Daisy's siren song...the sound of money.

Good reading involves paying attention to small details.  When an author repeatedly mentions such a detail, he or she is often trying to make use of what is called a motif.  A motif is a recurring symbol, image or idea in a work of literature.  When a close reader sees a motif, she should begin to ask herself what purpose the author might have had for repeating the idea.

One major motif in the novel, The Great Gatsby, is Daisy Buchanan's voice.  One early mention of the voice is found in this quote:

I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice.  It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.  Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered "Listen," a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour. (Chapter 1)

The voice excited everyone, especially men, and most especially Gatsby.  It even enchanted her cousin, the narrator, Nick Carraway:

For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened .... (Chapter 1)

Daisy leaned forward again, her voice glowing and singing. (Chapter 1)

Perhaps Daisy never went in for amour at all - yet there's something in that voice of hers....  (Chapter 4)

The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.  I had to follow the sound of it for a moment, up and down, with my ear alone, before any words came through. (Chapter 5)

And Nick became aware how much Daisy's voice had seized control of Gatsby:

I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn't be over-dreamed - that voice was a deathless song. (Chapter 5)

Given how Gatsby ended up in the end, the final clause in the previous quote is a verbal irony.  Later still we find that Daisy's voice is not only beautiful and mesmerizing, it is even controlling:

 ...Daisy's voice was playing murmurous tricks in her throat. (Chapter 6)

Daisy began to sing with the music in a husky, rhythmic whisper, bringing out a meaning in each word that it had never had before and would never have again.  When the melody rose, her voice broke up sweetly, following it, in a way contralto voices have and each change tipped out a little of her warm human magic upon the air. (Chapter 6)

Daisy's voice got us to our feet and out on to the blazing gravel drive. (Chapter 7)

In the end, Nick finally put it all together when he and Gatsby had the following discussion:

"She's got an indiscreet voice," I remarked.  "It's full of -" I hesitated.

"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. 

That was it.  I'd never understood it before.  It was full of money - that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbal's song of it....  High in the white palace the king's daughter, the golden girls.... (Chapter 7)

This is where Fitzgerald was able to tie Daisy's enchanting voice in with the pull that material wealth has on many Americans.  In the same way that her voice led Gatsby to his demise, pulling him forward into a life of criminal activity, money can draw people into questionable choices in the real world.  Granted, this puts blame on Daisy for Gatsby's bad choices, but this seems to be what Fitzgerald wanted us to see.  Just as Dan Cody lost his life to Ella Kaye, Gatsby lost his life to Daisy.

In Greek mythology, there were sea nymphs called Sirens, whose beautiful voices would draw sailors towards them.  Some sailors would dive into the water and drown trying to get to their island.  Others got there and died anyway.  Odysseus was aware of the danger that the Sirens posed for him, for his sailors and their ship, so he ordered his crew to strap him to the mast.  Odysseus covered his ears with wax, and that was how he was able to sail past the Sirens without being destroyed.

Unfortunately, no one tied Gatsby to his mast, so he was able to follow his personal siren song until it destroyed him.  Who will tie you to the mast while money sings its potentially deadly song.  Or will you be drawn into the rough seas of commerce where you could lose your life... or maybe just your house, or your family....  Money may be the root of evil, but only if you blindly follow the dreams that it claims it can help you buy.

In my earlier blog about the green light, I discussed how Fitzgerald implied that we have lost our way, that the settlers would be disappointed with what we have done with the American Dream.  Perhaps we have been following the siren song of material gain?  Financial security is a necessity, but opulence is a luxury that, perhaps, neither we nor our planet can afford.  According to Creditcards.com, the average credit card debt per household was $15,799.  Even at a modest 15% rate, that means that families are paying $2370 just in interest on these debts per year, which does not include mortgages, car payments, insurance, etc.  Additionally, a report sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program states that "Global demand exceeds the regenerative capacity of the planet by about 20 per cent."  Worse, if every human on Earth consumed like the average American, we would need nearly five planets to sustain this usage.  Americans currently represent 5% of the world's population but we consume 24% of its resources.  The question I have to ask is, how does the rest of the world get by without all of our stuff?

The next time you are watching the Super Bowl and you see one of those great commercials for which advertisers pay 3 million dollars per 30 second spot, understand that you may be seeing products you would love to purchase, but also consider that they may be modern sirens drawing you and us to our own destruction.