Welcome old sport!
Welcome to all things Great Gatsby: chances to explore, chances to learn, and chances to win.
What's all this about? Read the intro to Summer of Gatsby here...
Whether you've read TGG in high school and are revisiting it or rediscovering it for the first time, enjoy our discussion. And warning--HEREIN BE SPOILERS!
And check my last post for a chance to WIN free Gatsby-inspired bookmarks.
So pull up a chair, and get a glass of bootleg hooch (we're still mixing some in the bathtub) and we'll get going:
Five Reasons Daisy is a B---
Maybe it was because I was so crushing on Robert Redford in the 1974 film version. Maybe it was because I was going through some unrequited love of my own. Maybe it was because adolescent hormones made me so incredibly stupid. Maybe I was PMS-ing (if that's not verb, it should be).
But regardless, I have to be frank. After reading the book and watching the movie, Daisy. Pissed. Me. Off.
Feel free to disagree (hey, I love a literary discussion) but here are the facts IMHO.
1-- Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled.
Rich family. And not just a rich family, but "old money." Not just any rich kid would do. As Tom said to Gatsby later, "You're not like us. You can be rich but you'll never be like us." (I'm paraphrasing.)
Really girl? Personally, I'd rather be shopping at K-Mart with my true love than sipping champagne with Tom (who, btw, is a brute and racist. Not the top qualities for guys in my book.)
2-- She led Gatsby on.
Okay, so he finds you and he's rich and all that is awesome so you are all "yes, yes, yes!!! Let's continue the affair! Dance with me in your uniform! Mother of GOD what beautiful shirts!!! Kiss me!! (and btw, since my husband is having an affair, I guess I will too) ."
But when it comes down to the wire, are you going to leave Tom? Really? Are you?
Don't start something you aren't going to finish. Gatsby isn't just looking for a roll in the hay for auld lang syne ("roll in the hay" --do other people say that? I'm from the South, curious if it is elsewhere. RJ-- do they say that in England? Michael, how does my resident Aussie add in to this?) This leads to......
3-- "But I love you NOW, Gastby. Isn't that enough?"
Um, nope.
Read: I love you now that I have my courage up and I don't care what my family thinks and now you have money and it's more socially acceptable and oh wait, despite that, I'm still going home to Tom.
Daisy: I don't want to go home.
Gatsby: Then don't.
Not that I'm advocating adultery, but I AM advocating not marrying a racist brute because you sort of love him and his family has money.
| Daisy says, "OMG, Gastby! I just looooooove those shirts. Can you wear your uniform for me?" (and while you're at it, I scuffed up your car a bit, can you take care of that for me, too?) |
4-- You weren't at Gatsby's funeral.
Grrrr. You'd think Tom would let her go if for no other reason just for him to get the chance to dance on Gastby's grave. Okay Tom. You won. We hope you feel good about yourself.
5-- The crappy way you acted when you ran into Nick later.
This wasn't in the 1974 version of the film. Nick basically runs into Tom and Daisy and is like "oh
BONUS: Number 6--
6-- You let him take the fall for you which led to his death.
I don't know why the bleep Gatsby let you drive on the way home, but he just can't say no to you, can he? Even then he's willing to take the fall for manslaughter for you when you rammed into your hubby's mistress. This all leads to Gatsby's death. I mean, it was like by pretending it never happened meant it never happened.
Denial ain't a river in Egypt, sister. And after all of that, you STILL did #4 and #5.
[insert string of expletives here]
You and the horse you rode in on, Daisy.
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