of people from flappers and bootleggers to African American poets and musicians. American citizens were ready to trade in old traditions for more modern ones. In a political aspect women were given the right to vote in the United States. Also the eighteenth Amendment was passed, banning the selling, transporting, or manufacturing of alcohol.

Not only was there a changes in politics, but also a change in the way Americans lived. Most woman were cutting their hair, smoking, drinking and dressing risky, these woman were known as flappers. Some men were becoming bootleggers, people who smuggled liquor into the country. African Americans were migrating to the north, many to New York to contribute to the Harlem Renaissance. The country was also changing from rural to an urban country. There was also new technology, there was now a portable car radios and movies were now up and running for people to get away from reality for a while.

There were also very famous people that came out of the 1920s. There were writers, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote The Great Gatsby and Langston Hughes a very popular writer and poet in the Harlem Renaissance. Charles A. Lindbergh was the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. And Babe Ruth, was a legendary baseball player. All of these people and more mad up the "Era of Heroes."

Works Cited

Ayers, Edward L.. American Anthem. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007.