I believe that a Golden Girl is ultimately someone that people look up to. I don’t think it can be put as someone who people admire as when you are looking up to someone, it usually means you believe them to be better than you or that the stereotype is for them to be better you. With this in mind it is possible to look up to someone but not exactly admire them. An example of this is though the homeless people of the 20’s may see Daisy Buchanan and envy her and look up to her, they most likely do not admire her as she treats them badly. I think the characteristics that define a “Golden Girl” is more about the things on the outside that people see, e.g. wealth, looks publicity, instead of who they truly are as a person as most people do not know this as since they are the Golden Girl it is hard to get close to them and actually find out who they are as a person. Being the Golden Girl is completely reliant on how others view you.
Daisy is clever as she truly knows what she, a woman, must do to get the extravagant life she wants and has due to her knowing this. She knows that as a woman, it is best to be a fool and not do things on your accord as that is simply how it is in the 20’s. As a woman, the best life can be achieved by simply being an object for men, to be married into a rich family and simply handed wealth. This is the easiest and safest route a woman could take in the 20’s and Daisy is smart enough to flawlessly incorporate these twisted ideals into her life. In the text she voices these ideal as she speaks to her child hoping she will be a fool as “thats the best thing a girl can be in this world”.
Gatsby, throughout his life, pursued Daisy as though she was a trophy that he wanted to hang up on his wall. He heavily objectified her on many occasions. The first of which was during his first time meeting her when he was drawn to her exponentially more by the thought of how many other men wanted her too. This showed that he thought that she was more valuable just as any object is more valuable the more it is sought after. And one of the last of which is during the explosive encounter in the apartment in town where Gatsby and Daisy’s affair was revealed to Tom when Gatsby was saying that she was all excited now reading her “emotions” (if he even views hers as that) as if he was reading a simple book. Daisy is nothing more than a goal to Gatsby that he has become all too consumed by.
I believe this is gone over in my answer to question 1
I think that Daisy smashes up two lives, Gatsby’s and more literally, Myrtle’s. Daisy doesn’t have a care in the world and being part of the class she is in feels entitled to smash up anything and anyone with the belief that she will not only suffer no consequences but also not be required to sort it out. Simply destroy and leave. The two examples I gave become linked in the end. She directly kills Myrtle which (with the help of Tom which is made evident in the movie) in turn ends Gatsby’s life.
Daisy is truly amoral and Nick comes to that realisation toward the end of the novel and sees her for what she truly is. Daisy is amoral on many accounts, the most blatant of which is her killing Myrtle and blaming it on Gatsby and simply fleeing the scene. Throughout the novel, she doesn’t portray any morales only caring about herself and her wealth. She lets those around her settle her affairs and problems without a care in the world. “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…” This shows how she will completely destroy something or someone and simply no care and just think her or rather her husbands’ money will take care of it. There are no morales there.
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