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The definition of what it is to be a man is one of fluidity and contradiction. In Gail Bederman's essay "Remaking manhood through race and 'civilization'", she proposed that as the United States entered into the 20th century, the framework behind white manhood was challenged by the economy, women and minorities, as well as by men themselves. This confrontation of the Victorian ideals resulted in a tumultuous transition from the hard-working self-made man to its antithesis, the leisurely well-rounded man. The various stages and conflicts of this transformation can be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald's turn-of-the-century novel, The Great Gatsby. Using Bederman's essay as a guide, it becomes apparent that four of the male characters, Tom, Nick, Gatsby and Wilson, are in different phases of the Victorian to Modern evolution, demonstrating the inherent complexity of remaking manhood.
To adequately analyze the modernization, or lack thereof, that exists in Fitzgerald's characters, a......

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Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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