Kylie Connors
20th Century
Mr. Quindley

The Great Gatsby
The Leading Ladies

In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the three leading women, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan
Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, play a major part in revealing the personalities that emerge from the roaring 1920’s. The three females unveil the three distinct levels of society there was during this time, each with its own trials and triumphs. Daisy typifies a sophisticated woman of the era, while Jordan represents a defiant up to date woman and Myrtle illustrates a typical working class woman desperate to part of the high class society. Through personalities, men, and goals, these women, although from very different, their lives intertwine in the end resulting in a gloomy ending. The men in the book treat all the women differently depending on the situation. In the book, women are treated like objects by many of the men. With Daisy, Gatsby is constantly fighting for her love. He aspires to win her back from Tom, because to him she is the ideal image of perfection. He longs to win her back, and dedicates his life to it. He moves to West Egg, directly across the bay from Daisy so he can be close to her, and she doesn’t know. He uses
Nick, Daisy’s cousin, to set up a meeting with her. He prepares Nicks house with all the flowers she loves, and tries to make everything perfect for her. Gatsby makes all his money solely to impress and win Daisy back from Tom. He wants to prove to her he deserves her, sp that is why he originally makes up his back ground telling her he is from a wealthy family, and he has the

money to amount up to Tom. Gatsby even takes the blame for hitting Myrtle even though it was
Daisy driving, but alas in the end she still chooses Tom. Tom on the other hand treats Daisy quite opposite. To Tom, Daisy is a trophy. She is a rich lovely toy of his, in which he can do whatever he wants. Daisy is aware of his affair with Myrtle, but she chooses to ignore it and act like it isn’t happening. She stays with him solely because of his wealth and social status, more than the fact she loves him. He gains power from having both Daisy and Myrtle under his belt, but treats both girls very differently. Tom treats Myrtle like garbage, and uses her for sex. Myrtle worships
Tom, which gives him power, which just fuels him more. She want’s to desperately be with
Tom, but Tom has no intention of ever leaving Daisy for Myrtle. He also is very violent to her, arguing with her whenever Daisy’s name is brought up, and even breaks her nose. Tom would never hit Daisy, or be violent in any way towards her. Myrtle’s husband is a hard working, caring, and loving husband but to her he isn’t the high class status that she ever so desires, but he actually treats her right. Tom gives her nice things, which her husband can’t, and to Myrtle this is more important because it fulfills her fantasy of her blue collar life. All of the three of the leading women have distinctly different personalities. First, there is Daisy Buchanan. Her name, Daisy, implies a beautiful flower, full of grace and charm, which she is. She is a beautiful young woman living in East Egg. She is very wealthy, and is of a high social class. Because of her wealth and the privileged class she belongs to, Daisy expects everyone else to look after she. She is completely dependant on her husband, Tom, to maintain her extravagant lifestyle. Daisy relies completely on Toms money, which gives him so much power over her. Another apparent trait Daisy possesses is her selfishness, which is revealed throughout the story little by little. For example, Daisy doesn’t care about any of the other

women in the story, especially Myrtle and Jordan. Jordan is considered to be one of Daisy’s closest friends, but they do not have a true friendship. During dinner at the Buchanan's, Nick notices how “Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering