Due: Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Read the remainder of Chapter 7. Then, find one sentence or phrase which you would like to use to discuss Daisy Buchanan as a character. You may choose a line that she speaks, something another character says about her, or a line of narration. What does the line you choose reveal about her, especially if the line says something new that we have not discussed before?
I chose the sentence when Daisy disagreed with Tom's idea of going to watch movies.
ReplyDelete"You go. We'll ride around and meet you after." (pg. 125) This sentence revealed one of the delicate personalities that Daisy Buchanan has. The personality is that "she gets stronger with her friend."
In class, we once discussed about the sentence on chapter 1 that indicates that Daisy Buchanan needs attention from others. ("I've heard it said that Daisy's murmur was only to make people lean toward her." (pg.9)) And now she's got Mr. Gatsby's obsessing attention toward her. As always, Mr. Gatsby is on Daisy's side whatever she says is totally nonsense. Daisy herself seems happy to have his attention. She is even enjoying this situation. As a result, she grew incredibly confident compared to her in chapter 1. In chapter 1, Daisy was trying to grab other people's attention and one way is to listen their conversation and make a loud laugh. And she did pay attention and agree with anything Tom said. (Daisy at the beginning seems like a weak character.) However, in this sentence, she did not even consider about going to movies but disagree right away.
If we look at the past chapters, it is hard to find Daisy's "friends" whom she can talk to freely. Her husband Tom Buchanan, was not quite attracted to her and he even has his mistress, Myrtle. ALso, he was not bothered to cut Daisy's line. Jordan who is the only woman near Daisy always seems so neutral and cold that I feel like she is not really helpful for Daisy's loneliness. Even though the recollection of Jordan from a past chapter indicated that Jordan actually admired Daisy, Jordan is always out of trouble or not willing to get in trouble nowadays. (although she knows everything.) In evidence, I haven't seen Daisy and Jordan sharing deep conversation besides their recollection. Nick who is Daisy's cousin is also mentioned that they haven't seen each other so long and they are not really close to each other. In addition, since Nick is the narrator of this book, he spends more time with Gatsby than with Daisy.
Therefore, Daisy might be really lonely through the past chapters. And since now she has her friend, her "real" personality comes out. (The vision people show infront of strangers is different from that they show infront of friends.) In this case, the personality she shows from this sentence (confidence, disagree with what she really doesn't want to do) could be real.
"Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now-isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly." I did love him once-but I loved you too".
ReplyDeleteDaisy has many wonderful attractive qualities but at the same time she has some rather non admirable qualities as well. Her personality is almost two faced. She is beautiful and sophisticated but also shallow and indecisive. She has declared such love for Gatsby and he is risking a lot by putting so much effort into their "relationship" but under pressure it seems like she is equally in love with Tom. And as we see from the end of the chapter after returning to the house "There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together", she basically chose Tom because in a way he is the safety net. Through this whole chapter i began not to like daisy and see that in a way ( i don't know if im using this in the right context) she is also meretricious. Her good looks and her charm make her seem like something else...when really she is a flat character.
"No, we couldn't meet. But both of us loved each other all that time, old sport, and you didn't know. I used to laugh sometimes"- but there was no laughter in his eyes- "to think you didn't know"
ReplyDeleteThis shows a lot of Gatsby's character that either has not been seen yet or has been over looked, he is very vindictive and very rude. He is saying that he thought it was funny that Toms wife was never loyal to him even though she never cheated because she always loved Gatsby. When he calls Tom old sport, this takes it father into the rude, outspoken, and vindictive Gatsby. Because Gatsby does not think of Tom as friendly at all and usually the condensation of using the phrase "old sport" is to make the person you are talking to feel like your friend. Here he is being sarcastic because at this point Tom knows that they are not good friends what so ever. Yet when it says that he wanted to laugh it seemed that Gatsby was the person to laugh at someone in all their troubles. If this is one of the worst things happening to Tom this would be like, I wanted to laugh because you had a disease this whole time and you never knew. (Okay so thats a little different but you get the point.)
