Sunday, January 5, 2014

Do Daisy and Nick have a close relationship in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby?

I would argue Daisy and Nick do not have a close relationship. Daisy is Nick's "second cousin once removed" (Fitzgerald 10), hardly a close relative. There is no reference to anything like their having spent time together in their childhood or in their teens. Nick refers to spending a few days with Tom and Nick after World War I when the couple was in Chicago, but as the book opens, it appears Nick barely knows Daisy. He actually seems to know Daisy's husband Tom much better, having been in college with him. As he discusses Daisy and Tom and why they might have moved east, he says, "I had no sight into Daisy's heart" (10). Nick's relationship with Daisy is about to become closer; his presence as their neighbor exposes him to them a great deal, and he learns about their marital difficulties, Daisy's past with Gatsby, and what kind of person Daisy is now. Still, there is no great intimacy between them. Nick is an observer, not at all engaged in being close to Daisy or Tom, or really, anyone in the book, with the exception of Gatsby, the only person who truly engages him at all.

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