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Maya Suchecki

Honors Lit

F-Block

May 6, 2024

The Great Gatsby Lens

The Great Gatsby was a production of great film and literature, posing many viewpoints

and perspectives yet to be documented to that extent. Fitzgerald and Llurman’s unique

perspective and creativity bring the gender bias in the Roaring 20s to light in interpretive art. The

novel The Great Gatsby analyzed through a feminist lens, highlights Fitzgerald’s use of power

dynamics, similar to Llurman’s use of gender bias represented in gender stereotypes and

conversations.

The film highlights gender bias in the sense that women must have a man to be dependent

on. The idea is that Daisy had to choose between Tom or Jay, unfortunately alluding to the

stereotypes that women need to be with a man to be deemed successful by society. Tom was a

wealthy, functioning alcoholic, as was everyone in the 1920’s. At the same time, Tom had a

whole life outside of Daisy with his mistress Myrtle. Similarly to Tom, Jay originally left Daisy

to find or generate wealth because he had to provide for Daisy, as she could not provide for

herself or her family. This was always placed on a man. Jay leaves and goes out to find wealth;

he plans to return to marry Daisy when he has enough money for her to depend on him. In

contrast to women, Llurman paints Nick in the importance of Nick Carraway not having a

woman in the film because he was poor and could not provide for a woman, making him a

non-dependant man in a woman’s life. Llurman’s depiction of The Great Gatsby, when looked at

through the gender lens, allows the reader to recognize the idea that women need to depend on
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men.

In the novel, Fitzgerald highlights the gender bias that women are inferior to men by

demonstrating the action of submission, carried out by Dasiy and Myrtle to Tom. On a smokey

late night, Nick witnesses an argument between Myrtle and Tom, which ends with Tom, “Making

a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 41). Tom

abuses Myrtle when she defies him in a power grab. He needs complete control over Myrtle and

her auctions because that is how he feels in control and power. Similarly to Myrtle, Tom treats

his Mistress and Wife with the same inferiority. On the way to the Plaza Hotel, Tom catches on

that Daisy is going to leave, so in a desperate attempt to hold on to her one last time, “Come on

Daisy, said Tom, pressing his hand towards Gatsby’s Car. ‘I will take you in this circus

wagon.’”(Fitzgerald 128). Tom controls Dasiy’s every move and does not allow her to make her

own choices even though he constantly hurts her emotionally by entertaining many mistresses.

Towards the end of the book, Nick witnesses the events that lead to the loss of Tom’s

power-drunk life. Nick narrates the panic that Tom is experiencing in the event of “His Wife and

his Mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, was slipping precipitately from his control.”

(Fitzgerald 131). Fitzgerald writes this to see how Tom loses his mind when he no longer has

power over Daisy and Myrtle because they are leaving him. This is when the power dynamic is

especially shown in the book. The gender bias is shown in the book through the power given to

Tom over Daisy and Myrtle.

While analyzing the novel and the film, one concludes that Llurman and Fitzgerald both

highlight gender bias by giving men power over women in certain situations. This was a

controversial idea in the 20s: that women should be considered humans and independent from
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their husbands. Llurman and Fitzgerlad both portray the men in the novel and the film as

dominant, influential figures controlling the basis of the plot around their own needs and wants.
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Skill N Foundational Proficient Advanced

Y

Thesis Establishes *previous and *previous and

a basic Indicates the Effectively & clearly
claim relationship conveys the
Mentions between texts relationship between
both texts Claim is a texts & and the
Specifically reasonable message or
mentions or interpretation interpretation that
alludes to a and moves can be determined
critical lens beyond Clearly developed
summary throughout essay
Developed
throughout
essay

Claims Makes a *Previous (and) *Previous (and)

statement Somewhat Considers the thesis
that requires considers the of the paper
evidence to thesis Effective use of
support Somewhat transition
developed words/phrases
through Clearly developed
paragraph through paragraph

Evidence Includes *previous and *previous and

evidence Includes multiple Includes a variety of
from both pieces of specific, meaningful,
texts (either evidence/ and well-chosen
quotes or examples that evidence that relates
examples) clearly relate to to the thesis
Most the thesis,
evidence individual claims,
relates to and critical lens
lens Includes multiple
pieces of
evidence in each
body paragraph

Analysis Somewhat Explains how Explains

explains evidence well-selected points
how supports topic of comparison
evidence sentence of among evidence
supports individual and their connection
topic paragraphs to the thesis
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sentence Explains how

and thesis evidence
supports the
thesis of the
essay
Some use of film
specific
vocabulary

MLA Some elements missing No errors in MLA format

or some errors in MLA
format

Conventio Shows Most quotes are All quotes are

ns evidence of correctly correctly integrated
basic integrated Shows evidence of
proofreadin Follows essay careful proofreading
g organization
Shows evidence
of proofreading

Fluency Simple use Demonstrates Strong use of of

of use of grade vocabulary, diction,
vocabulary level vocabulary, sentence structures
Simple diction, sentence
sentence structures
structures Accurate use of
text specific
vocabulary