Good Daisy or bad Daisy?

Only after finishing reading the book is when we find out the true identity of Daisy Buchanan.As described in the first chapters of the book, she is a very beautiful and charming young woman. She comes from a very wealthy family and has a great reputation. She is very popular, and always had been. Many girls admire everything about Daisy, men as well, especially soldiers. When she was single, many soldiers called to her house to have a date with her to try to win her love; between them was Gatsby. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy (and with her social status) so he lied to her about his precarious background, Daisy also seemed to have fallen in love with him. Soon he had to go to war, and she promised she will wait for him… but later she got married to Tom Buchanan, maybe because she loved him, mostly because he had the desired wealth to give her everything she wished for.

When Gatsby returned from the war he set a single goal for his life, to win back Daisy. He made his way through with dangerous business and finally enough wealth to make huge parties every weekend with the hope that Daisy someday would show up. He learned the hard way. Daisy is not interested in the “new rich”, she is very superficial. For her the only thing that matters is money. There are many sections throughout the book that gives us hints to infer Daisy’s real personality but it all turns clear at the end. While driving Gatsby’s car she runs over a woman but does not take the guilt for it and leaves Gatsby with the consequences. The woman’s husband finds out that the car belongs to Gatsby and comes to his house and kills him. We might think that Daisy at least would come to the funeral but she never came, instead she moves away with Tom leaving no address to reach them. Daisy turns out to be an extremely disappointing person; moreover, the cause of all problems.

Picture: Daisy hits Myrtle while driving Gatsby's car. http://poetry.rapgenius.com/Baz-luhrmann-the-great-gatsby-trailer-2-lyrics#note-1722049

Chapters VIII and IX

These are the two last chapters of the book, narrating an ending I was not expecting. Here is when the real feelings and emotions are shown. Gatsby does not lose hope; he still waits for Daisy to leave Tom to finally get reunited. Nick already figures out that Daisy will not leave the comfort of her present life style to be with a “new rich” that might not be able to afford her material needs. Nick tells Gatsby to go away and start a new life but Gatsby does not listen, he wants to wait at least one more day, and that one day makes the difference.

The next day while Gatsby is using his swimming pool, another character named Wilson comes and murders him thinking that he was the one that run over his wife since Gatsby was the owner of the yellow car. However, Daisy was the one driving Gatsby’s car at that moment. His feeling toward Daisy is so big that he covers her taking all consequences to himself. Now, the most disappointing realization about Daisy Buchanan is that she was not as good of a person as I expected her to be. She did not care about Gatsby because she run away with Tom as soon as she could and did not even call or send flowers for Gatsby’s funeral. The same thing happens with all the “friends” that attended Gatsby’s parties or worked with him. None of them came for his funeral other than Nick, Gatsby’s father and some of Gatsby’s servants.

Picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/88249329@N08/8062036306/

Chapters VI and VII

I consider these two the unexpected chapters. Nick starts by telling the real background of Gatsby’s life, uncertain till now. He was initially named James Gatz and came from a poor family of North Dakota. However, his ambition toward wealth and status made it possible for him to work hard to achieve them. In the process he met Daisy; she became his ambition, for wealth and luxury was part of her without trying. She represented everything for Gatsby, but he need to realize that now is only a dream.

At some point, while Daisy’s husband is starting to suspect something about Gatsby and Daisy, they both (Tom & Daisy) attend to one of Gatsby’s parties, but Daisy did not enjoy the night… perhaps for the fact that both Tom and Gatsby were in the same place, and that must have been very uncomfortable.

In Chapter VII, Tom faces Gatsby after noticing the feeling between him and Daisy. But in this part everything turns around. Early that day Daisy was almost crazy about Gatsby; later while both men argue, she chooses to be on Tom’s side, she is aware that what she felt for Gatsby was something from the past. Tom makes her remember that she did have feelings for him and that love was the reason she was always emotionally loyal to him. At the end of the chapter, Tom and Daisy sit together for dinner to talk about their differences and solve the problems in their relationship; meanwhile, Tom is hiding behind the bushes on Daisy’s garden trying to make sure that she is okay, maybe hoping that she would come out and run with him. In Daisy mind, that is unlikely to happen.

