Aisha Fade
Dr. Dettmar
English III
November 27, 2017
Pammy Buchanan: Irrelevant or Purposefully Ignored?
The critically acclaimed novel, The Great Gatsby, tells the story of a romance built off of the foundations of wealth and the so-called “American Dream”. James Gatz, formally known as Jay Gatsby, is known by everyone in 1920 New York City for his extreme wealth as well as his extravagant parties. Daisy, who claims to be head over heels for Gatsby, was born into a wealthy family but allows herself to fall into relationships in which money is the ultimate attraction. Over the course of 5 years, Daisy built a relationship with another man whose expenses triumphed that of Gatsby at the time. Tom Buchanan, a member of what is known as “old money”, has been married to Daisy for almost 5 years and throughout their relationship, had been cheating on her with an outside woman. Daisy, was aware of this affair but didn’t pay any mind to it because her love for Tom was a façade. Throughout their relationship, the two bore Pammy Buchanan, who comes off with little importance to Daisy. In the movie, Pammy Buchanan is seen very few times and raises suspicion to me as a viewer who has also read the book and knows of her significance, or lack thereof. The absence of Pammy Buchanan during the confrontational scene between Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby in the film and the presence of it in the book adds to the indication that Pammy is nothing more than an object of satisfaction for Daisy who seems to push her very own daughter away when there are more important things at hand.
Throughout the entire novel, readers get the sense that Daisy is a very dainty woman. Through her verbal and physical actions, everything she does is perceived in a way that accentuates her lack of education and her admiration for materialistic things. We first hear about Pammy Buchanan when Daisy, Tom, and Jordan discuss one another’s lives at Tom and Daisy’s home. In the book, this scene is very quick, as it happened right after Tom’s mistress interrupted the lovely dinner the four were sharing. With increased tension between the couple, Nick insists on starting conversation and comforting Daisy by asking her about her daughter. After ignoring the question, the first time, she then responds, “I suppose she talks, and –eats and everything” (16). Her blatant and semi-rude response is startling. For someone who has just one child and would normally be proud to acknowledge her daughter’s existence, she referred to her daughter in a way that made Pammy seem like an object that wasn’t worth discussing. Continuing on with the conversation, after strong persuasion from Nick, she is able to come up with one story about her daughter that she has enough patience to share. It was about the day Pammy was born, “absently” (16), as Nick himself describes Daisy’s body language, she tells Nick: “[The Nurse] told me it was a girl…and so I turned my head away and wept” (17). Already, it is implied that she wasn’t very excited for her daughter to be born in the first place. She continues by saying “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” (17). To Daisy, living a life of beauty and dumbness where little tragedy or meaning ever happen, is living a life of ease and happiness. However, at the same time, Daisy seems to think that nothing really brilliant or pleasing will happen either, that is what she herself has given up in life by living as a “beautiful little fool”. Instead of wanting for her daughter to defy society’s view on women, she wants for her child the life she lived herself. This scene easily shows that Pammy isn’t in Daisy’s life the way any other child would be; instead, she is there perhaps by mistake or as an object of satisfaction to the mother who only yearns to see herself in the child.
In the film, Luhrmann went about this scene a bit differently. As we are now able to physically see more of Daisy’s facial expressions and mood, we are able to get a better look as to how she perceives her daughter—her irrelevant daughter. Instead of her describing her daughter’s ability to “[talk], and –[eat] and everything” (17) like in the book, it was Nick who posed this as a question. Daisy then responds surprised by asking “Pammy? Oh yes…” as she turned around to face Nick. Again, it is clear that Pammy is someone who remains in the midst of Daisy’s life but nowhere near paramount importance. Her surprise when asked about her daughter seemed like less of an acknowledgment to her existence and more of a question to her relevance. By wanting for her daughter to have the personality of “a beautiful little fool” as opposed to something more logical or acceptable for a mother to say, we get the impression that Daisy is self-indulged in a life of material and wants the same for her daughter. Instead of asking for an intellectual moral upbringing or something that would be truly beneficial to the progression of her daughter, she would rather her grow up with the same stupid persona as Daisy did herself.
