Masculinity In The Great Gatsby

Correspondingly, Fitzgerald, like all authors, wrote The Great Gatsby for a reason more than just the 1920s life in its splendor. In the book, The Great Gatsby, characters are wealthy seemingly beyond measure. For example, they have cars to take them to the fanciest party in East Egg, and the women can afford to stay home. East Egg stands out in contrast to West Egg with its glamour and excess, but much of that glamour comes with a price. Jewels replaced morality, and money replaced relationships. “My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires-all for eighty dollars a month. Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable
Print.) Myrtle is bought with his intimidation because she associates this with masculinity, and this starts the rift between Myrtle Wilson and George Wilson. She becomes so lost in Tom and his money that she forgets what social class she is in, and she tries to claw her way to the top. “‘I told that boy about the ice.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. ‘These people! You have to keep after them all the time.’” Although she most likely does not come from the richer side, she fights tooth and nail to become part of East Egg. She even abandons her morals as she cheats on her husband and wills Tom to keep doing the same to his wife. Fitzgerald painted this picture throughout the book that the green is always greener on the other side.
Coupled with the reason why he wrote The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald also makes some significant critiques about the Progressive Era. To begin, the place of women is a critique that he makes throughout the novel. The roles of the women in The Great Gatsby are simple.; a female does not work and must look beautiful. With all of this time and beauty, women learned how to get what they want from