Lancenese 1

Dallas Lancenese
Mr. Hackney
English 101: Rhetoric
13 November 2014
The Necessary Gender
Throughout the course of human history, man has always been seen as the dominant
gender. Dating back to when humans had to hunt and gather for their food, men were usually the
hunters due to their overwhelming strength and ability to kill. As time has gone on, there has
been many equal rights movements that women have partaken in to try and prove to society that
they should be equal to their male counterpart. Even with the attempts of women to show that
they can do everything men can do, women are still underappreciated. The fact that women play
a key role in society is seen, but not heard with the subtle actions women do to make mens lives
easier. In F. Scott Fitzgeralds short story, An Alcoholic Case, he uses patriarchal pretenses
and the need for a supporting female in a males life to suggest that even though society is
mainly male dominant, without the presence of women, men would be unable to function to their
full capacity.
Within An Alcoholic Case, the underlying fact that prevails through the entire story is
the idea that society is mainly male dominant. Fitzgerald creates a character that fits the
traditional gender role. The nurse, who is very obedient, is a prime example of how society
views females. Generally, females are portrayed as weak, nurturing, and submissive (Tyson
85), within literature, and An Alcoholic Case is no different . Within the short story, the nurse
explains, I guess if I hadnt liked him I wouldnt have stayed on the case (Fitzgerald 303). The
nurse is willing to go back to her patient even though he is very barbaric and even almost harms

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her. This willingness to go back to her male counterpart exemplifies the pretense of women
being a secondary gender alongside men. An Alcoholic Case deals with the power struggle
between male and female and the idea of a patriarchal society. A patriarchy is sexist, which
means it promotes the belief that women are innately inferior to men (Tyson 85). The idea of a
patriarchy is blatant within the short story. In the short story, there is a very disturbing part in
which the nurse is told that to win over her patients trust, she has to play around with them
(Fitzgerald 305). This subtle line is a very powerful one that shows that in society, females must
do their way with men to gain some sort of power. Societal roles such as the female having to
seduce her male counterpart to receive any sort of recognition is downright wrong. Lois Tysons
description of females being submissive to males comes up again when the idea of a patriarchal
society is explained. No matter how one looks at An Alcoholic Case, it is prevalent that there
are many accounts of women having to do things that men would never have to do to be seen as
powerful. The power struggle between genders is one that still is active in todays society and
can be seen within the short story as well. Even though males are still the overwhelming
dominant gender when looked at societys point of view, males would be unable to fully function
if without their female counterparts.
Society has dictated the idea that females need males to succeed. This idea is completely
wrong. In An Alcoholic Case, the patient is unable to function and do simple tasks without the
help of his nurse. The nurse was keeping alcohol away from her patient and threatened to throw
it on the ground if he tried to take it from her. With her saying this, he immediately stated, Then
Ill step on the broken glass (Fitzgerald 302). This short line spoken by the patient shows that if
the nurse were to throw the alcohol on to the ground, it would be inevitable that he would step on
it. Furthermore, this demonstrates the fact that men need women in their lives to keep them in

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check because there are certain things that men do not notice that women do for them; these
things would go incomplete, thus causing men to suffer. This fact stated within An Alcoholic
Case supports that the inferior position long occupied by women in patriarchal society has
been culturally...produced (Tyson 86). Women are not inferior to men in all aspects of the
human mind or body. It is very easy to find a woman who is smarter or stronger than a man.
Society has been formed in a way that makes women the submissive gender. There are a lot of
cases in which women choose to be the natural caregiver and nurture men solely because that is
what they know is best for their male counterparts. The nurse chooses to help her patient because
she believes that it is the only way he would be able to survive. There is a point in An Alcoholic
Case where the nurse tries to help the patient with his clothes, but the patient is unwilling to let
her help him (Fitzgerald 308). This unwillingness to want help shows that men are culturally
made to believe that they are dominant to women and accepting any help from them would cause
them to look weak and unable. Eventually, the patient had seen that he was unable to do this
simple task by himself and had to ask the nurse for help. An Alcoholic Case shows a man who,
without the assistance of a female, would be unable to go on with his daily activities.
Overall, society has been created to have the assumption that men are the dominant
gender. This is simply not true. Females play a key role in male society and without them, men
would have a very tough time living their everyday lives. An Alcoholic Case exemplifies the
idea of patriarchal pretenses alongside the fact that without a female counterpart, males would be
unable to do the most simplest of tasks.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. An Alcohol Case The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce
Carol Oates. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. 302-309. Print.

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Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. New York: Garland, 1999. Print.