This bachelor thesis deals with emancipation and the role of American women in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1920s and 1940s, when many of the most important changes in the status of women in the United States occurred. The theoretical part of this paper provides a historical and literary context of these two periods with a particular focus on the status and roles of American women. The practical part further demonstrates these changes on the female characters of two culturally significant novels from these periods The Great Gatsby written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.
