Daisy

Thus far in The Great Gatsby, we have gotten to know a little bit about three characters: Nick (the narrator of the story), Daisy, and Tom. Although there isn't much physical description or background information given about Daisy, it seems as though Fitzgerald is trying to make her character show through her words and her actions, rather than by simply describing her. This is an interesting and highly effective technique, because after reading only one chapter of the book, I feel as though I know the most about Daisy. Nick is visiting Daisy, his second cousin once removed; her husband Tom; and their friend Miss Baker. Nick encounters Daisy lounging on a couch, and right away the reader starts to experience Daisy's personality. By the fact that she didn't even rise from her perch to greet her cousin, but instead laughs and makes a witty comment, it is apparent that Daisy feels a sense of entitlement in life. She thinks that people and things should come to her rather than her going to seek them. Something else about Daisy's personality is that she's fun loving and appears to be carefree, although she isn't really. Nick's description about Daisy's intoxicating voice and laugh might make it seem as though she lives a charmed life, but really, she's just masking her true feelings of sadness. She misses her old life in Chicago, and doesn't really love her husband or baby girl. Sophisticated Daisy, who has done everything, describes her life as "a very bad time" and thinks "every thing's terrible." (p. 16-17) The last bit of Daisy's personality that I've picked up is that she spends a lot of her life waiting for something exciting to happen. When it's over, she goes on waiting rather than finding excitement in her every-day existence. An example of this is when Daisy makes the comment about waiting for the longest day of the year, and then missing it when it's through (p. 11) Daisy is an intriguing character, and I look foreword to learning more about her and how she got to be that way.