Ashlynn Berry – Page 2 – Gatz and Glamour

The musician Lana Del Rey, has always been in the forefront of my mind when I think about and read The Great Gatsby. Not only because she wrote a song for the film, but because she has always just given me “Gatsby core” vibes.

Lana Del Rey’s song titled, “White Mustang” is a perfect musical and lyrical representation of how I think Daisy was feeling when she began to be suspicious of where all Tom would go out to.

Summer’s meant for lovin’ and leavin’/ I was such a fool for believin’ that you/ could change all the ways you’ve been livin’/ but you just couldn’t stop
Lana Del Rey

The song is about a woman who is at the end of her back and forth relationship with a man. She really likes him but can not fix his ways like she originally thought she would be able to. Still, the girl is so drawn to the way her makes her feel, despite all the flaws.

One major part of the chorus is the repetition of the words, “The day I saw your white mustang.” Although Tom did not own a Mustang, quite frankly because they did not come out until the sixties, he still had the same infatuation with luxury/sports cars. Similarly, Daisy also fell for his psychical appearance and his wealth that he would exude. Just like how Lana Del Rey stated about how she was a fool, Daisy referenced how she wanted her daughter to also be a, “Beautiful little fool” when it came to men.

Daisy also hoped that Tom would change all the way that he was living after they got married. In the book, Jordan told Nick the story of how Daisy did not even want to marry Tom on her wedding day.

When listening to the song, the second chorus of “White Mustang” starts to sound like, “Why am I staying?” When I first heard this years ago, I looked it up—to make sure I was not crazy—and there were many people who heard the same thing and shared their input on it. In my own world of interpretation, I like to think of it as the phenomenon of when you begin to think one thing, but immediately cut yourself off. To me, she is trying to justify her love for this man with her heart, but her head cuts her off and says, “Why am I staying?”

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Towards the end of the song, she calls the man wild, and it correlates to a quote Nick says in the book about the Buchanan’s being careless. In “White Mustang,” part of the reason that she is drawn to him is because of his reckless and wild side, which she also may possess a little bit of herself. In the same way, Daisy has a slight reckless side to her by the way that she cheats on her husband alongside him cheating on her, perhaps it was the thing that kept them together.

‘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.

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Author: Ashlynn Berry

White Mustang

The Honeymoon Phase