Blue Daisy

" A damp streak of hair lay like a dash of blue paint across her cheek and her hand was wet with glistening drops as I took it to help her from the car" (p. 85)

The Blue Period was hard for Pablo Picasso; he was poor and had recently lost a friend making him sad and depressed. The artist used different shades of blue in his paintings reflecting his gloomy emotions. In chapter five of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses blue paint as well.  Daisy Buchanan, a happy girl on the outside is not on the inside. She seems to be perfectly well even if her heart is incomplete and her feelings enclosed. In this quote Fitzgerald intends for the streak of hair to be interpreted as a tear. The streak is described as being damp like a tear is and then blue. The color symbolizes depression and sadness, complementing the tear by itself that stands for Daisy’s misery. Although her life fulfills her own/society’s standards it does not fulfill her happiness. She is not with her true love, in a way she is alone because all her relationships are superficial, and she is choking on her own hypocrisy as well as others. Nick however is the only one who notices it and by taking her hand, wet because of the rain and helping her, he reassures her and restates her sadness and vulnerability.