Overall this shows that Gatsby is very different than his first impressions give out and he is very round.
The chose the line where Daisy admitted, "Even alone I can't say I never loved Tom, it wouldn't be true." (Pg. 133). This line portrays the incosistency of the character: Daisy. She has a mouth full of money but can't choose between Gatsby and Tom, who both have a good financial status. Even though she is commited to helping Gatsby win her back, she still contradicts herself. She is almost ashamed of herself, but not ashamed of herself at the same time. She knows she is in love with Gatsby, but she still can't let go of the feelings she had for Tom. This line of dialogue really shows how her character is constantly on the fence of situations.
ReplyDelete"Daisy, thats 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."
ReplyDeleteWhen Tom says this to Daisy, it really surprised me to see how much control he as over her. Tom told her what to tell Gatsby and even if it is not true, she still is getting forced to say it. This tells us a lot about Daisy as a person as well. It shows us that she's very dependent on other people and that she does not have a lot of self confidence. If she did, she would tell the truth in front of Tom and prove him wrong, but instead she just shrinks up and follows his rule, acting as his slave.
When Gatsby expresses his strong love for Daisy, she sobs helplessly, "I did love him once-but I love you too." This reveals how Daisy does not take responsibility for her own actions. Earlier that day, Daisy was showing public affection towards Gatsby to a point where she even kisses him. However, now that Gatsby and Tom are arguing, Daisy is taking back her actions and confusing both Tom, Gatsby and also herself. Later on, she says, " Even alone I can't say I never loved Tom. It wouldn't be true." Daisy is contradicting herself because just before she had just confessed, " I have never loved (Tom)." I don't think Daisy likes complicating situations. She only wants the easy way out of dilemmas. For instance, throughout the whole chapter, Daisy complains continuously to stop the agressive conversation. She never tried to solve the problem and instead, made everything more uncertain. Daisy's irresponsible actions and dislike of difficult situation might have been the reason why she didn't wait for poor Gatsby and married the secure and rich Tom.
ReplyDelete"I am though." This is when Daisy tells Tom that she is leaving him. I think that it is very interesting how she is able to tell this in front of both Gatsby and her husband, but yet when she arrives home after (if Nick and Gatbsy are to be believed) running over somebody, she eats cold fried chicken and has reconciled with him and leaves Gatsby standing outside. I am wondering why Tom sent Daisy back to her house with Gatsby after she said she was going to leave him, it's almost as if Tom already knew she wasn't going to.
ReplyDelete"'I never loved him', she said with perceptible reluctancy.
ReplyDelete'Not at Kapiolani?' demanded tom suddenly.
'no'"
I think that this shows that Daisy was a very desperate girl when she was younger. I think that she may have been scared that she would never get married because Gatsby was in the war so she went out and married a rich young man. This tells me that she is not very sincere because she has been living a lie for 5 years.
"The voice begged again to go."
ReplyDeleteDaisy has been displaced. She has been disembodied. Her voice has been separated from her body, and pleas for relief. Daisy has been tossed and reinvisioned by Gatsby and Buchanon so much that perhaps she has forgotten what she really wants. Going back to the image of the disembodied face, maybe Daisy feels that she is looking from a distance at her own life, and she realizes her inability to act of her own volition, her powerlessness in the superficial city of dream and man.
"She hesistated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me with a sort of appeal, as though she realized at last what she was doing --- and as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late. 'I never loved him.'"
ReplyDeleteDaisy reveals her mind while she is all upset. She had been secretly loving Gatsby all along but she had married Tom while she was waiting for Gatsby. She wants to hide the fact that he had married Tom for her love of his money or maybe Tom himself, but she also dosen't want to reveal her feelings for Gatsby. But she finally decides to just confess her heart.