Gender Roles- The image of female characters in The Great Gatsby is seen as silly, bubbly and immature as seen through the mindless chatter of Miss Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan. Tom looked exasperated when the two women were talking as if their conversation held no importance at all. Then in the scene Tom starts to talk about the book, his conversation is entirely directed toward Nick and constantly interrupts Daisy and Miss Baker when they try to intervene and give input about their thoughts and opinions about the matter. Tom does not view Daisy as his equal. This is further shown as the author unravels the information of Tom Buchanan’s affair with the mystery woman in New York through the means of Miss. Baker. This shows that he does not respect marriage and views it as a joke because he is fooling around with another woman and being unfaithful towards his wife. Throughout the dinner scene Tom’s treatment towards Daisy is ultimately very dehumanizing and vile and Daisy’s behaviour is subservient. Furthermore in the anecdote the Daisy tells Nick lets the reader know that she feels very alone and empty and lonely. “It’ll show you how much I have gotten to feel about- things. Well she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of ether with an entirely abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept, ‘Alright,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool’. Daisy feels like the role of a girl and women is to be subservient, sit still look pretty kind of vibe. The birth of her daughter evoked sadness because the thought that her daughter’s future would go to waste, she would eventually become her husband’s property and live her life according to his way. It could also be interpreted tha Tom Buchanan might have wanted a son and due the gender of the child he might have some resentment towards her.
The Wayward Mentality of the Human Race
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