The Truth About Daisy- Compares Sallie Bingham's "The Truth about Growing up Rich" with Scott Fitzgerald's character in the Great Gatsby Daisy

Essay by genissisHigh School, 12th gradeA, May 2004

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The Truth about Daisy

Sallie Bingham in the article "The Truth about Growing up Rich" describes the society that contains her power and role as a woman. While her article was published in June of 1986 it might as well been the basis for Scott Fitzgerald's character, Daisy Buchanan, in The Great Gatsby. Bingham says that women are held captive in the upper crust of society. Their visibility is reduced as they are hidden behind the large institutions of their fathers and husbands. Daisy and Tom's marriage is a perfect example of a woman, not being able to give up her luxurious life and position and settling for a situation that subjugates her. Daisy is often portrayed as a frail nonbeing sitting in the corner of a room in a paisley white dress. Initially one might default to the cliché of white symbolizing purity and innocence. Upon closer examination, there is no place for innocence in The Great Gatsby and no reason for it.

In the setting of the roaring 20s each character boasts a life of lavish sin. Daisy is draped in white because white is the absence of all color the same way that she is the absence of all of the consequences of her actions. She was never taught responsibility or maturity because everything has always been taken care for her.

Bingham would describe Daisy as a somewhat typical rich woman. She would also say that it is somewhat of an anomaly that she is aware of her precarious situation. She knows that her power and abilities in life are limited by her social status when she says that she would wish for her daughter to be "... a beautiful fool..." it must not only be very discouraging but also hurtful to realize that the...