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What simile in the paragraph starting with “When they met again two days later ...” suggests something about Daisy?
Quick answer:
The simile "gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor" suggests Daisy's beauty and wealth, highlighting the socioeconomic gap between her and Gatsby. Silver's preciousness and susceptibility to tarnishing symbolize Daisy's charm and flaws, implying that while her beauty is alluring, it is also superficial and vulnerable to decay. This reflects the class divide and Daisy's privileged, untarnished lifestyle, unaffected by the struggles of those like Gatsby.
The comparison of Daisy to silver to which this question refers is an interesting one. The simile definitely enhances the distance between Daisy and Gatsby when it is interpreted in terms of their personal economic histories, but the simile also contains specific ideas about Daisy's character. The choice to compare Daisy to silver at this time in the novel suggests that Daisy and her beauty are precious, just as silver metal is precious, but susceptible to tarnishing. As well, silver is somewhat costly, and Gastby suffers greatly as a result of the intense emotions he expends on Daisy throughout the novel.
Unlike the precious metals gold and platinum, silver can tarnish, or become dirty, when exposed to the elements. Daisy, like silver, cannot maintain the purity and innocence of her youth, a time during which she could rely on her voice and her beauty to carry her through life. As...
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she grows up, her flaws become obvious to the people around her, much like silver visibly tarnishes as it ages. Daisy's fickle side and her indecisive and foolish nature become problematic, especially for Gatsby, and though time passes, she is unable to mature. Daisy's tarnished character is damaging to others, and the lustrous qualities of Daisy dim as the novel progresses, confirming that this simile comparing Daisy to silver is indeed an apt one.
This section of the book recounts when Gatsby first meets Daisy, while he is stationed at Camp Taylor during World War I. A great deal of this recounting focuses on the great class divide between them. Gatsby falls in love with her, but he is painfully aware that,
...he was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any minute the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders (156).
Daisy has no idea that he is from a different world because his uniform "cloaks" the differences between them.
When he takes leave of her, "She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life..." (156-57). Thus even before we get to the paragraph referenced in the question, we can see that money and class are important elements of this relationship.
It is in this paragraph that Daisy is said to be "gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor" (157). This simile, as many other descriptions of Daisy in the novel, is meant to convey yet again the socioeconomic difference between Gatsby and Daisy. There is a hint of an allusion, I think, to the idea that one is "born with a silver spoon in one's mouth," an expression conveying the person born into wealth, rather than attaining a wealthy status with hard work or even good luck. This simile also reminds me that it was the servants who polished the silver in Daisy's world, the work of the poor creating the "gleaming" beauty of objects that they could not hope to own. And Daisy herself is really a gleaming object, too, standing well above the poor, including Gatsby.
The reader already knows at this point that Daisy has elected to stay in her world, rejecting Gatsby's love and wealth, and that his inability to win her away from Tom is based on the fact that he is not from her world. When Fitzgerald takes us back to Gatsby and Daisy's first encounters, we can see that the seeds of impossibility were sown from the very beginning.