The Awakening Of Women

F.Scott. Fitzgerald (1896-1940), a well-known writer in American literature history, is pronounced as one of the most important novelists of Jazz Age. He endeavors to create dozens of American flappers in his works. These flappers are so characteristic of Jazz Age that many critics pay close attention to them. This thesis is designed to interpret his fictional flappers in The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night from a feminist perspective so as to unveil that Fitzgerald’s fictional flappers are more of victims than victimizers if placed under patriarchal circumstances. Their unconformable behaviors and unremitting intensity for new things are attempts to find their true selves under the bondage of patriarchy. In The Great Gatsby, flappers represented by Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are awakening but vulnerable to the patriarchy, they are conservative and perplexed, simply because they are not mentally strong and economically independent. In Tender Is the Night, victimized but more conscious about subjectivity, Nicole and Rosemary relatively gain their independence through a harsh battle against patriarchy.