Student Question
What does Nick infer the "secret society" Daisy and Tom belong to consists of, in The Great Gatsby?
[Daisy said,] "...She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘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.”
“You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow,” [Daisy] went on in a convinced way. “Everybody thinks so — the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.” Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. “Sophisticated — God, I’m sophisticated!”
The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.
Quick answer:
In "The Great Gatsby", Nick infers that the "secret society" Daisy and Tom belong to is a group of people who understand the harsh realities of life, including the bitterness of marriage and the hollowness of wealth. It's suggested that Daisy, aware of Tom's infidelities, shares a grim understanding with him about these truths. Daisy's dissatisfaction with her life and marriage, as well as her sarcastic claim of sophistication, further underline this interpretation.
Daisy's smirk, and the reference to the "secret society," can be understood to mean several things. On the face of it, she seems to hinting that she knows about Tom's affair; her remark that "everything's terrible" suggests that maybe because of the affair, her life with Tom has shown her the hollowness of life, a hidden truth all the "advanced people" know. There is also a sense in which the "secret society" reference might mean her participation in a shared secret with Tom: that, far from resenting Tom's infidelity, she and Tom share a kind of grim understanding that finds expression in the brutality of her marriage. It's as if the "secret society" consists of the people who know the unspoken truth of things, something she hopes her daughter will be spared by being a "beautiful fool."
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