Document Type
Sophomore Award Winner
Award Date
Spring 2010
Course Name
Literary Explorations II
Teacher
Audrey Wells
Abstract
“…That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (21). These are the words of Daisy Buchanan, a woman around whom the entire novel seems to revolve. Her story is one of a woman who loses her first love and instead marries a man who proved unfaithful and angry. Knowing that the story was written as a critique of society at the time, one might expect Daisy to eventually empower herself to leave this situation and escape the stereotype of the weak woman. The actual story could not be more different. In his attempts to critique American materialism in his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses women, particularly Daisy and Myrtle, to represent many of the flaws of the upper class and, as a result, portrays them as generally shallow, dependent, and incapable of redemption.
Recommended Citation
Cory, Eleanor '12, "Puppies, Pearls, and Corpses on the Road: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Treatment of Women in The Great Gatsby" (2010). 2010 Spring Semester. 6.
https://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/spring2010/6