‘I always thought it was us women who were the fools,’ I whispered. ‘But I was wrong, it’s been the men all along, hasn’t it?’
Jillian Cantor
Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor is a spinoff of The Great Gatsby that is told from the perspectives of various women who appeared in the novel. In this book, you are able to view certain aspects of the original book in a new light.
A strong parallel between The Great Gatsby and Beautiful Little Fools is the abusive relationship between Tom and Daisy. Jillian Cantor gives us background and insight on the private life of Daisy once her and Tom are married. Not only does Tom have multiple affairs with women, we see just how much of a sexual man he is. Seeing it from Daisy’s perspective allows us to understand how these types of relationships can affect someone, through their partners hot and cold feelings towards them. At the beginning, we learn how she is lured towards not only his money and physical looks (that we know from The Great Gatsby), but also by his ability to manipulate. In the start of their relationship, Tom gives her so much attention, affection, and showers her with luxuries. After that, she is left constantly searching for that validation and comfort she once found in him [that she thinks is love]. For example, on their honeymoon to the south seas, Tom is drunk the whole time and starts to spend less time with Daisy and more time golfing [and with other women] as the week goes on.
Like in the original novel, there is hints of her questioning what all he is up to, but she seems to not do too much about it out of fear and security in where she is at now. The novel does a great job at explaining how abusive domestic relationships work, and in this case, the sexual power dynamic. As the reader, we understand how when Daisy explains their intimate details, just how much Tom is able to take advantage of her. While they were supposed to be on a date on their honeymoon, Tom takes her behind a tree and makes her engage in oral sex with him. Daisy thought it to be spontaneous and part of his carefree personality, but as the novel continues, we [readers] understand that he is just crude and disrespectful. Nevertheless, Daisy learns to be sexual and promiscuous to continuously please him and becomes less of his wife and more of his sex toy.
These details provide great insight to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original because we learn [in Jillian Cantor’s version] of pivotal details that are relevant to the story. Beautiful Little Fools does a great job for the most part of keeping on track with the themes and characterization of The Great Gatsby and reveals so much about their background and why they act the way that they do in the original novel.
On the contrary, referring to the quote at the top, Daisy makes the assertion that men are the fools and not women. In Fitzgerald’s novel, Daisy states that she hopes her daughter is a, “Beautiful little fool.” Fitzgerald plays into the theme of gender and sexism, but here, daisy begins to understand towards the end of the novel that maybe Tom is the issue. Though it contradicts Fitzgerald’s quote, it does assert the idea that Daisy was someone who knew so much about Tom despite what she would display to the world. Daisy’s quote in Beautiful Little Fools seems to prove that she is competent and is in fact a person with her own feelings and desires, regardless of what Tom believes about her.