A Photo Called Daisy Green
This multigenre piece was a portrait on Daisy Buchanan and her personality that is partially based on Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda. Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is a young socialite in love with money and the glamorous luxury she finds in East Egg. With out the capability of loyalty, I don’t feel Daisy can leave the green aura that surrounds her.
In this portrait, the viewer most likely directs their eyes first to the dark dress draped on the dining chair. It is a 20s styled, drop waist cocktail dress; something fancy that Daisy would have over her shoulders. It is there for the physical representation of Daisy, Zelda, or the personality they both hold. It catches the viewers’ eye like Daisy would to a young gent at one of Gatsby’s party.
The money overlaying the book and the single twenty dollar bill on the floor next to the hanging dress is a key symbol in this piece. It is the overall representation of not just Daisy’s own affair with money, but also the American dream that Gatsby had held close to his heart. The book on the dinning table is actually Tender is the Night, another of Fitzgerald’s work. This book on its own symbolizes Nick Carraway’s own documentation on Gatsby and his journey and the reader’s questioning of truth within the story. With the wine glass knocked over and empty it conveys the end of lavish parties and the realization of Daisy’s shallowness.
Overall, the green atmosphere of the photo is a representation of the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. The green light in the novel represented Gatsby’s own dream of obtaining Daisy, and also the American Dream and a more general ideal. Although the dress soaks up the green light, it my as well be any other color, for to Daisy or Zelda, green just means wealth in their pretty little eyes.
My inspiration came from a biography on Zelda Fitzgerald (http://www.flapperjane.com/July%20August/zelda.htm) and from looking at beautiful photos from the Jazz Age.
Sasha Parker
