Chapter 7

I was really moved by the way Gatsby behaves towards Daisy and how much he loves her. Although it was she who hit Myrtle, Gatsby took the blame in order to save Daisy. On the other hand Daisy seemed to have lost all concern for Gatsby after the accident and found herself more comfortable with her superficial, hypocritical husband than with the man that loved her truly and was willing to die for her. This is illustrates that Gatsby isn’t meant to be a part of Daisy’s wealthy, snobbish world as he values love over money. Tom, even though he is insistent that Daisy loves him and that he loves her, isn’t able to comprehend the value of love and the meaning it has for Gatsby. Daisy ‘loves’ Tom because he provides her with a comfortable wealthy lifestyle surrounded by people of her own class. For Tom, Daisy is a pretty girl of wealthy background that keeps him feeling secure and successful. Tom thinks of Daisy in a similar way that Daisy thinks of her daughter. Daisy has no real concern for her daughter, who is a mere doll-like being that Daisy has access to when she wants to show off to her friends. Daisy introduces her daughter to Gatsby and Nick saying, “That’s because your mother wanted to show you off…you dream, you. You absolute little dream”(177). In a similar way, Tom likes to know that Daisy is available whenever he needs her for support or pleasure but in actuality he has no feelings for her that go as deep as true love. As Nick portrayed at the beginning of the novel the rich are mostly made up of phonies. Daisy and her society are not evil, apathetic people; they are just childlike characters that enjoy the security of materialistic objects and people that they can relate to. For Daisy, Gatsby is too complex and alien for her to understand. His genuine love for her is too much for her too deal with and for that reason she turns back to the simpleminded Tom for security.