The Great Gatsby | Jordan Baker, a Soldier in the Culture War

This essay takes an in-depth look at Jordan Baker, who represents the proto-feminist known as a flapper; in changing fashion and the way a woman's morality was perceived, flappers had more influence on society in the 1920s than their more radical sisters.

From a modern-day perspective, The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker seems a bit ordinary—a typical modern woman. To the novel’s original audience, however, Jordan’s behavior and attitude place her one step away from scandal. In 1926, many parts of the United States were relatively unaffected by the changes occurring in large urban centers like New York City; Fitzgerald’s main characters are displaced “Midwesterners” for precisely this reason. Publication of The Great Gatsby brought the changes in the air in the twenties to the rest of the nation, through...

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