Daisy Buchanan in Society

Daisy relates to society through the novel in many ways. Daisy can be seen either literally, as the wealthy, prominent young woman who as outlined before is immoral, beautiful, and rather snobbish. Daisy however also philosophically resembles innocence, purity, and perfection during her early life, much like the original American dream. also like the American dream, she loses value and becomes tarnished or her purpose mislead over time. She loses her purpose and becomes just a bored housewife and show off wife for Tom. Also, Daisy represents upper class women in this exclusive group of super wealthy families during these prosperous times. I always associate a recurring thought with Daisy. Shakespeare's famous line; "Frailty, thy name is woman!", is rather appropriate to describe Daisy. Daisy is a frail character who is easily led into evil and physically and morally weak, and reflects on women of her stature. Therefore, she literally represents women of "East Egg" society during the 20's as well as philosophically the tainted or empty American dream, as her name implies. A daisy flower is pure, white, and perfect when it is blooming at a young age much like the American Dream was extravagant and beautiful in the beginning when it manifests thought, but the flower blooms and becomes tainted, withered, and eventually dies, also like the American Dream once people are faced with the reality of an empty or misguided promise. It is important to note that Daisy is Gatsby's ultimate dream, he lives his entire life trying to create the means necessary to impress her and eventually win her over from Tom Buchanan. This relationship represents society trying to attain the American Dream, as people live out their lives and kill themselves working to attain this dream yet once they come to understand that the perfection or glory they have striven for is just manifested thought, the American Dream is devalued to its original manifestation; just a dream.

Nick Carraway in Society

When I think of Nick Carraway and how he relates to people in American society I can only imagine that American society varies so drastically from one place to another; being a resident of the very diverse city of Toronto and having traveled to many places around the world, I understand that social and cultural "norms" vary greatly from place to place, more so across such a vast nation. Nick sets out with ambitious goals and his eyes set on his American dream or "green light", and by the end of his quest he sees his dream and his society as something different than what he had envisioned. I believe that Nick Carraway represents the everyman of society, the typical Joe. He seems to me to be a middle class figure with a well rounded education and personality, with whom I can relate to quite well.

Theme and Purpose

In this blog I will be examining main characters throughout the novel The Great Gatsby. I will search for the characteristics and behaviors that each character possesses and create a character analysis unique to each. I will use this data to relate major characters from The Great Gatsby to the real world, as they relate to specific people, populations, societies, classes, or groups.