"All right I said, 'Im glad its a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool--thats the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.'" (17)
Daisy speaks these words in chapter one as Nick asks her about her daughter. She goes on to explain to Nick her feelings after giving birth to a baby girl, and what she says is quite shocking. She says that she hopes her daughter grows up to be a beautiful little fool. This gives the reader an insight into what society was really like back in the early 1900's. From Daisy's perspective, women were not seen as intellectual figures. Instead, they were seen as something to merely look at. As her daughter grows up, she will be forced to focus on the asthetics instead of focusing on bettering herself in things like education, music and such. I believe that when Daisy spoke of her daughter, she could not help but contribute her own personal experience into it. She knows that being a woman is all about looking presentable enough to find a suitor, and then on top of that, look good enough to everyone else to prove that your relationship with your husband is going smoothly. Also, another important part of womanship is motherhood. Women were looked upon as visuals as well as birthing babies for their husbands. One does not need intelligence to do any of the above, which is why Daisy said that her daughter will be a beautiful little fool. I believe that Daisy has this hope for her daughter because a woman who questioned things such as social class and actually went to work was not highly looked upon. Daisy hoped that her daughter would grow up to be a fool so that she would blend into society and remain within the status quo, instead of breaking it and drawing negative attention to herself. Here we discover the superficiality of the 1920's and the roles of women in society. Also, another thing that i want to bring up is why was Daisy glad that she had a girl if she would experience nothing but oppression and strict social guidelines? Why didn't she want to give birth to a son? Back in this time period, boys were allowed to go to college, participate in politics and have jobs and be successful. So why didn't Daisy wish this for her child? It could possibly be the impact that Tom had on her. He was aggressive, unfaithful and hulkish. It's easy to see why she wouldn't want to raise another Tom! She would rather have a beautiful little girl who would never be able to experience life the way she wants to instead of having an impressionable little boy who could quite possibly end up like her terrible husband. This quote said alot about Daisy's character in that she grew up in a strict social class, and knew the same thing would happen to her daughter, so the best advice she had for her was to grow up to be a beautiful little fool, which of course she learned from her experience. This is just the beginning of our adventure in finding out who exactly Daisy really is and how her character plays out in the end.
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