An Analysis of Male Characters and Gender Roles in 'The Great Gatsby'

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the male characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby,' focusing on Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and Tom Buchanan. It explores their individual traits, motivations, and relationships, particularly concerning gender roles and societal expectations. The essay compares and contrasts these characters, highlighting how Fitzgerald portrays them as driven by their desires and ambitions, often reflecting the moral decay of the American Dream. It also draws a comparison between the novel's portrayal of women and its cinematic adaptation by Luhrmann, noting differing perspectives on gender equality. The analysis concludes that the novel reflects a critique of societal values, particularly regarding the treatment of women and the pursuit of wealth and status.

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The Great Gatsby Novel Male Character Review
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Introduction
The Great Gatsby was written in the year 1925 by Scott Fitzgerald. The characters presented in
the novel are described in a manner that brings out their behavior vividly. The novel gives us a
story of a young man, Jay Gatsby, who is a mysterious millionaire and his obsession and
romantic passion for the beautiful girl known as Daisy Buchanan (Berman, 2002). The novel as
well introduces to as another character known as Nick Carraway, who lives next door to the Jay.
Due to the dissatisfaction, Gatsby was undergoing as the girl he loved was married to another
man (Tom Buchanan), Nick offered to help. The whole story in the novel concentrates on these
characters. This paper, therefore, compares and contrasts the characters of Nick, Tom, and Jay
and its accuracy to other articles.
Nick Carraway
Nick is the person who is narrating the story. Nick who comes from Minnesota schooled at Yale
University and, afterward went to learn bond business in New York City. Nick who participated
in the World War I, is presented as an individual who is a confidant for many people throughout

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the novel (Fitzgerald, 2000). For instance, he facilitated the rekindling of love and romance for
the two past lovers (Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan). Nick became the neighbor of Jay Gatsby after
moving to the Long Island area known as West Egg. Jay happened to be living there, and Nick
befriended him and became best of friends. He made Jay get Daisy’s love back, and she ran
away from her husband, Buchanan. The Nick’s character is portrayed as an honest, tolerant, and
a guy with reserved judgment (Danielsson, 2017).
Jay Gatsby
Jay is the main character as well as the novel’s protagonist. He is a wealthy young man in love
with Daisy who is married to Buchanan. He is not known what he does nor where he comes from
and how he managed to become that rich. He lives a lavish lifestyle in a Gothic mansion
throwing parties every Saturday night (Donaldson, 2001). After Nick came to live next door, he
learned slowly by slowly the real character of Jay and his real personality. He gained his wealth
through criminal activity since he was ready to engage in any action for him to achieve any
social position he wanted. The character of Nick is also well revealed by Jay. He is the curious
and investigative guy who learns everything about Jay. He gets to know the real name of Jay as
James Gatz who worked for a millionaire in the North Dakota farm. The character of Jay is
depicted as dishonest, vulgar, and deeply flawed, who is after obtaining his dreams by whichever
means (Lindberg, 2015). Gatsby has been presented time and again as an aloof and enigmatic
man whose life is surrounded by opulent parties. The revelation of his real character towards the
end of the novel surprises many readers who thought he was a naïve young man at the beginning
of the story.
Tom Buchanan

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Tom is the husband of the beautiful girl called Daisy. He is also a wealthy guy just like Jay and
belonged to Nick’s social club back in Yale. He is a powerfully built man originating from an old
family that had a stable social standard (Sjöström, 2015). He is depicted as a hypocritical and
arrogant bully who does not care about any the welfare of any other person in the novel. He is
also a racist and sexist who cheats on his wife and does not care about her feelings. Despite the
fact that he talks about the moral standards in the society, his social attitudes are filthy and do not
live to those standards. He has an affair with Myrtle, and he is not apologetic about it. However,
when he learns about Gatsby and Daisy had rekindled their love, he becomes very bitter about it.
His anger is revealed as he becomes very outraged and confronts both of them. Tom does not
respect women as sees them as a mere object of desire for using them any time he wants (Will,
2005).
Character comparison with others
These three individuals (Nick, Jay, and Tom) have been represented as the main characters in the
novel. The whole story rotates around their lives and how they carry out their day to day
activities. The Gatsby character, for instance, is contrasted consistently with that of Nick. Gatsby
character can be described as active and passionate while that of Nick as sober and reflective
(Tran, 2015). Tom, on the other hand, is an aristocratic and cold-hearted bully while Gatsby is a
good-hearted and loyal man. On the other side of the coin, these men are seen to be working hard
to earn money to cater and maintain women. The men are generally perceived to be dominant
over the women. For instance, Tom takes advantage of his physical strength to subdue the
women thereby manipulating them. Where the women try to take up their roles and act stronger,
like the reversal role case seen in Jordan and Nick couple, another man comes up, in this case,
Nick, dominates over her and, hence, leading to the end of the relationship. Contrary to The

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Great Gatsby novel, where women were seen as lesser individuals, the film Gatsby by Luhram
indicates feminists as equally equal individuals to men (Khodamoradpour and Anushiravani,
2016). The societal norm that was expected for women was broken. The men dictatorship
portrayed in the novel is somewhat broken in the film.
Conclusion
The Great Gatsby novel depicts the character of Jay, Nick, and Tom has men who are after
achieving their dreams and getting what they want at all costs. They are the prominent men in the
novel living in riches and arrogantly. Their behavior, however, does not bring them any good as
Gatsby dies at the end of the story even after running away with Tom’s wife. The novel shows
the moral decay of the American people. In particular, men did not respect women, and they took
them as lesser human beings who were only to be used as sexual objects.

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References
Berman, R., 2002. The Great Gatsby and the twenties. The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott
Fitzgerald, pp.79-94.
Danielsson, B., 2017. We Need to Talk About Nick: Sexual Divergence, Characterization and
the Hardcover Closet in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Donaldson, S., 2001. Possessions in The Great Gatsby. The southern review, 37(2), p.187.
Fitzgerald, F.S., 2000. The Great Gatsby-Encore Edition. Broadview Press.
Khodamoradpour, M. and Anushiravani, A., 2016. Playing the Old Tunes: A Fiskean Analysis of
Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 Cinematic Adaptation of The Great Gatsby. International Letters of
Social and Humanistic Sciences, 71, pp.60-70.
Lindberg, L., 2015. The American Dream as a Means of Social Criticism in The Great Gatsby.
Sjöström, M., 2015. Location and Class: A Study of the Significance of Place and Social
Standing in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Tran, N.L., 2015. A comparison between the two characters Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby in
The Great Gatsby by FS Fitzgerald.

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Will, B., 2005. The Great Gatsby and the obscene word. College Literature, 32(4), pp.125-144.