Our EDitor's Mailbox
Dear Editor,
I am exceedingly outraged by the things Nick Carraway assumed and wrote about me in The Great Gatsby. We were family and I thought of him as lovely. I never knew he was capable of being this destructive. He was so very quick to be disgusted by Tom and I and the way we handled Gatsby's unfortunate passing. However, he paved the road that allowed Jay Gatsby and I to have each other in secret. If he had never been Jay's right hand man in all of this then we might still all be alive and on good terms. In the beginning of the book he had positive things to say about me, almost as if he were in love with me. But the more involved he became with our circle and the more he saw the effects of money and social classes, the more negative his feelings towards me became. In my defense, I never meant to hurt anyone and how could Nicky know that when he didn't understand my situation! I loved Jay Gatsby when I could, while I could seeing how Tom was my lawful husband and all. Of all the untrue accusations Nick made about me in this book, my cold-hearted feelings on Jay Gatsby's death was the most untrue. I was sick, sick, sick when I found out what had happened to him. I was so shook up that I didn't know what I should do, so I just stayed away from the commotion. I thought it best that I pay my respects by giving him the peace and quiet I could never bring him when he was alive! That doesn't make me selfish. It might make me a little generous in a way, actually.
For my closing argument I'd just like to ask "What would you have done? If you had a beautiful daughter and a comfortable life with your spouse, what would you have chosen?" I feel as though Nick wrote these shameful things of me simply because he could never understand me and there's not much a misunderstood girl can do about her confusing disposition once she's stuck in the pages of a book.
Thank you for your time. I hope you will consider my objections and get back to me soon.
Always,
Daisy Buchanan
Dear Editor,
How dare he? I treated that snake Nick Carraway like a little brother. Daisy, Jordan and I practically took him in! He bashed and insulted me throughout the whole book, writing about how I abused Daisy and stepped out on her. I don't see how any of that was his business in the first place, but either way, some things should just remain in the family. I know I could've done a few things differently and been more cool about a lot of things, but other than that I was just! Nick was the one truly at fault, seeing how he could have told Wilson about my affair, yet he didn't. He could've told me about Daisy's affair with Gatsby, yet he didn't do that either. He just crept in the background and took mental notes, judging everyone and keeping everyone's secrets.
Nick used me as a scapegoat! Pushing most of the blame onto me, signing me off as the antagonist, when in reality he was the biggest liar and trouble maker of us all. It amazes me how he had the gumption to look down his nose at Daisy and I like we were cowardly. Nick Carraway is the biggest coward in New York as far as I'm concerned and you can quote me on that.
Sincerely,
Tom Buchanan
Dear Editor,
I had no clue, not one inkling, about the truth of the matter. Jay Gatsby wasn't the one that I should have killed, it was Tom Buchanan all along. He pulled the wool over my eyes and framed an innocent man, he stole my sweet Myrtle from me and made love to her in that secret apartment, and he lied to everyone in the book about almost everything! If my apologies would help, I would say "I'm sorry" again and again. But unfortunately I've already killed the wrong man. As for Nick Carraway, he just wrote what he saw and that doesn't make him a good or bad man. He could've stopped analyzing things long enough to tell Myrtle to go on home, but that's all in the past now.
If I could defend myself about one statement he made in this book, it would be that one bit about me being my wife's man and not my own man. I was always my own man, but I was beat down, poor and being cheated on by the woman I loved most. I would've done anything for my wife, but that doesn't make me her property. I just wanted her to be happy, that's all.
I know better now.
Sincerely,
George Wilson
The whole West Egg/East Egg gang
Wilson shooting Gatsby in his own home.