The Great Gatsby: the Ragged Transition from Victorian "Self-Made" Essay Example
The definition of what it is to be a man is one of fluidity and contradiction. In Gail Bederman's essay "Remaking manhood through race and 'civilization'", she proposed that as the United States entered into the 20th century, the framework behind white manhood was challenged by the economy, women and minorities, as well as by men themselves. This confrontation of the Victorian ideals resulted in a tumultuous transition from the hard-working self-made man to its antithesis, the leisurely well-rounded man. The various stages and conflicts of this transformation can be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald's turn-of-the-century novel, The Great Gatsby. Using Bederman's essay as a guide, it becomes apparent that four of the male characters, Tom, Nick, Gatsby and Wilson, are in different phases of the Victorian to Modern evolution, demonstrating the inherent complexity of remaking manhood.
To adequately analyze the modernization, or lack thereof, that exists in Fitzgerald's characters, a reflection on Bederman's essay is necessary in order to distinguish the causes and features of the two stages. First, the Victorian man. During the 1800's in the United States, the self-made man was a prized feature of society. Pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, working one's way up the corporate ladder and running a business was not only the norm, it was expected. This process required a great deal of strong character and powerful will which were equated to "masculine passions" (Bederman 12). The acquisition of these traits (or passions) directly affected the family life because "by gaining the manly strength to control himself, a man gained the strength, as well as the duty, to protect and direct those weaker than himself: his wife, his children, or his employees" (Bederman 12). According to Bederman, not only was family life affected, but also the entire societal construct of the middle-class was tied into these passions. She states that "a manly character built on high-minded
To adequately analyze the modernization, or lack thereof, that exists in Fitzgerald's characters, a reflection on Bederman's essay is necessary in order to distinguish the causes and features of the two stages. First, the Victorian man. During the 1800's in the United States, the self-made man was a prized feature of society. Pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, working one's way up the corporate ladder and running a business was not only the norm, it was expected. This process required a great deal of strong character and powerful will which were equated to "masculine passions" (Bederman 12). The acquisition of these traits (or passions) directly affected the family life because "by gaining the manly strength to control himself, a man gained the strength, as well as the duty, to protect and direct those weaker than himself: his wife, his children, or his employees" (Bederman 12). According to Bederman, not only was family life affected, but also the entire societal construct of the middle-class was tied into these passions. She states that "a manly character built on high-minded