The 1920s was the age of riches, partying, social prosperity, and jazz. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald commonly wrote about his depictions and beliefs of this era through his modern novels which usually conveyed a meaningful message to his readers. The character type of the ‘Golden Girl’ often appears throughout Fitzgerald’s work as a staple to his writing. She is desired by all men, fun, wealthy, beautiful, poised, successful, and held high at the top of the social ladder. This stereotype is used through Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ and his short stories ‘Winter Dreams’, ‘The Rich Boy,’ and ‘Babes in The Woods’. The author delves deeper and shows the conflicting reality of these ideal women and how it’s nearly impossible to be as completely ‘flawless’. They are often viewed more for their appearance, money, or social placing and not for their emotions or intelligence and this seems to negatively affect their demeanour. Fitzgerald revisits the reality of the golden girls in his novels and how their relationships end in romantic disappointment. This is considered a notion to Fitzgerald’s personal life, making his work marginally autobiographical. He bases the details of this character type by using his own experiences with love and women, particularly ‘golden girls’. The golden girl overall represents a social system in which sustains a rich man’s existence. A system that seems perfect, innocent, and lavish to the outside world yet is corrupt under the surface.

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, readers follow the story of protagonist Jay Gatsby’s quest to complete his ‘American Dream’. He has acquired a large sum of wealth, popularity, and many other excessive objects, although one thing is missing, his love with Daisy Buchanan. She is an impeccable prototype of the ‘Golden Girl’. Every man wants to be with her, although she is married, and every woman wants to be like her. She resides with her husband in the wealthiest and most extravagant part of New York, East Egg. This is an area built on old money and “white palaces”. Daisy is in love with the material luxury she has accustomed to and the ease of it all. Most would say she has a carefree life, as she gleams “like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor”. To everyone around her, it would seem like her life is without flaws, but this is not the case. Fitzgerald makes sure to shed light on the truth of living her lifestyle and how she is secretly aware of the darkness that comes with the riches. This is something that is still significant today, as we hear of celebrities ‘going bad’ and developing mental illnesses often due to complications in their overcritical, glamorous lives. In a conversation with her cousin and narrator, Nick Carraway, Daisy states that she hopes her daughter will “be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”. By saying this Daisy believes she is too knowledgeable and self-aware to be a ‘Golden Girl’ and that she knows that for most men she is just another pretty possession to collect and that she will never be admired for her true personality thus why she ‘plays dumb’. Daisy hopes that her daughter is a fool so that she isn’t aware of the reality of her lifestyle. Readers learn through her affair that Buchanan is quite amoral, she lies, commits manslaughter, and uses her social stance to manipulate others to get her way. Overall, she could be described as shallow or selfish. These are all perhaps repercussions from the shelter and attention she has received all through her life as “the king’s daughter,” in other words, the offspring of a prosperous, noble bloodline. This proves that their indulgent upbringings and having high, ‘perfect’ expectations from nearly all of society can lead to a depressing lifestyle. Daisy is a representation of the conflict between these ideals that a female is supposed to reach. More specifically, Fitzgerald uses Daisy’s character to recognise the harsh reality of most women in the 1920s and how they are expected to have simple and not complex minds and to not challenge this either, which we know, Daisy does. She accepted the way society was structured at the time and did what was expected of her. 

Winter Dreams is a short story written by Fitzgerald that tells the story of the main, young, male character, Dexter falling for another ‘Golden Girl’, Judy Jones. Much like Jay Gatsby, Dexter is attracted to wealth and beauty, it’s his dream. Judy Jones is considered to epitomise this completely. In the novel, she is described as a “slender enameled doll in cloth of gold: gold in band at her head, gold in two slipper points at her dress’s hem”. As you can see, Fitzgerald uses repetition of the ‘gold’ to make it clear to readers that she is the Golden Girl and emphasises just how wealthy Judy Jones is. Despite this and all the attention, Judy is unhappy with the life she leads, much like Daisy Buchanan. “I’m more beautiful than anybody else,” Judy exclaims in Winter Dreams, “why can’t I be happy?” This quote tells us how most of these character types rely on their beauty to give them happiness and how they usually cannot attain it as they are reaching for something that is not there or impossible. Daisy has stated that she has “been everywhere and seen everything and done everything”. What else is there for these girls to aspire towards and aim to achieve happiness? They already have everything. Fitzgerald is possibly suggesting here that humans need goals and aspirations to sustain a happy mindset. Scientific studies done in the world today have proven that goal-setting and achieving these goals releases dopamine in the brain, (a feel-good chemical). Neither of these ‘Golden Girls’ have any real ambitions, they have been shaped by men to believe that their main purpose in life is to be pretty. This would cause major damage to a person’s emotions. Another similarity Judy and Daisy hold in common is the fact that both relationships with men that have given everything to be with them, (Jay Gatsby & Dexter) have failed. These two males changed themselves to appear fit for the Golden Girls. They had to become completely entangled in the ‘upper-class world’ to get a chance at love. Fitzgerald has come to believe that money is tied greatly into love and you cannot keep a woman without being wealthy. 

The narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “The Rich Boy” tells the life story of a wealthy young man Anson Hunter, which includes his relationship with Paula Legendre. Paula comes from an affluent family and is illustrated as ’emotionally simple”, which we already know from Daisy Buchanan is an ideal characteristic to embody the Golden Girl. Men of the 1920s wanted women to be flat and not-complicated, most likely so they wouldn’t seem superior to themselves. Fitzgerald also repeats the negative stigma around the rich in this story as he does in most of his novels, claiming “they are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful….unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand ”. This quote presents the gap between the lower and upper-class society. It comes as no surprise that Paula and Anson’s relationship also ends in disappointment, much like Judy and Dexter’s from Winter Dreams. Anson falls for “conservative and rather proper girl” Paula, although her family does not approve of his poorly drunken behaviour despite his riches, showing that just because you’re wealthy, doesn’t mean you’ll always ‘get the girl’. Paula becomes frustrated with his alcoholism, yet he still believes their relationship will repair. She finally breaks off their engagement and leaves him for another man. This builds on the recurring theme of romantic failure in Fitzgerald’s novels. Usually, the ‘Golden Girl’ is too perfect and the man is not good enough to possess her. Fitzgerald has learnt this from multiple experiences with women, such as when he dated a 19yr old Ginevra King and overheard one of her family members stating that, “poor boys shouldn’t think of marrying rich girls”. Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda Sayre also left him due to his issues with alcoholism, like Paula and Anson. As you begin to read more of his novels you see a clear theme of using aspects from his own relationships to tell stories. This helps implement meaning to the readers as they gain intel on the author’s personal life. 

In another of Fitzgerald’s short novels, Babes in The Woods, the roles are reversed and the Golden Girl becomes the main character. Fitzgerald once stated that “a great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.” This meant that pretty girls were not always smart girls and if you are a plain girl, you must be wise to gain popularity. He is claiming that for a girl to be beautiful and smart, then she would be a ‘perfect’ social success. Isabelle is the apotheosis of this social success and “her face was always enough answer for anyone”. We are introduced to Isabelle as her friend exclaims that “Kenneth Powers is simply mad to meet you… He’s heard so much about you—” From this readers can tell she is craved for the portrayal she has to the public and not who she truly is. “He’s heard so much about you” shows how he doesn’t know her at all and when Isabelle asks what Kenneth has heard, her friend replies, “He knows you’re good looking and all that.” This blatantly states how men are only interested in Isabelle for her looks and the mask of perfection she wears. Of course, Kenneth becomes infatuated with her after they meet, much like Dexter, Gatsby, and Anson. Although, Isabelle becomes another unobtainable ‘Golden Girl’ character when Kenneth misses his first kiss with her and goes back to his hometown. Like the ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Babes in the Woods’ and ‘The Rich Boy’, yet another of Fitzgerald’s short stories ends in romantic failure. Upon the pair’s encounter, she is told “he was good looking, had a “line” and was properly inconstant. In fact he summed up all the romance that her age and environment led her to desire.” Fitzgerald shows here that most of the Golden Girls are incapable of thinking for themselves and are told how to behave and who to like. Isabelle is made to understand she should admire Kenneth because he holds these specific traits. This puts pressure on the girls to contort to these unrealistically high expectations from societies’ model standards which leads them to be unhappy and lose the sense of self-identity. This dilemma was very relevant in the 1920s as women struggled for freedom within society which prevailed to ‘flappers’ as the gender became more risque and independent.

F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s novels and short stories communicate the reality of the idealistic ‘Golden Girl’ character and how themselves and their lifestyles aren’t always what they seem. Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby, Judy Jones from Winter Dreams, and Paula Legendre from The Rich Boy are all left feeling unsatisfied and corned in their ‘flawless’ lives. These girls, plus Isabelle from Babes in the Woods, are almost always unable to be attained by a man. Fitzgerald writes about this unobtainable romance idea so often as he portrays these ‘Golden Girls’ lives and relationships based on his misfortunate encounters with women. Most golden girl characters are told whom to like, what to wear, and nearly every other act in their existence. They are insisted upon meeting civilisations extreme expectations of being pretty, wealthy, smart, and popular. The backlash from this pressure to always be perfect leads some women to have unfavourable, amoral personalities, and dull minds. Overall Fitzgerald demonstrates a clear divide between humanity’s social and wealth classes and the woman that dominate the more exclusive classes. This is segregation that is still relevant in today’s world with famous females made from money such as The Kardashians. They are always on show to the public and are required to conceal their true identity and only present their illusionistic extravagant lifestyle. By doing this they all act as the same prototype ‘Golden Girl’ whilst sacrificing their integrity, overall contributing to unhappiness. Fitzgerald claims that it is impossible to be one-hundred percent pure perfection and everyone and everything has its flaws.