Gatsby's tell-all...sort of

Wednesday, April 6, 2011 9:39 PM Posted by Emily Looney
"Through this twilight universe, Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the flood beside her bed." (151) The motif and symbol of death resounds in this work but in a subtle way for the most part until the end of the novel. This quote is embedded in the story that covers the majority of chapter 8 when Gatsby tells Nick more of his life story, focusing on the times when he met Daisy and was trying to keep her to himself. This quote tells when Daisy began to stop waiting for Gatsby because he was still poor, he was at Oxford for a few months, and apparently she cannot wait for her "true love" for six months to get back home. She began to drift back into her old habits and eventually found Tom Buchanan to marry. She told Gatsby in a letter while he was still at Oxford, and that one of the reasons she was marrying Tom was because he was somewhat of high stature in society and he was wealthy enough to keep her secure and give her what ever she wants. Back to the symbol of death, this quote speaks of the dying orchids on the floor when she fell asleep. The orchids are a reminder of the short-lived "loves" that she had that came and went as quickly as the flowers bloomed and died in her household. I feel like Daisy never really had "love" with any of these men, not even Tom nor Gatsby because she could never be satisfied. In the end, Gatsby, her longest standing orchid, died too without so much as her showing up to give her condolences.

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