Paper 2: Rewriting Gatsby
The Women Who Make Gatsby Great
For centuries, celebrated literature has reflected the patriarchal societies that produce it, whether purposeful or not, and The Great Gatsby is no exception. The novel has everything: a fascinating murder plot, a booming party scene, a critique of deeply held American ideals, and a cast of iconic characters. These elements have elevated the novel to a great American story, beloved in its portrayal of wealth and love in the Jazz Age. Yet, for all its literary merit, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel reflects the limitations of its time, particularly in its treatment of women. While Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle, and Catherine play pivotal roles in the story, they are voiceless, flattened into symbols of male desire, and confined by the expectations of marriage, wealth, and social class. Over the last century, society has undergone significant cultural and political shifts, especially in strides toward progressivism and equality. Our evolving values have shaped how we read and reinterpret classic literature. Modern readers increasingly seek stories that reflect diverse and nuanced identities, especially those of the historically silenced and challenged. As a result, Fitzgerald’s neglect to include female perspectives has become a subject of criticism and creative reimagining in recent years. One such response to this is Jillian Cantor’s Beautiful Little Fools, a 21st-century retelling of The Great Gatsby through a feminist narrative lens. Through her reframing, Cantor not only critiques the gender dynamics within the original novel but also transforms its vision of the American Dream, challenging feminism’s historical nonexistence and humanizing the women who made Gatsby great.
The 1920s were an era of great societal and cultural flourishing. The American economy was booming, World War I had left morale high and the nation patriotic, and the country was progressing in political and social equality. However, all of this occurred without women having a seat at the table, as the United States was still not allocating fair autonomy between genders. Fitzgerald’s writing, though critical of American systems of capitalism, wealth disparities, and national morale, failed to address these feminist concerns. He instead chose to highlight the patriarchal behaviors of men such as Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, giving the female characters in the novel a flat and male-defined existence. Judith Fetterley, a 20th-century literary critic and feminist, provided a comprehensive guide for the American feminist reader, discussing how authors like Fitzgerald propelled systems of suppression. She asserts that “American literature is male. Our literature neither leaves women alone nor allows them to participate” (Fetterley). Fetterley’s criticism delves into how American men were the perpetuators of culture, authoring the stories of women and creating a singular narrative that did not reflect everyone equally. She advises women to be actively aware of this while engaging in literature, stating that by acknowledging this oversight and creating stories of their own, women “participate in an experience from which she is explicitly excluded” (Fetterley). She concludes by stating that though “the experience of being American is equated with the experience of being male,” women should acknowledge this and work to change it, creating stories representative of a new American Dream: one of inclusion and empowerment (Fetterley). Cantor uses this advice decades later, crafting her feminist retelling to account for the voices ignored by American history and literature.
Cantor’s reimagining allows her characters to form meaningful relationships that transcend the lonely class boundaries in Fitzgerald’s original, forming feminine pacts of solidarity. While Daisy and Jordan are wealthier and often interact only with women of similar social class, and Myrtle and Catherine belong to a lower economic class, all of them suffer under the same patriarchal constraints—sexism, dependency, abuse, and loneliness. In Fitzgerald’s version, isolation fuels much of the women’s quiet suffering. Daisy encapsulates this desperation in her melancholic quote about her daughter: “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 1). Cantor, recognizing the weight of this powerful line, includes it in her novel but with a more positive, feminist connotation. She reframes the emotional and psychological role that she and other women assume as ‘beautiful little fools,’ with self-awareness. In Cantor’s version, the women understand their position as subjects of male desire and choose to reject it. They consciously assume the illusion of pretending to be fools to survive. They use this to their advantage when they are investigated for the causes of Gatsby’s murder. Each woman tries to protect her identity, binding them in deep friendship and cooperation, leading to solidarity and self-awareness. Jordan reflects this transformation, stating, “I always thought it was us women who were the fools. But I was wrong, it’s been the men all along, hasn’t it?” (Cantor, 244). The newly defined meaning of the phrase ‘beautiful little fools’ is reclaimed by the women, who now understand that the men were the fools all along, striving for fantasy, control, and ego, all of which are meaningless and futile pursuits. Their alliance transforms individual isolation into collective power, symbolizing the evolution of their narratives and freedom.
An equally significant difference in the novels is the shift in narrative voice. Fitzgerald’s story is framed through Nick Carraway, whose male gaze and social biases color how readers digest and resonate with the original. His detached and judgmental tone obscures the full emotional depth of the women’s experiences. Cantor, by removing this symbolic filter, enables each woman to advocate for herself. In contrast to Nick’s self-proclaimed honesty—“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 1)—Cantor’s characters expose his unreliability. Jordan tells the detective, “Nick is an incurable liar” (Cantor, 34). While readers of The Great Gatsby always suspected Nick as untrustworthy, hearing it from the women in the story carries more weight. It underscores the depth of their silence in Fitzgerald’s original, highlighting the absence of female autonomy and voice. This shift in narrative control—who tells the story and how—challenges readers to reconsider the gendered lens of literature and media, emphasizing the importance of hearing all perspectives to gain a fuller understanding of truth.
