Skip to main content

What does Daisy say about Nick?

When Nick arrives at the Buchanans' home in chapter one, he spends some time catching up with his cousin, Daisy, who he hasn't seen for several years.  At dinner, after Tom leaves the table to take a call from his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, Daisy tells Nick, "'I love to see you at my table [...].  You remind me of a -- of a rose, an absolute rose.'"  However, Nick finds such a comment sort of ridiculous because he is nothing like a rose.  He realizes that she is only "extemporizing," or speaking on the spur of the moment, but he marks the comment because he is affected by the "stirring warmth [which] flowed from her, as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words."  Daisy seems to possess a peculiar kind of magnetism.  She can really say or do just about anything she wants -- however untrue or silly -- because she can get away with it.  This "warmth" that she has seems to draw people to her and excuse her lack of sincerity, even when they realize, as Nick does, that she is only "extemporizing" as a result of the moment.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.