The roaring twenties. In the 1920’s there has been wars, flappers, racism, bootleggers and drugs in between. F.Scott Fitzgerald was a novelist in America in this period of time, where life was chaotic. Through his stories he expresses his emotions and life dreams in which he manipulates his writing to an exaggeration of his own time line. This essay will focus on the illusion of the golden girl and the impact this character has on other peoples lives. The texts that I am going to analyse are Winter Dreams, The Great Gatsby and The curious case of Benjamin Button and The Rich boy. The golden girl is expressed through Judy Jones, Daisy Buchanan, Daisy Fuller and Paula Legendre. The golden girl is an illusion which a woman is so faultless, she is untouchable and desired. In some of these cases this is a false fantasy where the outside of a shell would be ideal but the inside is filled with chaos. Fitzgerald has a way to show that a lesson to learnt is that something in a pretty box isn’t always so pretty on the inside.
The concept of the golden girl, a fantasy of false fiction, of a girl being so flawless so can do no wrong. Winter Dreams, a story about the gain and loss of money, and the effects it has on love itself. Judy Jones is the synonym of glitter, her wealth spoiling dreams and starts new ones, all done in a casual manner. For young Dexter seeing Judy Jones was the start of an obsession for her to play him like a puppet. “I’m more beautiful than anybody else,” she brazenly asserts, “why can’t I be happy?” This quote by Judy Jones can show that although she might have everything she is not as flawless as she appears. Throughout the story she plays as an innocent fool to get what she wants, especially with Dexter Green who hopelessly ruins his marriage for the chance with Judy Jones. When Dexter has aged Judy Jones isn’t so flawless anymore, her physical appeal has faded and her true colours have risen to the surface, and she is no longer protected by her image. This false fantasy of the golden girl has been deconstructed and shown that no one is truly as they appear. In a similar form to Judy Jones, Daisy Buchanan is a more constructed golden girl, who truly uses her appearance and charm to manipulate men and situations to her advantage. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan might seem as a well rounded citizen but really is vain and self centered. This is shown when she plans to run away with Gatsby and live the life that he always wanted but as soon as the going got tough, bailed at the last minute for something that was actually her fault. “And I hope she’ll be a fool–that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,” By deconstructing this quote by Daisy, it shows she has more knowledge of the real world that she gives off. It shows that Daisy really knows that in society in the 1920’s that women weren’t actually given any independence or freedom and were more toys for men to play around with. Daisy realises when her husband, Tom, had an affair with Myrtle which left her in a downward spiral and this meant she latched on to Gatsby, the closest thing that was there. Daisy and Judy both have the social status, money and looks that they both use to their advantage to get what they want and desire. Nothing in this world was incapable of Daisy and Judy getting because of their status as the golden girl.
In Benjamin Button, the golden girl isn’t so obvious to be perfect, more that she is desired by Benjamin in his brain to be the golden girl. Daisy Fuller, the center of Benjamin’s life, gives him an opportunity to not only have a normal life for a couple of years but teaches Benjamin “we are meant to lose the people we love, or how else would we know how important they are to us”. For Benjamin, time was finite but what moments he had he shared with Daisy. He had certain thoughts that Daisy was more valuable than anything he had come across which lead to decisions that would benefit her in sacrifice of him. The meaning of the golden girl in Benjamin’s case was not the popularity or looks but was more what was inside of her and the place she had in his heart. Daisy Fuller is different from Daisy Buchannan and Judy Jones as it wasn’t just the first glance that swept men off their feet or her popularity in society or the richness of her family. This teaches us that the golden girl isn’t always the same in everyone else’s eyes but more a preference of likeable traits that suit one person in particular.
In The Rich Boy, Paula was more popular in a male dominated society than the social life between women. Paula was a “ a dark, serious beauty from somewhere in California” who led a lot of mystery when it came to Anson who was hypnotized by Paula’s trance and went along with neglecting his future for a chance with her. The golden girl in Paula shows the false attributes of the golden girl and that she is a myth. This shows us that no one is perfect and has a happy ending. Anson and Paula were very much like Judy Jones and Dexter Green since Judy was the one that had Dexter wrapped around her finger. In this situation, Paula used her advantages in society to start a new life but has Anson as company. In general, the golden girl seems like a false person when it comes to popularity, money and looks. On the surface of any golden girl, they seem nice, kind and caring but underneath they shell where no one really looks, they are really mean, vain and vile people. They always end up hurting people.
In the end, like any novel, there will either be success or loss. In most books with a golden girl, the man normally loses due to the tricks of the golden girl. Fitzgerald expresses his emotion through his writing very much so, showing us that this same situation has happened to him and it teaches us that on the outside someone may seem golden but is really just stained that way. By reading these texts, we come to understand that judging people on their popularity, money and looks wasn’t beneficial in four cases of Fitzgerald’s writing. In society today, we should not only look but listen to really who someone is.
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