The Character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby

The character of Daisy Buchanan has many instances where her life and love of herself, money, and materialism come into play. Daisy is constantly portrayed as someone who is only happy when things are being given to her and circumstances are going as she has planned them. Because of this, Daisy seems to be the character that turns Fitzgerald's story from a tale of wayward love to a saga of unhappy lives. Fitzgerald portrays Daisy as a "doomed" character from the very beginning of the novel. She seems concerned only of her own stability and is sometimes not ready to go though what she feels she must do to continue the life that she has grown to know. She tells that she only married Tom Buchanan for the security he offered and love had little to do with the issue. Before her wedding, Jordan Baker finds Daisy in her hotel room, "groping around in the waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pull[ing] out [a] string of pearls. "Take 'em down-stairs and give 'em back.... Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mine... She began to cry - she cried and cried... we locked the door and got her into a cold bath." (Fitzgerald 77)

Money seems to be one of the very top priorities in her life, and everyone that she surrounds herself with, including her daughter, seem to accept this as mere fact with her. She lives in one of the most elite neighborhoods in the state, in one of the most elegant houses described in the book, and intends very much for her daughter to grow up much like she has. "And I hope she'll be a fool --that's the best thing a girl can be in this world today, a beautiful little fool." (Fitzgerald 24) She raves repeatedly of boats and large windows and halls where many a extravagant party is held. This only stands remind of her reliance on material goods and her stories of her gowns and home furnishings confirm this sad fact. Daisy is one woman who is at home in Bloomingdales, and shuns anyone who would be out-of-place at a gathering of societies richest and most pompous citizens. She is forever looking forward to showing off, and she exhibits such behavior when she parades her daughter around in front of guests like an inanimate object. So intimate in fact, that it seems as if Pammy was not even really wanted.