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Recommended: the style of the great gatsby

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now, God knows,
Anything goes!

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, a socio-historical commentary, introspectively explores the self-struggle of Daisy Buchanan, an avant-garde feminist, who has been imposed by societal obligations and expectations, ironically she enforces the same "unacceptable" conditions upon her impressionable infant daughter. Effectively, Fitzgerald portrays Daisy as a symbol and catalyst of moral degradation of the societal norm.

Fitzgerald essentially misleads the audience as he presents Daisy Buchanan with a series of positive associations, all of which ultimately collapse under the brunt of the revelation of her true character. From the outset, this charismatic Southern belle is portrayed to be pure and innocent, clad in white with her “dress...rippling and fluttering as if [it] had just been blown back after a short flight around the house” (Fitzgerald, 11). The epitome of ‘Heaven of Earth’, Daisy appears to be a righteous inamorata; for this reason, Gatsby is besotted with an idealistic image of Daisy Buchanan, that does not hold up in reality. While Gatsby venerates Daisy, Tom Buchanan, the man she left Gatsby for, sees all women, including Daisy, as entities, objects of desire. Furthermore, Daisy is cognizant of her husband Tom’s infidelity and yet, carries on her life without confronting Tom about his dalliances. The benefits afforded by her alliance to Tom outweigh her desire to rightfully claim her place as his only love (interest). However, their alliance is just that - an alliance, in which Daisy feigns investment, in order to attain the equitable status of being a Buchanan. Now a member of the highly-esteemed social...

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...ed opportunities to escape from her grasp; ‘She could have had it all’ had she not walked away from Gatsby. False promises of love were mind over matter; eventually, she was lulled into a false sense of security and hope, neither of which she truly obtained. Ultimately, her fatal flaw resulted in the disintegration of her and her daughter’s future, right before her eyes.

The Great Gatsby, the modernist novel, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald maudinly depicts how Daisy Buchanan’s externally-imposed poor self-esteem renders her incapable of developing into the proto-feminist she previously aspired to be and how she employs her influence to pave the same forlorn future for her infant daughter. “Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.”

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