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Similarities Between Daisy Miller And The Great Gatsby

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Journal #1: The short story Daisy Miller by Henry James intrigues me in various ways, such as the implication of a black and white world when Randolf is comparing American and European societies. This theme is further represented during Winterbourne’s observant and analytical episodes. He compares and contrasts the characteristics that European and American females portray in society’s norms. Through these recurrences of black and white ideological comparisons, I was reminded of a similar resemblance within The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and his illustration of “new money” versus “old money,” which also occurs within Daisy Miller. Moreover, I find it perplexing that Winterbourne’s aunt, Mrs. Costello, says that Daisy Miller is attracted to the courier Eugenio. This makes me question the intentions behind Daisy’s actions of repetitive signs of …show more content…

Although there has been nothing particularly romantic happening between Winterbourne and Daisy Miller, he still hopes for signs of interest from her. This makes me wonder if he is captivated by a spontaneous yet unstable lifestyle. Throughout the short story, Winterbourne remains to be interested in Daisy, especially her mysteriousness and beauty despite her “vulgar” behavior. Furthermore, despite being warned about the “Roman fever,” or malaria, Daisy Miller portrayed no signs of changing her plans to meet with her friend Mr. Giovanelli. This leads to Winterbourne’s questioning her motives while at the same time being attracted to her. After meeting up with Mr. Giovanelli, Winterbourne regards Giovanelli as not a “proper gentleman” and thinks of him as being inferior. I don’t understand why Winterbourne judges Giovanelli so harshly without knowing him in depth while he trusts and is attracted to Daisy’s

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In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays women in an extremely negative light. The idea Fitzgerald gives off is that women are only good for their looks and their bodies and that they should just be a sex symbol rather than actually use their heads. He treats women like objects and the male characters in the novel use women, abuse women, and throw them aside. I believe that Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are prime examples of women in The Great Gatsby being treated poorly.

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1421 Words | 6 Pages

Daisy shows her struggles with the social status of women through her daughter and relationship with Tom. Jordan proves that being a “new” women of the 1920s comes with a price of judgment and accusations of dishonesty. Myrtle seeks to become a member of the

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1398 Words | 6 Pages

At the early 1920’s society’s view on divorce was not good, women who wanted to get away from their husbands would be looked down upon and ignored by the people, not having a job or a place to go the women had no choice to but to bare with the men they lived with. In the case of Daisy and Tom, they were both very attractive and wealthy people, they should had been a perfect couple in the eyes of the public, but the truth was far from it, Tom also explained to his mistress on why he didn’t think Daisy would ever want to get divorced. “You see,” cried Catherine. Triumphantly, she lowered her voice again. “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart.

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1216 Words | 5 Pages

“She told Gatsby that she loved him (118) yet she left him behind without saying goodbye. Daisy had the same effect on the protagonist as the witches did (death). The protagonists became so attached to these women (and what they said) that it resulted in their downfall. The only difference is that this was the witches intentions Geography Matter---

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853 Words | 4 Pages

Daisy realizes how women during her time were always led by men without a voice since their decisions, opinions, and thoughts were second to those of males and their everyday lives were determined men. Daisy is expressing how due to their marginalization women are better off being fooled and dumb because the voice of women did

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428 Words | 2 Pages

In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a modern woman; she is sophisticated, careless and beautifully shallow. Daisy knows who she is, and what it takes for her to be able to keep the lifestyle she grew up in, and this adds to her carelessness and her feigned interest in life. In all, Daisy is a woman who will not sacrifice material desires or comfort for love or for others, and her character is politely cruel in this way. Daisy’s main strength, which buoyed her throughout her youth and when she was in Louisville, is her ability to know what was expected of her and feign cluelessness.

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889 Words | 4 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are among the most prominent exponents of literature of the twentieth century. Forming part of the Lost Generation, these authors not only develop similar themes throughout their works, but heavily influenced each other. The Great Gatsby being Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, serves as a prime illustration of the staples of contemporary literature. In the novel The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, the author depicts himself through a character, Nick Carraway, conforming to other self depiction common in the Lost Generation, such as Hemingway in the Nick Adams stories. Nick Carraway and Nick Adams represent Fitzgerald and Hemingway, both serving as apertures into Fitzgerald’s and Hemingway’s view of the world.

