Why doesn’t Daisy choose Gatsby?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my mind Anna Karenina is what would have happened if Daisy had left Tom for Gatsby.

Oh man. That's so grim.

It's been ages since I read Anna Karenina (and loved it along with Kate Chopin's The Awakening in a similar vein). While I agree nothing good would have come of Daisy leaving Tom, Daisy seems far too narcissistic to ever pull an Anna Karenina or an Edna Pontellier, both of whom seem far more true victims than Daisy. Daisy uses Tom as much as Tom uses Daisy, it seems to me.

[Anonymous]

It's been decades since I read the book. Did Daisy even kiss him or anything? Seemed like she was just toying with him and/or Gatsby was exaggerating her interest. It's like a woman have an office "boyfriend". Maybe flirty but break up the family for him? Um, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an æsthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

And as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

I still get chills.

I used to reread this book every year or so back in my 20s and early 30s. Loved the way he had with words.

Now I feel there's a bit too much self indulgence in his writing.

[Anonymous]

I read this many years ago as required reading, so I tried to read it again by choice as a mature adult, and I couldn't get into it.

I'm sure that reflects badly on me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's been decades since I read the book. Did Daisy even kiss him or anything? Seemed like she was just toying with him and/or Gatsby was exaggerating her interest. It's like a woman have an office "boyfriend". Maybe flirty but break up the family for him? Um, no.

I don’t believe it was explicitly stated but I thought it was clear they had a full affair. Nick was their cover many times.

[Anonymous]

This thread made me realize that this book sucked to me when I had to read it as a kid and I watched the old movie with Redford and still didn't get it and haven't bothered to watch the new version. I went to the Wiki and was reading about it and realized I just never cared about these characters. I didn't care if Gatsby got Daisy or whatever. I DID however care about Pony Boy and loved that book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daisy and Tom are both sluts. She could not slut around on Gatsby, he would not have it.

Daisy is like all other women having affairs she romanticizes who Gatsby is in her head, but it's not real... he's just a new money gangster.

Not only does she not choose Gatsby, he was never a real option.

+100

[Anonymous]

The whole point of the Great Gatsby is how ephemeral everything is for the very rich. The clue is in the beginning of the book. The rich are different from you and me.

This includes things like love. Daisy probably could have run away from Gatsby but love itself was always ephemeral for her. Temporary, not quite real, more a fling and passion of the moment but would never be lasting. Like you would treat fashion and shopping and vacations. The corrupting influence of money affecting all your sensibilities. Daisy lives on a cloud in an incredibly rarified world where everything else is effectively meaningless objects, and this includes other people. The closest she comes to something permanent is her child and Tom is the father of her child and that provides the most "real" thing in her life.

[Anonymous]

I always thought any chance he had with Daisy was his own delusions. Like the REM song Losing My Religion, “I thought that I heard you laughing/singing/trying...” It’s in his head, he’s fooling himself.

Daisy leaving her rich high caste husband and father to her only child for a gangster is preposterous, especially in the 1920s.

Gatsy was just a fling when young Daisy was rebelling and in her late teens, very early 20s. He’s obsessed, not realizing she was just briefly slumming with him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been decades since I read the book. Did Daisy even kiss him or anything? Seemed like she was just toying with him and/or Gatsby was exaggerating her interest. It's like a woman have an office "boyfriend". Maybe flirty but break up the family for him? Um, no.

I don’t believe it was explicitly stated but I thought it was clear they had a full affair. Nick was their cover many times.

Yeah, it's pretty clear that they are having an affair. But while it's serious for Gatsby, Daisy just isn't as invested. She likes the attention and it's flattering to be adored, plus her husband is a oafish jerk who's already cheating on her, and she's bored and looking for novelty and amusement, but she has a lot to lose if she leaves Tom, including her child; she's not going to sacrifice her life for Gatsby. Plus, I don't think she *has* really deep feelings; as the novel points out, she's one of those careless people who leave destruction in her wake.

[Anonymous]

Although I always felt like Nick was going on about how Daisy and Tom smashed up Gatsby but of course they also smashed up and used up Myrtle who if anything is even more of a victim of Tom and Daisy than Gatsby was.

[Anonymous]

Somebody like Daisy was never going to make any choice other than the "safe" choice, so it almost doesn't matter whether she loved Gatsby or was just having some escapist fun. Yes, I know her husband was a jerk, but she knew how the world worked ("I hope my daughter is a fool") and she wasn't going to rock that boat.

[Anonymous]

Did Woody Allen's "Match Point" and "Blue Jasmine" sort of steal themes from Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby? Both films are about lower caste strivers desperate seeking status vs. genuine love in relationships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Woody Allen's "Match Point" and "Blue Jasmine" sort of steal themes from Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby? Both films are about lower caste strivers desperate seeking status vs. genuine love in relationships.

The point with Gatsby is that be strives for the sole reason of winning Daisy. He believes he can win Daisy if he gains money and power. He is not striving solely for money and power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was merely slumming it with Gatsby back in the day. A proper high caste girl briefly rebelling, nothing more. Low class gangster Gatsby was deluded and desperate for it to be more.

It's like middle class kids who go to an Ivy or even a public U full of rich kids like UVA and party with and even hook up with rich kids. They think they're really "in" with the rich kids. But after graduation those "friendships" almost immediately fade and all the rich kids end up marrying each other.

Ouch. But so true. You might even score an invite to a few of the weddings but you are not in their club, you are merely a hang from college.

Water always returns to its level.