In chapter eight of The Great Gatsby, Nick suggests that Gatsby’s big error was falling in love with Daisy. Gatsby wasted many years of his life idolizing, dreaming about, and fixating over an entity that was incessantly out of reach. “… He must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” (161). The “price” that Nick references is Gatsby’s life. To Gatsby, Daisy had divine wealth and beauty – these qualities became his preoccupation. Due to the lack of perspective on his situation, Gatsby never realized that he could live happily without his love. Nick summarizes Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship when he says, “A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden” (161). Daisy, the “small gust of wind,” transformed the course of Gatsby’s life and her presence (or lack thereof) became a burden to him. Although Gatsby’s time with Daisy “scarcely corrugated the surface” of his life, she impacted him long after her presence faded.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Daisy, the Accidental Burden (Sandra Ackert – Smith)
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I believe Gastby's infatuation with Daisy is borderline on healthy but sometimes falls into the category of psychosis. He fills his life with more "exciting" yet less meaningful events, for example his parties, because he has nothing better to do with his time mostly because his whole life is based around Daisy. His love for Daisy creeps over to psychosis when he sees her at Nick's house and becomes child-like again jumping at every word she says. When Gastby says, "five years next november," (pg. 87) is when the reader realizes he might have taken it over the top. However, Daisy does love Gastby which shows that his infactuation is not one sided, which makes his actions more understanable to the reader. That is my opinion of Daisy and Gastby's relationship.
ReplyDeletePersonally I think Daisy knows all of the moves she has made since we met her. She knows that Tom has/had a mistress, and I don't think Myrtle's accident was simply, an accident.
ReplyDeleteAs for Gatsby, it's really difficult to say. I believe that Gatsby loves Daisy similarly as couples do now, however he might he needs to be more poetic or outspoken about their relationship. He seems a tad psychotic when he's expressing himself, but his affection is perfectly healthy in silence.