Daisy is considered to be the golden girl in The Great Gatsby. The golden girl refers to Daisy being wealthy, beautiful and successful; she is the ‘perfect’ girl and this perfection makes her rare and valuable like gold. An example of a modern day golden girl is someone like Kim Kardashian or Kate Middleton.
1. Explain how Daisy could be considered clever. Use at least one quote from the text to support your answer. – Daisy is clever, she conceals her intelligence and pretends to be a fool and this is a reason why we know Daisy is clever. Daisy is very well educated and is a bright young women, but mainly keeps this to herself. She does this because with the social climate of the 1920’s a naive and pretty girl will do much better than a clever women who strives for big things. “And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”. In this quote where Daisy is talking about her daughter it shows how Daisy knows the best person for her to be in the world she lives in is a ‘beautiful little fool’.
2. The notes above talk about how Gatsby views Daisy as a possession to be collected. Explain this further. Find a quote from the text to support your answer and explain how the quote supports your ideas. – Gatsby spent 5 years of his life collecting materialistic things in the hope that Daisy will see it and run back to him. After all this time focused on obtaining possessions he now sees Daisy as one. “…He kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think he had ever really believed in its existence before”. This quote shows how utterly surprised Gatsby is that Daisy, his Daisy, could have a child. Gatsby thought she was his and only his but now she has had a child with another man.
3. Describe what life was like in the 1920’s for women. After you have done so, explain why you think Daisy wants her daughter to be a ‘fool’ in this world. – Life for a women in the 1920’s was a leap forward from the past but still far from perfect, in the 1920’s women were given the right to vote. This sparked the beginning of ‘flappers’, these women would dress up in the new fashion and embrace their freedom. A women’s life was still far from perfect though, leaving the conventional role of being a family women to become a flapper was very hard to do. This is why Daisy wants her daughter to grow up to be a ‘beautiful little fool’, because then she can be oblivious to all the strains and stresses of a righteous women’s life.
4. Towards the end of the novel, Nick says that Daisy and Tom were “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”. Explain what Daisy ‘smashes up’ (figuratively speaking) in this story. – Daisy smashes up lives. She kills Myrtle and then speeds off not thinking about how what she had just done would effect people. With Daisy’s wealth she has a sort of immunity to trouble and thinks she can do what she wants with very little consequences.
5. Explain how Daisy could be considered ‘amoral’. Use at least two quotes from the text to support your answer. – Daisy’s amorality is shown through her lack of care for other people and her dependance on wealth to keep her safe from consequences. “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except for me.” This quote shows how Daisy married Tom because he was wealthy and could give her the wealth and security that she believed Gatsby never could. “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.” This quote shows Daisy not caring for Tom nor Gatsby’s feelings, she believes she can love both of them and everything will be fine. Daisy also does not attend Gatsby’s funeral as she is too busy hiding in her wealth from her problems.
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