Picture: Daisy dancing with Gatsby the first time she went to his party. http://cinemazzi.com/kellie-alderman-reviews-baz-luhrmanns-the-great-gatsby/#.UcUTADtyFJc

Chapters IV and V

Up to this point, these two chapters are the most intense ones; and maybe they will be the most intense chapters of the whole book. Chapter 4 gives us plenty of information about Gatsby. Here we find out that Gatsby and Daisy were deeply in love before he left for the war. This was a total surprise! There were foreshadows before but you would never relate Daisy to Gatsby. Then, Nick and Gatsby made “secret arrangements”. In chapter 5, Nick invites Daisy to his house for some tea and tells her to come without her husband. Once she comes, Gatsby suddenly appears, just as it was a simple coincidence for them to meet; however, Gatsby has dreamed about it and planned it in his head for many years.

Finally in these two chapters we learn more about Daisy. When she was 18 years old she was the most popular of all young girls in Louisville, “and all day long the telephone rang in her house and excited young officers from Camp Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolizing her that night. Anyways, for an hour!” and that is when Gatsby and Daisy met, but when they were together time did not exist. Everything ended when he left for the war and Daisy’s parents did not let her go to say good bye. Then she got married to Tom Buchanan, half without wanting it but just to keep going with her life. When she sees Gatsby after such a long time, she does not know (nor him) how to react. She is embarrassed but sweet at the same time, says to him “I certainly am awfully glad to see you again”. Later she cries but then they both forget the whole world and talk happily.

Picture: when Daisy and Gatsby meet at Nick's house. Gatsby arranged all the flowers and also made his gardener cut Nick's grass.

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/schoolid/1450/articleid/600243/newspaperid/1426/The_Great_Gatsby_Movie_Review.aspx

Chapter II and III

I would like to know more about Daisy and her real personality, but that will have to wait. She is f not on the scene of these two chapters; therefore, I will gladly stick to the plot this time (it is very interesting). In Chapter II, Tom and Nick make their way toward New York but in one of the stops they get off to meet Myrtle Wilson, Tom's lover.They latter gathered, along with more people, in a small appartment. I found annoying how they freely talked about cheating to their husbands or wifes, with no shame. The only time that Daisy is mentioned is when Myrtle's sisters says "It's really his wife that's keeping them apart. She's a Catholic, and they don't believe in divorce". The funny thing is that Nick knew that Daisy was not a Catholic.

Then, in Chapter III Nick is invited to one of Gatsby's parties. For this he received a formal letter signed by Gatsby himself. When Nick first arrived to the party he was alone and almost embarrased; but soon after he finds Jordan, a young woman he met at the Buchanan's, and stays with her for almost the whole night. During the party Nick gets into a conversation with another man. This man recognized him from the war. After talking about "some wet, grey little villages in France", Nick told him how he ended up in the party, just to find out that he was actually talking to Jay Gatsby. They even agreed to meet the next day to try Gatsby's new hydroplane. I am really eager to know what will happen next!

Picture from: http://thegreatgatsbysandm.blogspot.com/2011/05/parties-motif.html

Chapter I, meeting Daisy Buchanan

Hi, my name is Gianina and I will be writting my thoughts and ideas about this wonderful classic book by F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby.

In the very first chapter, Nick Carraway tells us with details the evening at the Buchanan's. What impressed me the most was Daisy Buchanan's personality. She is Nick's cousin, a beautiful young woman married to Tom Buchanan. She is very wealthy but, unlike her husband, seems to be a very nice and kind person. Moreover, Daisy hides a lot of feelings inside.  I could also infer this because she changes subjects abruptly and in each subject she has a different humor. Even though almost the whole chapter is about they dinner at her house, we can barely tell who she is. Her husband cheats on her, that might be the reason of her trying to pretend or hide her feelings.

Picture from: http://www.elleuk.com/star-style/news/the-many-faces-of-daisy-buchanan#image=1