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Theme of corruption of the American dream in Gatsby
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In the novel, Daisy describes her infant daughter to Nick and Jordan, saying “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” This shows her own character conforming to the social standard in America for a woman during the 1920’s, in which society did not value intelligence in a woman. It’s showing that someone like her is better off having looks rather than brains. Daisy pretends to be oblivious and foolish because it's the safest way for her to live. Daisy fits Tom’s ideology of a woman. Knowing that Tom is an abusive and manipulative person, Daisy remains to be his wife because he has power and money, doing anything about it might affect her status and reputation. Daisy is described from a male’s perspective as being careless and selfish. This is because the narrator, Nick, does not know much about Daisy and just forms an opinion about her from what other people have to say. Since the story is from his perspective, it evokes the readers to agree with his speculations, …show more content…
This is an example of objectification. Knowing that Daisy has somewhat moved on from her past with him, Gatsby tries to relive it and form an unrealistic idea of her. By doing this, he throws massive parties in his mansion and purchases expensive shirts in hopes of Daisy becoming a part of his dream. When Gatsby has Daisy, he tries to manipulate her to conform to be the perfect ideal girl. In Chapter 7, Gatsby is making decisions for Daisy without her input and consent, claiming that Daisy is leaving Tom when it wasn’t true. He also expected Daisy to say that she never loved Tom when, once again, was not true. He truly did not care for her opinion, only on achieving his dream. Though it may have seemed that Daisy is the one that destroyed Gatsby’s dream, it’s really Gatsby who causes the destruction to his American Dream in which Daisy was a victim
Daisy Buchanan is the preeminent female character in the story. Her name, Daisy fits her exceptionally, she is bright and sunny like the flower. Daisy is best represented by the color yellow. She’s the story’s golden girl, the wife of wealthy broker, and the love of the mysterious Gatsby’s life. Grok describes the color yellow as “Deities with glowing halos and golden hair…But it also evokes a few negative responses in associations with dishonesty, cowardice, egoism, betrayal, and caution” (Grok). Daisy is described physically as a blonde, and back then the style along women was the flapper headband, like the glowing halo. In the story Daisy is dishonest, she cheats on her husband with Gatsby. Daisy is also a coward, she couldn’t leave Tom, her husband, who treats her like property for Gatsby, who truly loves and idolizes her. Daisy once tells Nick when telling him about her daughter, “I hope she’ll be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (1.17). Daisy is immensely obsessed with what people think of her, she likes being the girl who has this beautiful and graceful aura. This quote displays how she want’s her daughter to grow up to be just like her, the image of a weak foolish girl who lets men push her around. Betrayal is the emotion that Nick feels when she skips town instead of attending Gatsby’s funeral. Grok also writes that, “When paired with black, it suggests warning” (Grok). Gatsby is the color black, while Daisy is the color yellow. When the couple reconcile there is a multitude of trouble that eventually leads to the death of Myrtle, George, and Gatsby himself. Daisy isn’t just the bright ray of sunshine; she is also just as troublesome as Grok describes her, which is why th...
Gatsby is a very goal oriented man so “he could hardly fail to grasp it”(180), unfortunately “he did not know that it was already behind him”(180). His goal is to have Daisy as his wife and his strategy is to devote everything he will ever do to Daisy. He thinks this is love but it is certainly obsession. He becomes so obsessed that he objectifies her by thinking she's just another thing he has to obtain and call his own. Gatsby shows his obsession for Daisy when he tries to degrade Tom by saying, “your wife doesn't love you… she's never loved you. She loves me”(130). Gatsby is so obsessed that he finds it necessary to emasculate Tom by putting himself on a pedestal and saying that Tom’s own wife has never loved him. His obsession eventually leads to objectification. Gatsby says “oh you want to much”(132), which is ironic because Gatsby has the problem of being materialistic and he then says that Daisy wants to
From the outside, Daisy seems like the demure wife of a wealthy ex-football player, Tom Buchannan. The relationship the two share is far from a perfect marriage, but it is functional for upper-class society. Daisy often speaks nonsense, putting off the impression that she lacks intelligence, but there are moments when Daisy shows her true nature. The first moment occurs when Daisy shares
