‘Women struggle to find an identity in a world dominated by men’. By comparing The Great Gatsby with Sister Carrie, discuss how far you agree with this view. (30 Marks)

In America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women had a very restricted role within society. Their lack of access to education limited their capability to interact with society in a similar fashion to men, and therefore limited society’s capability to think of women as complexly as they do men. As a result, this idea of women being relevant only in relation to men is prevalent in American literature at this time, as demonstrated by these two texts. During this period, women were yet to gain the vote in America, and their lacking social, economic, and political power is evident. This inability to vote provides reason as to why women were often presented as naive or, in the case of Daisy, wishing they were more so; there was no call at the time for women to need to think for themselves. Despite this, the women depicted in both The Great Gatsby and Sister Carrie often contradict this concept of women only as accessories to men. As said by feminist critic Leslie Fiedler, Carrie is sexually transgressive for her time but unlike many other female characters written by Dreiser’s contemporaries, she doesn't suffer for these "sins" and is actually successful in her field when the book finishes. Daisy, too, has wealth in The Great Gatsby as well as some sexual freedom, and so differs from the typical image of women at the time in the same way as Carrie Meeber. However, whilst both women have independence from men, it is clear that they both cannot escape their reliance on them. Whilst they are progressive, they are nevertheless trapped by the image they must uphold. During chapter one of Sister Carrie, we are immediately presented with the idea of women having little control over their lives. Dreiser writes that women either “fall into saving hands” or “rapidly assume the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and become worse”. By presenting women as only having the option or being saved or becoming “worse”, Dreiser dictates the reader’s perception of women and their independant capabilities. Furthermore, by using the superlative, “worse”, Dreiser gives the impression that women are inherently bad to begin with. This perception may even come from the Bible’s damnation of women due to the actions of Eve, as throughout America in this period, religion was a heavy influence on its culture and its expectations of individuals. This nation, having been founded by Pilgrim settlers in the 17th Century, was still very much in the grips of fundamental religion. Whilst this novel takes place in what is known as the ‘Progressive Era’ where America was greeted with the freedom of slaves and a new wave of immigrants, and therefore religions and cultures, the fundamental ideals of Christianity where nevertheless commonplace in American civilisation. This antiquated idea of women, embodied by Eve, having caused the Fall is still prevalent in some of America’s more conservative states to this day, giving indication as to how heavy and influence this would have been to writers during the 19th and 20th Century. [incomplete essay]