The most poignant difference lies in Cantor’s redefinition of the American Dream. In Fitzgerald’s novel, the Dream is represented through masculine ambitions: wealth, status, and possession, embodied in the form of Daisy. After his long-awaited pursuit comes to fruition, Gatsby kisses Daisy, describing his fulfilled dream: “At his lips’ touch, she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 6). Gatsby’s dream manifests in Daisy, and by engaging in his fantasy, she becomes a prize he has conquered. Yet Daisy does not share his dream. Her acceptance into his fantasy marks her as an object, not a participant. Unlike the men, who chase after material fantasies, the women in The Great Gatsby fight for simpler dreams: safety, financial stability, and independence. Cantor repositions this dynamic by giving her women personal motives and power through self-awareness. Daisy claims, “He loved me; he needed me. And that made me more than a fool, didn’t it? That, in itself, gave me all the power” (Cantor, 134). By recognizing and leveraging Gatsby’s obsession, Daisy takes control of her American Dream, rooted not in excess but in survival. Gatsby may use manipulation, wealth, and materialism to chase his childlike dream, but Daisy twists his desires to secure her safety. Her realization marks a shift in values, from objectification to agency through intimacy and autonomy. Cantor’s 21st-century reimagining reflects a more nuanced vision of the American Dream, one that captures the trials faced by women navigating systematic challenges while men pursue fantasies at their expense.
Where the novels diverge in gender and narrative, they converge in their commentary on capitalism and power within relationships. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald emphasizes the material ties between women and their romantic partners. Daisy’s pearl necklace, for instance, symbolizes her entrapment: “He gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” (Fitzgerald, Chapter 4). Cantor reinterprets this symbol—Daisy recalls, “Inside was the most gorgeous pink pearl necklace I’d ever seen…‘So that’s what three hundred and fifty thousand dollars looks like on a necklace,’ Jordan remarks” (Cantor, 80). Daisy seems less terrified to don the necklace on her wedding day; in Fitzgerald’s version, she nearly ripped it off in fear. The necklace represents a “choker,” tethering Daisy to a loveless marriage. Contrasting this, the women in Beautiful Little Fools are each given identical diamond hairpins by Gatsby, forming a shared link between them. “He just knew that the diamond hairpin was the key” (Cantor, 146), the investigator thinks. For the women, the pins take on new meaning. “This hairpin was a symbol of everything that had ruined her” (Cantor, 325). No longer signifiers of ownership, the hairpins symbolize shared trauma and feminine alliance. The women use these objects to protect each other, particularly when covering for Jordan, who murders Gatsby. Their collective silence inverts the traditional power dynamic—these symbols of male control become emblems of unity, autonomy, and survival.
Jillian Cantor’s Beautiful Little Fools offers a powerful feminist counter-narrative to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. By reclaiming voice, redefining symbols, shifting narrative control, and reframing the American Dream, Cantor responds to the patriarchal silencing embedded in the original. Where Fitzgerald reduced women to symbols of desire and status, Cantor restores their humanity, depth, and agency. In doing so, she not only reimagines the story of Gatsby but also redefines what it means to dream in America, challenging the structures that have long silenced women and illuminating the strength found in solidarity and self-definition.
Essay 2 Cover Letter
This essay was one of the toughest to write as I suffered much writer’s block and did not thoroughly enjoy the second novel as much as I hoped to. I felt that I had less creative space to flesh out solid connections between the two. Aside from my difficulties, this version of the essay shows significant improvements and much more nuanced connections between the texts.
Throughout the writing process, I used multiple Unit 1 and 2 strategies to brainstorm, revise, and organize. I relied heavily on the Prelims to develop the early stages of my argument, especially as I specified my stance within the essay. My motive became clear as I realized how Cantor’s feminist retelling addresses the silence of women in Fitzgerald’s original. My stance is both critical and sympathetic as I understand both novels in the context of when they were written, understanding that Fitzgerald may have had a limited understanding of female perspectives and the hierarchy in the 1920s.
I used Judith Fetterley’s feminist literary theory as my secondary source, especially her concept that American literature “neither leaves women alone nor allows them to participate.” This lens helped frame my analysis as an act of feminist literary reclaiming. Fetterley’s work largely inspired my argument strategy: to use Cantor’s novel as a counter-narrative compared to The Great Gatsby.
My thesis evolved significantly from my conference draft to the final version. Initially, I focused more on gender and wealth, but came to realize the connection to themes involving the American Dream and a feminist lens. I also worked to clarify the stitching between body paragraphs to improve flow between themes.
My strongest paragraph is probably about the American Dream. I have explored this topic through each of my essays and feel that I have a very nuanced understanding of the topic, and I was excited to make this connection between the two novels. The weakest paragraph was the one discussing narrative voice, as I felt like I did not have enough effective evidence to create a deeper significance.
This essay taught me to be more confident in my ability to write with a clear motive and to analyze while understanding the lenses that authors write from. Though I still struggle with time management, I enjoyed how this essay challenged me.
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