The Anxiety Of “The Jazz Age”

Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Great Gatsby has been recognized as a canon in the American modernist literature, which has embraced various interpretations from many perspectives in the critical research. However, from the perspective of gender study, the thesis mainly analyses masculinities of male characters in The Great Gatsby according to Connell's multiple masculinities theory including hegemony, subordination, complicity and marginalization.Chapter One examines protagonist Tom who is a representative of the upper class. On the one hand, his hegemonic masculinity is displayed by sturdy body and sporting prowess, and possession of wealth; on the other hand, his hegemonic masculinity is shown by his dominance and indifference toward women, and racist attitude toward the black. Nevertheless, Tom also suffers annoyances when he has to deal with the threat from self-made Gatsby in economics and the challenge of Daisy to the patriarchy.Chapter Two explores the narrator Nick and minor character Wilson who are both working class people. Their subordinate masculinities are demonstrated by their humiliated job and slender income, feminine traits and homosexual tendency. Therefore, they have been haunted by depressions or desperations from the “otherness” in the society and in love and marriage.Chapter Three analyses the hero Gatsby who is a son of the middle class family. On the one hand, Gatsby's complicit masculinity is manifested by his overt ambition for constructing hegemonic masculinity in childhood and complicity with hegemonic masculinity in adulthood; on the other hand, he attempts to avoid the disadvantage of hegemonic masculinity by interacting with women in romantic and tender way. However, Gatsby has been tortured by frustrations resulting from nonrecognition in social status and disillusion in love.In conclusion, these male characters in The Great Gatsby are epitomes of common men in the setting of “the Jazz Age”. Sounds and furies of “the Jazz Age” not only deeply affect the formation of their masculinities but also bring about various anxieties. Puncturing elaboration of spiritual predicament in such a group of men, Fitzgerald shows his anxiety toward modern men's spiritual emptiness hidden beneath sounds and furies.