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Solomon Parker

Mr. Bruneel

Honors English 11B-Pd.4

1 March 2011

The Outer Appearances and Inner Happiness

“If only you knew how mean she really is... You'd know that I'm not allowed to wear

hoop earrings” (Waters). In the movie, Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, high school

students are constantly trying to assimilate to high school standards and appease the, “queen

bee”, Regina George. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, brings light to the way people of

the 20s publicized themselves in a way to become successful and accepted, while holding

ulterior motives. Both works show how people create superficial appearances to hide their true

personas. Using Gatsby’s ambition, Daisy’s shifting demeanor, and Nick’s façade, Fitzgerald

justifies this theme. Mean Girls also illustrates the theme through The Plastics seemingly perfect

appearance, Cady’s new identity, and the rest of the school’s, female population desperate

attempts at popularity. However, Mean Girls does a better job at supporting the theme because it

showing how accepting yourself, and others, brings peace.

The Great Gatsby effectively supports how people create superficial appearances to hide

their true personas. Gatsby is seen as a wealthy man with family money and immense happiness,

when in fact he is a criminal millionaire that has obtained his lifestyle only to woo his ultimate

vision on wealth, Daisy Buchannan. Gatsby was born James Gatz, a poor farmer from

Minnesota. When he meets Daisy, a young and rich woman, he falls in love with her for her

enormous home and many cars, and later for how she was simply nice. Gatsby purposely had

“given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same
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stratum as herself – that he was fully able to take care of her” (Fitzgerald 149). He made a

woman, he claimed to love, believe he was something he was not, masking his true self and

giving him ulterior motives to build his life upon. Daisy Buchannan plays the role of the faithful

wife filled with mirth, yet scorned by her husband’s affair and over-protectiveness. In reality she

is one of, if not the most pernicious character in the novel. She exhibits how hypocritical and

selfish she is when she has an affair with Gatsby, betrays him and then kills Myrtle. Daisy is torn

between her husband and Gatsby, yet even when she feels stronger towards Gatsby she says “I

never loved him” (Fitzgerald 132). After Tom reveals to Daisy that Gatsby’s money is not

legitimate, her love towards him disappears. To add insult to injury she rides home with the

heartbroken Gatsby (Fitzgerald 135). Daisy shows how someone that appears fragile and

extravagant can be deleterious and uncompassionate. Lastly, the narrator Nick Carraway

establishes himself as “inclined to reserve all judgments” (Fitzgerald 1). However, Nick is

constantly judging the people he comes in contact with. He sees Gatsby as a great man, Tom as

over bearing, Owl eyes an intimidating businessman and creates a novel based on everyone he

came in contact with during this time. When he says good-bye to Gatsby he shouts “They’re a

rotten crowd … You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 154). Tom not

only verbally states his opinion on the Buchannans but also on his cousin, Daisy. Fitzgerald’s

novel encompasses the human essence of creating a more acceptable image of oneself to conceal

his/her true motives.

Mark Waters’, Mean Girls also represents how people create superficial appearances to

hide their true personas. The Plastics, Regina, Karen and Gretchen, are the social elites of North

Shore High School, they appear to be self confident, self aware and the perfect high school girls.

The girls have formulated how they will dress, what they will eat, and where they will shop for
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their high school career. Yet, when the girls get to Regina’s house they critically judge

themselves on anything they see wrong. They go down the line finding anything wrong with

themselves, like “I've got man shoulders … My hairline is so weird … My pores are huge … My

nail beds suck” (Waters). The females that everyone at North Shore attempt to emulate have

sundry problems that they attempt to hide. In addition, Cady Heron, a new student, is confronted

by the plastics and two other students, Janice and Damien. She quickly changes, her innocent and

tame personality, to a conniving “regulation hottie” (Waters). Cady’s obsession with appeasing

others is fully realized when she admits “The weird thing about hanging out with Regina was

that I could hate her, and at the same time, I still wanted her to like me” (Waters). Cady’s inner

persona, of a content and positive young lady, is overcastted by her plastic charade. The faux

appearances of people are also present in every other girl’s actions at North Shore. Every clique,

from “the burnouts” to “the wannabees”, places themselves in positions where they are labeled to

be accepted by the social standards, not giving them a chance to be true to themselves. When the

girls are asked about the plastics, they take their negative and sometimes awkward experiences,

and shift it to their advantage. For instance, Bethany Byrd says “One time she punched me in the

face... it was awesome” (Waters) and girls also confess “I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants

and flip flops, so I bought army pants and flip flops” (Waters). These girls feel, the only way to

make it through four of their most important years is to blend in with the people they envy as

oppose to showing how they could better themselves. Waters uses all of the characters in Mean

Girls to validate the title and bring more support to the idea the people create superficial

appearances to hide their true personas.

Mean Girls argument, that accepting yourself and others brings overall wellness, makes it

a paradigm for the two works common theme. Regina’s transforms herself from self-righteous
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and ignorant to goal oriented. She becomes a positive member of society due to the fact that “the

jock girls were not afraid of her” (Waters). She realizes with the help of her new friends that she

is truly happy and kind when she is in a positive and competitive environment. Karen Smith

drops her promiscuous charade and accepts her own dimwittedness, to reach her full potential.

She says “My breast can always tell when it is going to rain … Well they can tell when it’s

raining” (Waters). Karen puts her ability to use by announcing to the school there is a 30%

chance it is already raining (Waters). By breaking her mold and freeing her inner self, Karen

becomes peaceful and well liked. Cady Heron reverts back to her true self when she is stripped

of her Plastic reputation. She realizes when she has nothing left and is submerged in a

mathematics competition that coming to terms with yourself and others bring peace. She points

out Carolyn Cratz’s horrible outfit and appearance. But wisely states “Calling someone else fat

doesn’t make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn’t make you smarter. And ruining

Regina George’s life definitely didn’t make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve

the problem in fun of you” (Waters). Cady creates a superficial character to feel accepted, but

she becomes cognizant of the fact she must focus on herself and accept others. The females of

North Shore High School rid themselves of preconceived images and accept everyone around

them to create an oasis in high school.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mark Waters create power pieces of art that display the human

reflex to construct appeasing personas, even if it compromises their genuine intentions.

Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, uses its dynamic characters faux reputations to propel the

theme. Gatsby is seen as a well like gentlemen living a secure and lavish lifestyle; he is in fact, a

mendacious man with a hidden past and plans to ruin a relationship. Daisy is anything but the

sweet and innocent trophy wife. She’s a hypocritical and shifty woman with ambivalent feelings
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toward her two love interest. Nick claims to be a non judgmental man, but he creates a book

giving his insight on everything he witnesses. Mean Girls illustrates the theme by showing its

characters attempts at emulating the best at the expense of losing themselves. The Plastics put on

the act of perfect and secure girls, but fully recognize their flaws. Cady Heron loses her initial

personality to appease everyone she is acquainted with. The female population of North Shore

wishes to push aside their honest selves to satisfy their schools hierarchy. Mean Girls’ plot helps

it foster the idea that accepting yourself, and others, brings peace through Regina, Karen and

Cady’s attitude adjustments. For these reason Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, is a better

example of the theme: people create superficial appearances to hide their true personas.
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Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925. Print.

Mean Girls. Dir. Mark Waters. Writ. Tina Fey. Story. Rosalind Wiseman. Paramount 

      Pictures, 2004. Film.