What Do You Think About the View That There Are No Women in the Great Gatsby with Whom the Reader Can Sympathise free essay sample

Lauren Simpson What do you think about the view that there are no women in the great Gatsby with whom the reader can sympathise? The great Gatsby has a male theme running throughout, so the women who are presented in the novel come across as superficial and therefore I cannot sympathise with them. Materialism in the novel is a recurring theme, the 1920’s brought about a change in the American dream. The move from the idea that people could become successful without having come from fortune and prosperity, to being about what you own which indicated your social status. yrtle Wilson demonstrated this idea of materialism, â€Å"at the news-stand she bought a copy of town tattle and a moving picture magazine, and in the station drug-store some cold cream and a small flask of perfume† â€Å"I want to get one of those dogs. † This involuntary spending of myrtle Wilson suggests that money is an item which gives you the social status the characters aspire to. We will write a custom essay sample on What Do You Think About the View That There Are No Women in the Great Gatsby with Whom the Reader Can Sympathise? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This shows myrtle Wilson to be vein and therefore readers are unable to sympathise with her Myrtle Wilson becomes tangled up in an affair with Tom Buchanan throughout the novel. The 1920’s was as a time in which family was seen as priority, the image of white picket fencing surrounding a family home indicated happiness therefore when we discover the affair we believe that myrtle Wilson is a bad character and therefore the reader finds it difficult to sympathise with her. Affairs again is a repeated theme shown by two sets of characters. Myrtle Wilson with tom buchanan but also Daisy buchanan and Gatsby. In modern times as well as past periods, affairs are looked down upon as though you are a lower class in society. This hasn’t changed. Therefore when the affair between Daisy and Gatsby develops we lose respect for daisy as we see her as being provocative. Gatsby on the other had maintains his respect as he is the male and male generally don’t have as much shame placed upon them from an affair. Daisy begins to lose respect from the affair but also is unable to be sympathised with because of the style of parenting she possesses. Parenting in the novel was a style in which isn’t very common in today’s society. Now parenting is an act in which comes with the child. Then it was more a material item which is wanted. Daisy treats her child as a possession, she isn’t a great part in the child’s life which we can tell from the interaction between them when Gatsby and nick are at her house. The majority of the parenting is done via a nanny who is hired by daisy. This makes her difficult to relate to as In modern times a child is something to looks after, care for and love done by showing affecting, not by parading them about making you seem better. This therefore makes the reader think about how she has no feelings for her child and makes them feel remorse for the child. In conclusion times since the novel was written have changed, we once would have seen the novels characters as being appropriate but now we see it as superficial and therefore it makes it difficult for the reader to sympathise with the characters. This in a way draws away from the novel.