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The Great Gatsby | The Paradoxical Role of Women
The women in The Great Gatsby appear to be free-spirited, scorning norms of what the nineteenth century would have considered proper female behavior; this essay investigates just how independent they really are.
Women play a paradoxical role in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, a novel dominated by the eponymous hero and the enigmatic narrator, Nick Carraway. With the background of Gatsby’s continual and lavish parties, women seem to have been transformed into “flappers,” supposedly the incarnation of independence following World War I.
After all, Daisy Fay, obviously modeled on Fitzgerald’s free-spirited wife, Zelda Sayre, is hardly portrayed as the proper southern belle. Her friend, Jordan Baker, seems openly sarcastic when speaking of their “white...
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- The Great Gatsby: Introduction
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The Great Gatsby: Essays and Criticism
- Three Themes in The Great Gatsby
- Major and Minor Characters in The Great Gatsby
- Critique of American Upper Class Values
- The Paradoxical Role of Women
- Fitzgerald's Use of the Color Green
- The American Dream
- Romance and Cynicism in The Great Gatsby
- A Modernist Masterwork
- Fitzgerald's Distinctly American Style of Writing
- The Jazz Age
- The Theme of Time in The Great Gatsby
- Jordan Baker, a Soldier in the Culture War
- George and Myrtle Wilson
- Major Characters, Time, Ambiguity and Tragedy
- The Greatness of Gatsby
- A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
- The Great Gatsby: Suggested Essay Topics
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- The Great Gatsby: Compare and Contrast
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- The Great Gatsby: Media Adaptations
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