The One Who Wears the Pants Throughout history and in different cultures, strength can be defined in different ways. Before the 1920s, in America, women were considered weak and vulnerable while men were strong and capable. However, during the 1920s, the women’s movement to dismantle the gender norms of the Victorian Era to gain freedom and equality, helped redefine strength within the nation. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his romance novel, The Great Gatsby, to show how a woman can be just as strong, or stronger than a man. Set in the 1920s in New York, a bondsman named Nick Carraway narrates the story of a wealthy man named Jay Gatsby, who attempts to rekindle his love with a beautiful married woman named Daisy Buchanan by using his status and …show more content…
After learning that his college friend and his second cousin has moved to the East Coast, Nick Carraway drives to Manhasset Neck also known as East Egg to visit them. As he arrives at the front door of Tom’s house, he describes Tom’s strong physique and his dominating presence compared to when he was in college. Nick explains, “We were in the same Senior Society and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own” (12). During their college days, Tom and Nick were not close friends, but Nick still felt forced to like Tom. The desire for approval and approving of others allows Tom to be in control of the situation. Usually the approval of others is out of one’s control, but Tom uses his “harsh, defiant wistfulness” to control the situation to be the way he wants. His ability to use his “harsh defiant wistfulness” comes from his physical strength to …show more content…
During Nick’s first visit into their home, they start to make conversations over dinner. Fitzgerald writes, “‘Tom’s getting very profound,’ said Daisy with an expression of unthoughtful sadness. ‘He reads deep books with long words in them. What was that word we-’”(17). Daisy subtly ridicules Tom’s intelligence. Daisy uses words such as “getting profound” to portray that he is actually not yet profound. She has “an expression of unthoughtful sadness”, which is not an expression a wife who is proud of her husband should have if she is talking about how knowledgeable he is. The phrase “an unthoughtful sadness” suggests that she sometimes forgets that she has to be pretend to be proud of him in front of others even though she does not believe he is smart. She continues to deride him by describing the type of books he reads as if it is a surprise that he is able to read such books. Despite Tom’s tough physique, Daisy is able to belittle him because she knows that she is smarter than him. Daisy’s power is derived from her status of a lady of the upper class. In the 1920s, a lady of the upper class is often educated enough to converse with others, but not enough to overpower a man. However, in Daisy’s situation, she is able look down on Tom despite their same social class because her intelligence overpowers his physical strength. Daisy continues to