"Alone in Unquiet Darkness": The Men Of Gatsby

The Great Gatsby seems to have a slight undertone of gender roles. The men of Gatsby-Tom, Nick, Gatsby, and so on- seem to fit into certain roles. There's a big contrast between certain characters, Tom is masculine, strong, rich, a part of upper class society whereas one could say the Nick is upper-middle class (though his region is seen as the less fashionable counter-part of Tom's region one could assume he is still somewhat wealthy), perceiving, and then the lower class, weak Wilson who does not stand up for himself. Lastly, Gatsby who does not seem to turn out to be an honest man but a bootlegger attempting to became wealthy enough to capture Daisy's attention.

Both Tom and Gatsby have little understanding of women. Tom, overly macho, is possessive and possibly abusive (more so when he breaks myrtle's nose). Where Gatsby seems to pamper Daisy, and is blinded by his dreamer state of mind, Daisy is more like a prize to him. Nick is simply uncertain, he's not rich so he knows he can't capture Jordan's love in that sense. Nick is naive in this sense.

Wilson is depicted as wimpy, useless. His wife and Tom have little respect for him, calling him "useless", "dead" and so on. Nick seems to be the only one that feels any remorse towards him. Indeed he does give off the sense of being "dead", he does nothing to keep Myrtle and Tom apart, at least until towards the end of the story, and his easily convinced and driven into things. He also has a habit of comparing the Dr. Eckleburg sign to the eyes of God.