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2003 Words | 9 Pages

When Tom Buchanan has an affair with Myrtle, he leads her astray for her to believe that he loves her, even though he does not, resulting in her death. When Daisy does not show up to Gatsby’s funeral, she proves to her cousin that she is nothing but childish. Based on the outcomes of the careless actions of these

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995 Words | 4 Pages

I finally realized Daisy had a huge impact in this book because of the article written by Leland Person Jr. called “Herstory” and Daisy Buchanan. In the first paragraph of the essay, Person explained what other people thought of Daisy Buchanan, “To Robert Ornstein she is criminally amoral, and Alfred Kazin judges her vulgar and inhuman” (250). Person responds to these claims by stating what he believes Daisy really is, “Daisy, in fact, is more victim than victimizer” (250). Person emphasizes that even though many people believe Daisy was evil, she actually should not be faulted because she was the one that was the victim. These findings have important consequences for the broader domain of world perspective.

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1088 Words | 5 Pages

When the readers are first introduced to Daisy Buchanan, Nick describes her wearing a white dress and “...laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh” (Fitzgerald 80). When you think about the word charming, what do you think of? At first maybe sweet, kind-hearted, and other admirable adjectives because those are the characteristics of a prince charming. Daisy’s charm is the complete opposite. She uses it to get what she wants which is why she tricks the reader sto think that she’s still in love with him when in reality

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2439 Words | 10 Pages

He refers to her as “this woman” when he describes how she “rushed out at [them];” his attitude towards this person he just ran over was less than of her being a human being and more like she was some stray animal destined to be roadkill. Between these three characters, they are all part of a web that was the vision of women in the 1920s. In a particularly powerful interaction between Daisy, the typical, submissive, beautiful woman; and Jordan, the accomplished, defiant and trouble seeking woman; we see these two personas mingle on an extremely hot summer day. Daisy is whining and crying about how she sees no future in the unbelievable heat, showing her strong tendency for overreaction and her inability to see beyond now. Jordan, however, replies to her, saying to Daisy to not be “morbid” and that “life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall”, showing her progressive

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2397 Words | 10 Pages

The era’s “perfect woman”, Daisy Buchanan, is a bubbly, conflicted woman whose choice is between two men: her husband, Tom Buchanan, and her former lover Jay Gatsby. Since Daisy’s character was written in the 1920s, women’s characters were based on the traditional women of the time period, and many women then were still seen as objects and as less desirable than men. When Daisy is invited to Gatsby’s mansion, her first sight of him in many years upon seeing his expensive clothing, she is so overcome with emotion that she begins to weep “with a strained sound” and begins to “cry stormily” showing her true reaction to something as petty as material objects (92). She continues, claiming that

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1570 Words | 7 Pages

To start off, it is known that Daisy chooses to contradict many things going on in her life. In this time period, it was not uncommon for married men to have affairs with other women, while the other way around was not acceptable. When reading this novel, we

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720 Words | 3 Pages

When Daisy appears for the first time in the book, the author associates her character with light, purity and innocence. With her dress, “they were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering”(8), she

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1399 Words | 6 Pages

Myrtle is accustomed to living an underprivileged life where feminine power engulfs her, but Tom is too egotistical to allow Myrtle to speak with such authority to him. Similarly, Gatsby’s need for assurance from Daisy pressures her into revealing to Tom that she never loved him (Fitzgerald 132). Deep down, Daisy knows that she truly did love Tom once, but Gatsby’s assertiveness and persistence drives her over the edge to telling Tom that what the two of them shared meant nothing to her. Daisy’s attribute of being a pushover is revealed immensely because she refuses to stand up for herself. Daisy is used to enabling Tom to constantly control all aspects of her life, and that leaves her powerless in society.

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