The 1920s were a very different time. Women are getting their rights, but that doesn’t mean that sexism goes away. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald is a perfect example of how gender roles were portrayed. Tom and Gatsby represent the male gender roles; being overly aggressive to and about women and feeling superior to everybody. While Daisy represents female gender roles; overly submissive and extremely emotional. The gender roles in The Great Gatsby are problematic because they enforce sexist stereotypes about the women and men portrayed in the book.

Tom and Gatsby are 2 men in the book that both portrayed as overly aggressive and only focused on the money their social status and charming women. In Chapter 7, Tom Gatsby and the others head to dinner and things get heated between the two men over Daisy, Tom’s wife, and who Gatsby is having an affair with. Ch. 7 Pg 130 says, “I want to know what Mr. Gatsby has to tell me.” “Your wife doesn’t love you,” said Gatsby. “She’s never loved you. She loves me.” “You must be crazy!” exclaimed Tom automatically. Gatsby sprang to his feet, vivid with excitement. “She never loved you, do you hear?” he cried. “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me!” Not only does this show that Tom and Gatsby are more worried about the feeling of Daisy being around and not Daisy as an actual person, it seems that they both seem to think that if they fight over her it will win her over because apparently, but men must also be brutes fighting each other to win over the submissive female.

Daisy takes the role of a submissive housewife, which is a huge gender role in this day and age. It affects her so much that she even uses it as a way to parent her child. In Chapter 1, we meet the main cast which includes Daisy, a submissive housewife to her husband Tom and has recently become a mother. She relays a story to Nick about the arrival of her baby girl. Ch. 1 Pg 17 states, “She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘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.” The fact that Daisy has this mindset for herself is sad because the society at the time has made girls feel this way, but the fact that she has to parent her child in this way shows that the society that they live in is inherently misogynistic because to get by as a woman in this society you must foolish and submissive to get what you want.

The gender roles that Tom Gatsby and Daisy share can be problematic due to how they portray each gender as nothing more than a caricature of what they can be. And as a society, we vow to get better and hope that we don't continue this pattern for generations to come.

I decided to make a poster to go through the criteria of what makes a piece timeless and why. The essential question was: What makes a piece timeless and why? I tried my best to answer the question by showing criteria of what most of society deems to be timeless. They have to be at least 30 years old since the book is released. They have to be memorable enough to be used in educational classes for years to come. And they have to be able to create discussion of any kind to push society forward. That is what I feel makes a timeless piece timeless.

I’ve been with Tom for a while now

He is my rock, my soul, my love

He was the perfect man for me and I was contempt with that

He was mine and I was his.

I know he’s married to Daisy

But I never really cared about it

He’s confident to bring me around his friends

and that’s more than he has ever done with Daisy

Yeah, I was cocky and wanted to bring up Daisy in the middle of the dinner.

What else did Tom expect from me?

If we are together, why should Daisy even be an issue?

I felt fine until I felt a-

Crack!

Tom had just hit me and I felt my nose crack

He just broke my nose...

I felt so upset with both Tom and Daisy

Tom, for hitting me and defending Daisy, and Daisy for being Daisy

Honestly, do I see myself with Tom still? Yes.

Nothing will stop me from being with Tom, no matter what he does to me

And even Daisy being with him doesn’t stop me either

And I will do anything to keep Tom in my grasp

I decided to write this from Myrtle's point of view. I decided to make her a bit smug and catty because the way that she is around Tom in Chapter 2 (which is where I got the inspiration for this entry) seemed to give off that vibe. I decided to use the scene where tom hits her for suspense and character.

Jay Gatsby

Dear Diary,

Another day another sleepless night without my Daisy.

I know she’s with Tom, but I can’t help myself but be infatuated by her beauty

She is the perfect balance of beauty and grace, the more I think about her the more I yearn to be in her presence.

I love her dearly but I can’t tell her about the real me.

She would never love me if I told her what the truth was

She deserves so much more than her current state with Tom.

Tom, that no good sexist, racist pig.

He’s having an affair with Myrtle

He doesn’t even care about Daisy as I would!

If the truth was brought up about the affair, I would finally have my dream woman

And I would have the pleasure of watching Tom being miserable

I must leave now, diary. I have planning to do.

Signed

Jay Gatsby

I decided to use this journal as a way to speak on Chapter 7 from Gatsby's point of view because I feel that we don't see things from his point of view. I decided to make this entry as if he wrote this before they all headed out to dinner. I wanted to add more angst and anger from Gatsby to Tom in order to show that he wants to be with Daisy so much that he would do anything to get tom out of the picture so he can be with Daisy.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, et al. The Great Gatsby. April 1924.