Masculinity And Gender In Gillian Flynn's 'Gone Girl'

From the moment a baby is born, and it is wrapped in either a pink or blue blanket, gender roles are installed into that child. It’s seen in the home setting: the husband is a strong provider, the breadwinner; the wife is the homemaker, the softer, weaker one. It’s still seen in the work force: is it still odd to see a male nurse? It’ seen everyday, in nearly every culture; even in the 21st century, civilization still puts male and female traits into set, concrete boxes. Gillian Flynn, in her best selling novel Gone Girl, utilizes the common association people have of masculinity and femininity to present a contradiction of these widespread roles. She does this mostly through her main characters Nick and Amy Dunn, who represent two people desperately

Amy and Nick’s relationship, for example, demonstrates how both a female and a male try to live up to certain standards in order to form a cohesive relationship. This was proven when Amy comments on Nick’s habits, “[…] he replaces a pipe beneath our sink and repaints all the rooms we painted before and didn’t like” (83). It’s notable that, Amy, fake diary Amy, gives Nick tasks that a stereotypical man does around the house. Amy, fake diary Amy, also portrays herself to be a dotting housewife (85). Amy, through her fictional diary, paints a picture of her and Nick as a stereotypical couple that does stereotypical things. This argument is furthered when Amy says, “We pretend together that we are happy and carefree and in love” (409). This quote illustrates that there are certain expectations of couples that need to be met in order for society to view the couple as happy. Just like individuals have roles as males and females-males and females have roles in order to form a couple. This is also seen through Rand and Marybeth, Amy’s parents. Rand and Marybeth are the epitome of a perfect marriage and exact opposite of Nick’s parents, who divorce while Nick, is still young. The novel comments on Nick’s parents saying that Nick’s mom, while married to his dad, always did the housekeeping, the cleaning, and the caretaking. Nick’s farther was the breadwinner (144-145). These roles are traditional yet the relationship fell apart. If this is put into contrast with Rand and Marybeth’s relationship, a successful marriage, it’s important to note that Rand and Marybeth didn’t fall into traditional roles. Rand was characterized as sensitive and Marybeth made just as much money as Rand (147-155). Overall, Flynn highlights various types of relationships-some traditional, some not; these relationships further emphasized or deflect from typical male and female roles in