In The Great Gatsby, when Daisy
pretends that she is happy her baby is a girl and that she hopes she is a "beautiful
little fool," she is stating that she is aware that virtually the only opportunity for
advancement a woman has in patriarchal America in her day is to act stupid and be
pretty. Daisy is stating the reality of her situation, and of the situation her
daughter will face.
Daisy is intelligent and witty, and
she's smart enough to know how to survive as a woman in a male-dominated world. The
American Dream is, for the most part, inaccessible to a woman. The only chance a woman
has is to be a beautiful little fool.
Daisy is really
disappointed that her baby is a daughter:
She [the nurse] told me it was a girl, and so I
turned my head away and
wept.
In a display of
despair, she then says:
'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And
I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful
little fool.'
Daisy's
daughter's only shot at the American Dream is to act stupid and look pretty and marry a
wealthy man. Men have other choices in the world of America in the 1920's, but the
women do not seem to.
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