When he first meets Daisy, Gatsby becomes infatuated with his idea of her, or rather, the false persona that she creates of herself. In fact, Gatsby reveals that “she was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known” (155). Gatsby was so impressed with Daisy mainly because of her wealth and her status; it is what he wants. However, Daisy chooses Tom Buchanan over Gatsby, solely because of his social status. As a result, Gatsby revolves his whole life around her: he becomes wealthy, creates a new image of himself, and buys a house across the bay from Daisy. For instance, he fabricates lies about how “ [he is] the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west” (69) and how “ [he] was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (69) in order to impress her. These lies end up altering others’ perspectives of him - not necessarily in a positive way - and impacting his life as a whole. Daisy unwittingly transforms Gatsby into a picture-perfect image of the 1920s: lavish parties, showy cars, and a false illusion of the attainment of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s newfound wealth and success, he never fully accomplishes his dream: to get Daisy. Gatsby’s final act for the sake of Daisy has no impact on her feelings towards him. When Gatsby claims that he crashed into Myrtle and killed her, Daisy carelessly lets him do so, which ultimately results in his death. To make
Daisy is describe as childish, because like a child playing pretend, she pretends to be someone she is not, she cannot make up her mind, and does not think about how her action will affect everyone else. For example, Nick said, “The instance her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what
Wanting to be with her true love again, she sneaks visits with him without Tom knowing. Just like Myrtle had, Daisy torn into her own marriage. She loved both men, but as soon as it was found out, the men began fighting for her. “I glanced at Daisy who was staring terrified between Gatsby and her husband…” (Fitzgerald 143). This isn’t what Daisy wanted at all. At some point Daisy loved Tom, and it’s very likely that she still does, regardless of all of his cheating. Living a life of riches for so long has affected her with affluenza, blinding her morals as it did to Tom. When someone already has everything they could ever ask for, they’re still going to want more. Something to work for, or else life becomes boring as Daisy points out many times in the novel. When both men she loves are threatening each other and fighting for her fondness she’s realized what she’s done wrong. She’s fallen into the same trap as Myrtle, being stuck between two men, but she still has feelings for Tom.“I saw them in Santa Barbara when they came back and I thought I’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband. If he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say ‘Where’s Tom gone?’” (Fitzgerald 83). Gatsby tries to convince Daisy that she loves him and only him, yet Daisy actually loves them both. After Daisy was married she could think about anything except Tom, while Gatsby has spent the five
When she hears Tom talking on the phone to his mistress, she throws “her napkin on the table” (14) and goes into the house. Since, Daisy throws “her napkin,” this shows how upset Tom’s actions makes her. However, she never confronts Tom about his affair because that might mean giving up the great lifestyle she is living, thus showing her selfish nature. Also, Daisy assumes that Nick did not come to her wedding because “[they] don’t know each other very well,” (16) when it was in fact because Nick was fighting in the war. Daisy is too self-centered to realize that Nick was in the war which is why he could to come to her wedding, implying that her wedding holds more significance. Also, Daisy’s comment to Nick shows her spoiled personality because she does not seem to care about other peoples’ life, only her own life, portraying her to be self-absorbed. Furthermore, when she finds out her newborn is a girl, Daisy “hopes she’ll be a fool” because “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (17) This shows how Daisy does not really have an emotional attachment with her child; she just wants her to be beautiful so she will attract people with her looks. Evidently, Daisy does not value intelligence in women and she thinks women should be able to get through the world using their looks. Moreover, Daisy treats Pammy as an object; she tells her to say hi to the guests and
He never wanted to give up on her, so he tried to recreate their past in hopes of rekindling a love they once had. “Gatsby's gospel of hedonism is reflected in his house, wild parties, clothing, roadster, and particularly in his blatant wooing of another man's wife. Daisy, a rather soiled and cheapened figure, is Gatsby's ultimate goal in his concept of the American dream. However, he falls victim to his own preaching. He comes to believe himself omniscient-above the restrictions of society and morality. His presumption extends to a belief that he can even transcend the natural boundaries placed upon human beings. He will win back Daisy by recapturing the past” (Pearson). Gatsby lies about his lifestyle including the parties, clothing, and almost all of the other aspects he reveals about himself, to impress his teenage love, Daisy, who also happens to be Tom’s wife. He believes he can win Daisy back from her husband by throwing lavish parties, and putting on a deceitful lifestyle in an attempt to lead her in believing he qualified to be one of the elite. “The book's chief characters are blind, and they behave blindly. Gatsby does not see Daisy's vicious emptiness, and Daisy, deluded, thinks she will reward her gold-hatted lover until he tries to force from her an affirmation she is too weak to make. Tom is blind to his hypocrisy; with "a short deft movement" he breaks Myrtle's nose for daring to mention the
