Paragraph about two sentences in Great Gatsby

IB English HL

October 25^th, 2011

Paragraph about two sentences in Great Gatsby

“She was only extemporizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her, as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words.” (p. 14)

“I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.” (p. 17)

     Daisy is wearing a mask. As well as Miss Baker and Tom, she apparently tries to hide a larger issue within herself. Covering her fragility with treating Nick (and maybe other people, too) very affectionate and warm-hearted is only slightly successful; deep despair shines through her virtual attitude. When she improvises by making the statement of Nick being like a rose, she reveals helplessness, since the comment is really awkward. But just with looking at it superficially. A rose in literature stands for love, desire, happiness, gratefulness, caring, purity and sympathy – qualities that Daisy doesn’t receive in her relationship with Tom. Due to the first quote, we can see that Nick seems to have this hunch as well.

According to quote two, Daisy definitely knows about the monotony of the inherited social position of her environment. However, she can do nothing but pity. After telling Nick about her hopes for her daughter to become a fool, her sorrow rose and got very clear. Daisy’s destiny lets the reader feel sad, especially because she is described as such a lovely person all the time. Her inner emptiness is, nevertheless, understandable: Her husband treated and still treats her rudely by having not shown up at their child’s birth and by cheating on Daisy. With smirks and impassive behavior, Daisy consequently tries to cover her real, hurt emotions.