How Does Jordan Baker Present The Women In The Great Gatsby

Throughout The Great Gatsby, the main three female characters are presented to be Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson; although these women have different qualities and in some ways different lives, they could be seen to all conform to the patriarchal norms of society at the time with the men with which they interact and fall in love, or lust, in one way or another, for each different part of society they live in. In the novel there are, however, exceptions to this.
Daisy and Jordan Baker are both presented as the “flapper” type women from the 1920s. This was seen as very up-to-date and fashionable, showing a new kind of sexual appeal from the previously almost powerless women. As they are both shown from the reader’s first introduction …show more content…
As Nick rather harshly seems to discard her towards the end of the novel as a form of a break-up, she seems to take the news fairly well, from announcing to Nick that she was already “engaged to another man.” This suggests that she did not care for the authoritative way in which Nick was almost using her, and seems to brush it off. However, the fact that she uses such an out-of-the-blue reason for her nonchalance could mean that she is secretly upset by the break-up and trying to cover it up with confidence, as women in the era may have done. As she is a golfing star, she is presented as holding herself generally in a jaunty manner, but enjoys the celebrity status she gains from it, as opposed to any success she may …show more content…
Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan both seem to conform mostly to the norms and therefore live, however unhappy their lives