You have a lot of good thoughts. I read this novel for the first time when I was around 17 and disliked it. I read it again in college, and I fell in love with it. It's still my favorite to this day.
I agree that, for most of the novel, Daisy is a blank canvas that the men in the novel can project their desires onto. Tom wants all that Daisy represents in terms of an old-money trophy wife while Gatsby wants her for a whole host of reasons that have nothing to do with who Daisy really is as a person. However, one line that breaks this characterization of Daisy as a flat, undeveloped character is when Daisy makes a comment about her wishes for 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." This is a rare moment when we get to see Daisy as a human versus Tom's shiny wife, an old-money socialite, or Gatsby's misguided paramour. When she considers her daughter, she voices a painfully real recognition that the world is a bad place, especially for women, and that being beautiful (thus, valuable to men and more well-regarded in society) but ignorant to the world's cruelties is all that a woman could possibly hope for. That's the BEST-CASE scenario. Oof. That's a gut punch.
And I would also agree that the novel does a beautiful job emphasizing how the rich escape the consequences of their own actions while the poor do not. Poor Myrtle Wilson is killed by Daisy, and Gatsby is killed by her grief-ridden husband. Tom and Daisy (and Nick himself!) escape these fates-- death, imprisonment, violence-- even though they were integral to what happened. Gatsby's new money persona couldn't save him from the careless destruction of the elite. It's a devastating, elegant representation of the fallacy of the American Dream. I would argue this is the "Great American novel" for just that reason, although that debate is totally subjective.
Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I wanted to validate your thoughts and also give you some extra points to consider. Kudos for finishing the novel and coming up with a solid analysis at only 14!
gwilkes0585 t1_j29m4gc wrote
Reply to Just finished the great Gatsby by itsbullbitch
You have a lot of good thoughts. I read this novel for the first time when I was around 17 and disliked it. I read it again in college, and I fell in love with it. It's still my favorite to this day.
I agree that, for most of the novel, Daisy is a blank canvas that the men in the novel can project their desires onto. Tom wants all that Daisy represents in terms of an old-money trophy wife while Gatsby wants her for a whole host of reasons that have nothing to do with who Daisy really is as a person. However, one line that breaks this characterization of Daisy as a flat, undeveloped character is when Daisy makes a comment about her wishes for 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." This is a rare moment when we get to see Daisy as a human versus Tom's shiny wife, an old-money socialite, or Gatsby's misguided paramour. When she considers her daughter, she voices a painfully real recognition that the world is a bad place, especially for women, and that being beautiful (thus, valuable to men and more well-regarded in society) but ignorant to the world's cruelties is all that a woman could possibly hope for. That's the BEST-CASE scenario. Oof. That's a gut punch.
And I would also agree that the novel does a beautiful job emphasizing how the rich escape the consequences of their own actions while the poor do not. Poor Myrtle Wilson is killed by Daisy, and Gatsby is killed by her grief-ridden husband. Tom and Daisy (and Nick himself!) escape these fates-- death, imprisonment, violence-- even though they were integral to what happened. Gatsby's new money persona couldn't save him from the careless destruction of the elite. It's a devastating, elegant representation of the fallacy of the American Dream. I would argue this is the "Great American novel" for just that reason, although that debate is totally subjective.
Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I wanted to validate your thoughts and also give you some extra points to consider. Kudos for finishing the novel and coming up with a solid analysis at only 14!