Gatsby’s true dream is made abundantly clear throughout the entire text; winning Daisy back and reigniting the flaming love they once had. Gatsby’s dream of having Daisy divides him from his power at one critical point in the text, “Then I turned back to Gatsby-and was startled by his expression. He looked-and this is said in all contempt for the babbled slander of his garden-as if he had ‘killed a man.’ For a moment the set of his face could be described in just that fantastic way” (134). As Gatsby is arguing with Tom over Daisy and whom she loves, he loses himself to his temper and emotion. He embarrasses himself and soils the image of himself that he's built up for others to see, and loses his perceived power. Gatsby also shows a lack of personal integrity, esteem, and power when he requests for Daisy to say she never loved Tom at any point in time, such as when he says, “‘Daisy, that’s all over now,’ he said earnestly. ‘It doesn’t matter any more. Just tell him the truth-that you never loved him-and it’s all wiped out forever’”
Daisy’s character can also be identified by the way she speaks of her daughter, Pammy, “I hope she'll be a fool, that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (17). This implies that woman don’t have power in the world compare to a man. Daisy thinks it’s best to have beauty rather than brains. Daisy treats her daughter as an object, showing her off to guests at her house, which suggests her lack of concern for her child and how careless she is. Daisy’s relation with Tom is unstable at sometimes. Daisy and Tom both came fr...
Daisy’s original impression of Gatsby is evident in her early letters to him, “...he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself- that he was fully able to take care of her” (149). Daisy loved Gatsby under the false hope that they belonged to the same social class. She grew up surrounded by riches, never working a day in her life, and she could not comprehend the struggles of a man who must work for the food he eats each day. Daisy knew that she must marry when she is beautiful, for being a beautiful rich girl of good social standing was her highest commodity and most valuable chip in marrying well. In order to live a secure life, she had to find someone the had the means to provide for her extravagant lifestyle, and the deep care for her that would allow Daisy to do as she pleased. The only definition of love Daisy knew was one of disillusioned power and commitments under false pretenses in order to keep the wealthy continually rich. Daisy acknowledges the false pretenses of marriage for the wealthy in how she describes her daughter’s future. She tells Nick, “‘And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this
She believes that she is a beautiful little fool, but no one can blame her. Whenever Daisy is spoken about it is not in relation to her intelligence, but rather that, “‘Her voice is full of money,’ [Gatsby] said suddenly. That was it for me. Tom had never understood before.
When Nick visits Daisy she tells him the story of how her daughter was born, “It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about––things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling.” By leaving Daisy behind at a time when she most needs him, Tom loses his value of companionship with Daisy. He no longer fits the three criteria that Daisy feels she needs in a man. Daisy knows that Tom no longer loves her and is having an affair with another woman, but despite all of this, Daisy has no intention of leaving him (20). This is because Tom, despite no longer fulfilling her emotionally, is still better for her financially and socially than if she left him to live alone. If Daisy wants to stay in her class, she has no option other than to stay with Tom. When Daisy finally sees Gatsby again, she suddenly has another option besides staying with Tom. Daisy knows that Gatsby has true feelings of love towards her, but leaving Tom would prove to be risky as it could tarnish her reputation and by extension her social stability. Daisy is now struggling between taking a risk for love and maintaining a safe, stable life she is ultimately unhappy
From the start of the book we can see that women in the book are
During the confrontation between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan about Daisy, she is talked about like she is a possession to be won over. During the argument Nick “glances at Daisy who was staring terrified between Gatsby and her husband” (Fitzgerald, page 143). Gatsby and Buchanan tell Daisy what to say instead of allowing her to tell her own truths, and if she does start to speak up for herself she is quickly quieted down. Daisy states at the beginning of the novel while talking about finding out the sex of her child that, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald, page 16). Daisy is the only female character in the novel who understands that no matter what a woman accomplishes, she will always be downcasted based on her gender. This outlook is what allows her to be controlled by Gatsby and Buchanan, because she doesn’t believe that anything she can do will make her more of a human to them. Myrtle on the other hand, while still a married woman, isn’t able to see her powerlessness. She feels powerful enough to stand up to Tom and chant Daisy’s name over and over again until he breaks her nose (Fitzgerald, page 37). This scene demonstrates the way that men handled women if they ever did feel confident enough to speak for themselves. One final scene from the novel that really