“It's a hard life for us!” cry the orphans of the Hudson Street Home for Girls in the Broadway musical Annie. Indeed, it's a harsh existence for the women of F. Scott Fitzgerald's timeless novel, The Great Gatsby, but more specifically for the main character, Daisy. Throughout the novel, Daisy must choose between a fantasy life with her love, Gatsby, or a stable but superficial marriage with Tom. Daisy's fortunate wealth and status have protected her from the harsh realities of the world and taught her a woman's discretion to ensure a life of comfort and wealth. One night Daisy reveals her hopes for her daughter, Pammy, and says, "I hope she'll be a fool: that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" (Fitzgerald, 17). This quote supports the denigration and subsequent behavior of women in the Jazz Age, revealing more about the complex nature of Daisy's character and showing how fear motivates her actions and drives the novel's plot. The Great Gatsby highlights the vulnerability of women during the Jazz Age. The Roaring Twenties, an idea expressed in many female characters, but of course in the character of Daisy Buchanan. For Daisy, success means getting married to a rich man who will provide her with a luxurious life. She conforms to the social norm as a rich man's beautiful wife, while at the same time securing a respectable reputation. For many years in history, women's traditional roles included cooking, cleaning, and raising children. Daisy rarely performs any of these household tasks. She barely interacts with her daughter and shows a lack of concern for her obligations as a mother. The threadbare world of The Great Gatsby objectifies women, particularly Daisy, ... middle of paper ... who wants to live in the glitz and glamor of the Roaring Twenties. The novel emphasizes how a woman's reputation and success derive from her husband's wealth and rank, a lifestyle that Daisy felt she had no choice but to accept. Daisy's words accentuate the positive and negative qualities of her character and present the reasons for her actions as a conflicted woman in the Roaring Twenties. Daisy's cowardly and selfish words cause complications with deadly consequences. Overall, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby surpasses the typical tragic love story in more ways than one. It allows one to understand the accepted cultural norms of the period and their impact on American society by showing the true struggles of a rich, beautiful and desirable woman in the 1920s. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1st ed. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.