This is an assignment i had to do for school, it is the life of Daisy Buchanan after the book ends shown through the eyes of her daughter Pamela (Pammie). Quite Angsty, i would really appreciate your feedback on this seeing as this is a school thing and i'm pretty sure my teacher has a vendetta against me. All reviews are appreciated and VERY welcomed.
If you've read the book you'll pick up on a few more things, but even if u haven't you should still read it.
Title - From the Mouths of Babes
Disclaimer - I do not own the book 'The Great Gatsby'
Summary - The life of Daisy Buchanan after the book ends through the eyes of her daughter Pammie. A school thing. Feedback GREATLY appreciated and Welcomed!
From the Mouths of Babes
All my life my mother measured my worth by my beauty; I would need my looks she repeatedly told me, this was in order to become what society called successful, the only success a woman of this day could hope to be, "A beautiful little fool." My mother was the epitome of this statement, Daisy Buchanan a Southern Belle, still youthful in appearance despite the years that had preceded, perhaps this was due to her neglect of all things except those things which corresponded with her beauty. My mother and I were very different people. It was her, my effervescent mother that jogged me from my thoughts that day, her high-pitched voice floated in from the adjoining room.
"Pammie, darling daddy's brought my cousin Nick Carraway all the way from the Mid West for your wedding, come and meet him." Daisy paused when she gazed upon her daughter.
"Daisy hurry up!" Tom Buchanan belted out from downstairs interrupting Daisy.
Faintly Pamela could here a kind voice, which she presumed to be Nick's politely tell her father that he was a happy to wait and beauties such as Daisy and Pamela should not be rushed. She turned away knowing a brutal comment would promptly follow, her mother, quite oblivious continued in a frazzled state.
"Oh never mind honey, Nick hasn't seen you since you were a baby in my arms only three years old you were, what a nice surprise he'll get when he sees you. Yes," she said with a flick of her wrist, "it will all be fine. Nick is just an absolute rose, yes I remember a rose surrounded by roses." She said the later part to no one in particular as she ambled out of the room.
Normally Daisy's outlandish behaviour did not faze Pamela, she had become accustomed to it over the years, but she had not heard her parents even speak of the man downstairs, yet his mere presence in their home had made Daisy behave exceedingly out of character. Something only a child or spouse could see.
Saying a silent pray I walked downstairs with grace and poise, the type that had been taught from birth, my curiosity of Mr. Carraway I found was well-founded when I finally met the man. "Good morning Mr. Carraway," I said, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you"
"My word, you look just like your mother, as beautiful as can be, so grown up." Nick replied gazing at her
"Well Nick I think you need a refill," Daisy haphazardly said, "Yes of course you do, everyone does." As she grabbed Nick's half-filled glass and hurried off to the kitchen.
"Daisy, what on earth?" Tom yelled to her retreating form, "I'm sorry Nick, you know how Daisy is."
"It's alright really, perhaps Daisy is a bit unwell today" Nick answered diplomatically.
I rose from my chair, "I apologise Nick but I must tend to my mother." As a walked to the kitchen I slowed my pace as to remain unnoticed, slowly I crept around the corner I suddenly froze in place. Daisy was rapidly drowning masses of pills with enormous quantities of hard liquor, hardly Daisy type behaviour. What intrigued me the most was Daisy's slurred speech, before every swig Daisy would whisper the name Jay; this was accompanied by hasty words declaring her love for this mysterious Jay and sounds of immense sorrow. I was intrigued.
I often throughout my life could not place myself as part of the Buchanan family, my parents obvious flaws were not present in me, neither my aptitude in them. I was an individual amongst the relatives my parents chose to frequent with. It troubled me until the day I met Nick Carraway, a distant cousin of my mother, otherwise a non-existent part of my conscious childhood. My day of discovery coincided with the day of my Wedding rehearsal. Nick Carraway with his charm and insightfulness opened not only one door in my road to self-discovery but flung open the floodgates, leaving me to evaluate the person I had become based on the moulds of my parents, specifically my mother. This was also the day socialite Daisy Buchanan descended on a downward spiral that could not be stopped.
As I stared at my mother's obvious pain it was Nick who came up to comfort me.
"Pamela, I don't think you should watch this"
"Who is Jay I asked?" my eyes shining with tears threatening to fall at any moment, I knew I had asked the right person when Nick quickly grabbed my hand and said.
"It's time you knew the truth, before you make the same mistake."
I was not expecting the words that tumbled out of Nick Carraway's mouth, neither my reaction. I knew very well I was marrying not for love, my childhood sweetheart banned from me by my father, replaced by Charlie Sawyer, the son of my fathers' childhood friend, from birth we were both bred to one day marry. Although I knew my decision would exacerbate my mothers condition I chose my own path, looking back I also closed a path, my mothers for she had no where to go, she was a lost child, naïve, vulnerable and alone.
I watched my mother drink herself into oblivion, my father ignorant to the end he was only entertained by his numerous mistresses, while his wife lay cold barely alive for days on end. Daisy Buchanan lacked the energy and magnetism she had exuberated for many years, her youthful radiance gone, as were her pride and self-respect.
Years past after the day Nick Carraway returned to the East Coast and things began to run again. Tom resumed his illicit affairs; I married for love not money and even Daisy seemed to have recovered once again keeping up social appearances. But underneath it all Daisy was hiding, hiding from the world her problems, drowning them with alcohol and drugs. Although I was privy to this I was unable to stop it and thus always though Daisy would be the first of my parents to pass away. It was a cold New York day when Tom Buchanan was hit by a taxi on his way to see his newest mistress.
Tom's funeral was grand, to many he was a grand man, I was an only child mourning my father and my mother was mourning someone greater than my father. My mothers tiny frame that day was found collapsed in the cemetery next to a gravestone in the lower class part of the cemetery.
No one questioned why she was there, her husband was buried on the other side of the cemetery where members of the old money class all lay. I although was curious, I found the gravestone; it was a rather extravagant one. I looked at the dirty stone carefully, no one had obviously visited it in quite a while, the only engravings on the stone were encrusted in dirt; a birth date, a date of death and name. The name spoke more than any words could, Jay Gatsby.
Many believed she died from a broken heart; the loss of her husband was too much for her to bear. I do believe my mother Daisy Buchanan died of a broken heart but to this day I believe her heart was torn in two not shattered by one man alone.
This may seem to you a tale of a daughter watching her mother slowly deteriorate, rather it is a tale of a broken woman. A woman who shied away from the realities of life and the beating of her own heart for 20 years only to be engulfed by it through the acts of her child.
Thankyou for Reading and Please Review any feedback means the world to me - Lil Aussie Alias Chick