Daisy was thought to be the idealistic ‘Golden Girl’ meaning she was the picture of perfection, wealth and sophistication. Being the ‘it girl’ is created by societal views of what is considered beautiful or desirable. Daisy is extremely popular with everyone as the women want to be her or the men want to be with her. People on the outside idolise Daisy because she presents herself the 20s beauty standards. Examples of some current ‘it girls’ are Kendall Jenner or Madison Beer.

Explain how Daisy could be considered clever. Use at least one quote from the text to support your answer.

Daisy comes across as pious and unaware of her small place in society against men, as she usually lets her husband Tom or Gatsby dominate the conversation. She would often tell meaningless stories to help support the act of her being simple-minded. It has been made clear that she bright and uses her fake persona to her advantage being able to manipulate men to do what she wants as she is held at high regard. She is aware of her place in society as a female in the 1920s and uses her status to her advantage. “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” In this quote she is talking to Nick about how she wishes her daughter is dimwitted then she wouldn’t be aware how little power she has to make decisions for herself and she wouldn’t know that she has no place in society unlike men.

The notes above talk about how Gatsby views Daisy as a possession to be collected. Explain this further. Find a quote from the text to support your answer and explain how the quote supports your ideas.

From a young age Gatsbys ideal life was the “American Dream”. This was full of wealth and success. Daisy is thought of as a symbol of wealth and to possess her, he would have been seen as important, and would complete the character that he has obsessed over being since he was a young boy. He doesn’t truely love Daisy, but the thought of what she will bring to him he loves. Tom Buchanan is the same as Gatsby, he doesn’t actually love Daisy but being married to gives him status. It has become clear in this novel that no one actually is in love, they just use one another for either wealth, power or their reputation. “It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes”. This tells the reader how wanted and how much value Daisy had from male eyes. This makes Gatsby ‘love’ her because she is seen as valuable.

Describe what life was like in the 1920’s for women. After you have done so, explain why you think Daisy wants her daughter to be a ‘fool’ in this world.

The roles of women were changing in the 1920s after the work they did during the war. They were pushing boundries as the fashion was becoming more ‘revealing’. Types of women called ‘flappers’ challenged gender norms and are known to be the first generation if independent American women, they pushed political, economic and sexual barriers for woman. Flappers behaviour was looked over by society as outrageous and immoral as women did not have rights compared to men. It was very much a male world and women were seen to follow behind their husband with their head down. Daisy wishes her daughter to grow up a fool so that she’ s unable to realise how little value she has other than to be a sidepiece. This shows us that Daisy is unhappy with her little power over her own life. This could be a reason why she acts the way she does, like using Gatsby. It gives her the only bit of power that she has ever been able to experience, and she clutches onto that as she knows she will be unable to have any other power.

Towards the end of the novel, Nick says that Daisy and Tom were “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”. Explain what Daisy ‘smashes up’ (figuratively speaking) in this story.

Daisy is the centre of chaos in the novel, she is the reason that Myrtle, Gatsby and Wilson end up dead. Yet she still turns a blind eye along with her husband Tom at the anarchy that they created. They see themselves as more important in society and that the others are below them and don’t care about others or situations that have no impact of them. They are too involved in their careless, selfish lives to care about other.

Explain how Daisy could be considered ‘amoral’. Use at least two quotes from the text to support your answer.

The actions and the way she reacted to them is amoral. She was the reason for all the chaos in this novel, all the deaths resulted because of her. She had an affair with Gatsby when she didn’t even love him. She was just wanting some sort of power over men, as her whole life is dominated by them. Yes she has terrible morals with how she acts and uses people, she just wanted to cling onto some authority for once, but wasn’t wanting to be held accountable or to care for her actions.