Conventional behavior is not always moral To what extent do you agree on this Imagine yourself in a society where fulfilling

societies demands determines who you are and how youre allowed to live your life . Both F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby and Margaret Atwood in The Handmaids Tale have fabricated worlds in their books, where characters are forced to live by societies strict expectations, or otherwise be expelled from them. The authors choices of creating novels that rely so strongly on following conventional behavior, which is not always done in moral ways, allows the reader to insert themselves into a lifestyle completely different from theirs and creates a new view on what lengths people will go in order to fit conventional behavior. The Great Gatsby is ostensibly a story of the derailed love between a man and a woman. However, the main idea of the novel has a much less romantic theme. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decaying personal values, both social and moral, the author shows this in the over-arching distrust, greed and the empty search of pleasure by characters. Fitzgerald positions his characters of the novel as emblems of social trends that were commonly seen in the 1920s. Nick and Gatsby, who were both soldiers in the First World War, exhibit the newfound cosmopolitanism and cynicism that was found in the time after the war. The social climbers and ambitious visitors who attend Gatsbys parties represent the greedy scramble for wealth common in that time. The clash between old and new money is shown in the novel by the symbolic geography: East Egg representing the established aristocracy and West egg the self-made rich. Unlike the Great Gatsby, Margaret Atwoods novel The Handmaids Tale is set in a completely opposite time compared to that of the roaring 20s in the Great Gatsby. Where as Gatsby represents the boom of population and spirit of the people, the handmaids tale is set in a time period were oppression is part of everyday life. Because Gilead was formed in response to the crisis caused by dramatically decreased birthrates, the states entire structure, with its religious trappings and rigid political hierarchy, is built around a single goal: control of population. In order to do so, the government takes complete control of womens bodies through political subjugation which disables women from voting, holding jobs or properties, reading or being independent to initially prevent them from undermining the state or their commanders. Despite the pro-women rhetoric that Gilead has women are initially reduced to their fertility. Even though both books vary extremely from each other they both show that societies conventional behavior is not always moral. Both authors created their main characters in a way which makes the past play a very important role on their present and how this behavior of their pasts makes them behave in a standard, but not always moral, way. In The Great Gatsby this is shown in numerous ways. When looking at Gatsbys past and where his wealth came from a very unmoral behavior comes up, which is the fact that Gatsby uses the sale of illegal alcohol in order to make his money. However what needs to be established in this situation is the fact that it is hard to say what moral behavior is. Even though the sale of alcohol at that time was prohibited, it was almost

expected as an upper class citizen that alcohol and its consumption was part of everyday life. Fitzgerald portrays that aspect in Gatsby very well, as flowing alcohol is common at his extravagant parties. However what makes the actions of Gatsby immoral is firstly that Gatsby fakes his past and makes the people around him believe that he is originated from an old money family, and secondly that he makes his fortune from the sale of illegal alcohol. Even though these actions of Gatsby are considered immoral, initially all he is trying to do is go along with society and fulfill the expectations that it has of him. In the Handmaids tale, the past also plays a very important part towards the main character acting in immoral ways but still staying within societies unwritten rules. Throughout the novel Offred talks more and more about her life before everything changed. She talks about the freedoms she had, her daughter, husband and working. All these things are now illegal for women to do, and she is forced to not do any of these. This is the conventional behavior for the handmaids, and Offred follows the rules very strictly. However, the further one reads in the novel, the more Atwood reveals about Offreds past life and the more that is revealed about the past life the more immoral behaviors are seen in Offreds actions. She starts being part of a secret group of Handmaids that are planning to go against the government, has secret meetings with the commander, makes deals with the commanders wife, and starts a secret relationship with an employee of the household. The fact that Atwood created Offreds immoral actions in secret, makes society think that she is acting in conventional ways where as in reality her actions are strictly immoral. However, once again, moral and immoral actions need to be established. In Offreds case, her actions are immoral but since she is doing them in secret, society doesnt know and therefore her actions cant be considered purely immoral. In both novels, the setting and time frame also play a very dominant role in the immoral actions of the characters. In both novels the main characters are forced to adapt themselves to a lifestyle that is different from the one that they were borne into. This change of social class throughout their lives makes them act in different ways compared to those of the people who have always been in that class. In the Great Gatsby Fitzgerald clearly shows this by creating the main character to be someone who is at the top of the upper class but came from the bottom. Since at that time it was not common for people of a lower class to be part of the upper class in the later life, Gatsby tells lies about his families past making people believe that he is a man of old money. Even though Gatsbys hiding of his past isnt considered immoral, however the fact that he tells lies about it is. Gatsbys relationship with Daisy, which also comes from their past together, is considered very immoral by society during that time since daisy is married and has a child. In the Handmaids tale, there is a very similar theme relating to the characters past. Also here the main character had a past that was very different compared to the one that she is in, in the present of the book. Atwood creates Offred in a way that she has no personality at the beginning of the book, and even though throughout the book the reader finds out more about who Offred really was and

how her life before the change was one major detail is never revealed; her name. Withholding this information, and only allowing the reader to create Offreds personality from the flashbacks that are told from her perspective, there is a very limited amount of detail about what kind of a person she was before, and also how her life was structured before. Where as her actions that she does throughout the novel are seen as very immoral by society at that time, the reader has no background information on whether or not this was considered immoral for her in the time before. One common thing that is seen in both the handmaids tale and the great Gatsby, is that, immoral behavior is hard to establish as there are many details withheld about both of the main character. Conventional behavior is simple to determine, as the roles of their societies are set very clearly for both Gatsby and Offred. What makes deciding if their actions were immoral so hard is that both of these characters initially came from a different way of life, and even though this change of class was obtained in different ways, in the great Gatsby by illegal work and in the handmaids tale by force, it still plays a major role in the actions that they take in order to fit in with the new class of society. Therefore it is hard to come to a conclusion of whether conventional behavior is always moral, as in this case the characters have experienced different conventional behaviors throughout there lives.