The Great Gatsby Book Report

The roaring twenties truly were roaring with the lavish, extravagant lifestyle of parties and immorality. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald attributes to this lifestyle. In the novel, the narrator Nick Carraway moves to Long Island and develops relationships with Jay Gatsby and Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Fitting perfectly with the theme of the twenties, Tom Buchanan has a woman on the side named Myrtle Wilson. Soon after, the reader is informed that Gatsby had a former relationship with Daisy and there love soon rekindles into a second affair in the novel. As the drama explodes, Tom confronts Gatsby and Myrtle, Gatsby, and Myrtle's husband George all die in a suspenseful conclusion. Throughout the novel it is revealed that Fitzgerald does not have much respect for women through the characters. It is almost impossible to become akin to the immorality, carelessness, and greediness of Myrtle Wilson and Daisy Buchanan.

For the most part, they both seem to have an affinity towards men other than their husbands. Daisy has a minor fling with Jay Gatsby that developed from a previous love affair. Myrtle has an affair with Tom Buchanan that began after a meeting in a train car. Despite the fact that they seem to have an indifference to the general feeling that cheating is wrong, they both have different reasons for doing what they did. Daisy cheated because she is a romantic of the worst kind; a romantic with no moral standing and a somewhat obscure sense of reality. This would be best reflected by her statement in chapter seven when she claimed that she would be leaving Tom until his statement, "She's not leaving meÐ'...Certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he'd put on her finger." (Page 133) After this, the almost resolute feeling of wanting to leave Tom had changed. Tom continued to insult Gatsby's methods of acquiring money, and Daisy slowly began to slip back into Tom's will. Daisy's sense of morality seemed to depend on the strongest figure in the room, which made her susceptible to Gatsby's charms when she was alone with him. On the other hand, Myrtle was simple in her choice of cheating on her husband. She supported her decisions for adultery on basic attraction. Her description of her initial attitude toward Tom was quite significant of this, "All I kept thinking about over and over was, Ð''You can't live forever. You can't live forever.'" (Page 33) Also on the contrary to Daisy, Myrtle was almost too ready for the chance to divorce her husband and quickly marry Tom. Both of these women were not pleased with the lives they were living and searched elsewhere to fill the gap. It was just how the two carried on their business of committing adultery that made them differ.

Despite their contribution to marital dysfunction in their lives, Daisy and Myrtle both had husbands that loved them. Even though Tom and Daisy were leading separate lives from their marriage, Tom has made it clear that Daisy is the one he finds worth coming home to,"Ð'...I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time." (Page 131) Marital problems were blatant in this statement, but it is still a true profession of love. George Wilson had a more traditional love for his wife, although it eventually destroyed him. There was an indication of this when Nick, Jordan, and Tom went to Wilson's garage. Nick observed that Wilson had discovered that Myrtle had a life apart from him and the shock had made him physically sick. Both women were able to at least partially keep their original relationships running strong throughout several mishaps.

Finally, these women proved to be quite similar in their desire to play a particular