As the story goes on, lots is seen between Daisy and her peers as she continues her fight for Gatsby and his money. Pammy Buchanan is only mentioned twice throughout the book and twice throughout the film, however not at the same scenes. In the novel, Pammy is spotted in the midst of a heated conversation between Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Nick. On the hottest day of the year, they all decided to hang out at the Buchanan’s again. This is an epic scene given that this is when Tom begins to realize that the marriage he was in had been full of lies and Daisy is finally able to let the truth be told and get what she wants out of Gatsby—his money. However, nothing went as planned and Daisy is stuck between her thoughts and isn’t able to say what it is she wants to say.
In the book, throughout the arguing between Tom and Gatsby, a nurse enters the room and brings little Pammy with her. Daisy actually acknowledges her daughter’s presence this time with a delightful “Bles-sed pre-cious” (117) as she gives Pammy a hug, “Come to your own mother that loves you.” Daisy continuously speaks of herself in the third person when speaking to Pammy as though she is reminding either Pammy, Gatsby, or the audience who made the child. Pammy then “shyly” runs over to her mom before being asked if “[her mother’s] powder [got] on [Pammy’s] yellowy hair” (117). Daisy commands her daughter to stand up and greet the guests, who we all know is only done for Gatsby’s impression of the girl. Gatsby, who Daisy is still trying her best to please and win back, looks surprisingly at the child because of what Nick thinks is Gatsby being hit with her existence for the first time. Pammy then runs back to her mother, obviously unimpressed by the gentlemen, and eagerly tries to make conversation with her mother who is trying her best to prove to Gatsby that Pammy has nothing to do with Tom or their relationship. Daisy responds to her daughter by saying that the reason she looks so well-dressed is “because [her] mother wanted to show her off” (117). The only reason Daisy wanted to show her daughter off was because of Gatsby and not just because there were guests present. Had they been regular guests, who’s to say that Pammy would even be present and there would be conversation happening between the mother and daughter? Again, we see Daisy refer to herself in the third person. Instead of saying “I” or even mentioning the fact that Pammy is Tom’s daughter too, she makes it very clear that she is the only one to be associated with the little girl—for Gatsby. All that she does with Pammy in this scene is simply for self-amusement and to reassure Gatsby that she is ready to be in a relationship with him without any exceptions—exceptions being her own daughter. Even when Pammy tries to have a moment with her mother, Daisy turns the spotlight back onto Gatsby. Nick states that she again “turned her around so that she faced Gatsby” – this is the second time that Daisy’s done this— and says, “Do you think they’re pretty?” (117) again, referring to Gatsby. At this point it is evident that all she did and said in front of Gatsby and her daughter was to convince Gatsby that Pammy is in no way affiliated with Tom and is only a by-product of herself. She even goes as far as to say this when she says that “[Pammy] doesn’t look like her father, she looks like me.” As opposed to sitting down and allowing a conversation to happen between the daughter and their guests, Daisy again uses her daughter to manipulate Gatsby into being with her. This shows that Daisy seems to only want her Daughter or even think about her daughter when it is beneficial to her life alone.
To further this argument, Luhrmann has decided to cut this scene from the film as a whole—another possible indication of Pammy’s irrelevance to her mom and/or the plot. While Gatsby proclaims Daisy’s love for himself to Tom, she stands in the corner and looks out of the window, allowing the men to do whatever they please. At the moment when Pammy and the nurse are supposed to enter, she professes her love for Gatsby. Luhrmann removed the scene in which Pammy enters and gives her ____ and replaced it with one of the most dramatic scenes in the film that just so happens to be the one in which Daisy does gets what she wanted for so long.
In the ending, because Pammy is finally included in the movie, it seems as though Luhrmann wanted the viewers to understand that Pammy belonged with both Tom and Daisy, not Gatsby. From the bottom of the grandiose staircase, is little Pammy confused as to why her mother and father are abruptly leaving the mansion they’ve loved for so long. Daisy explains that “Daddy is taking care of his two favorite girls,” where Pammy then asks, “But where are we going?” to which Daisy tells her is just a little trip for the three of them. This ending scene is the second and last time we hear anything about Pammy and for it to be in the closing, when Gatsby is finally gone and out of the picture, expresses Pammy’s direct affiliation with Gatsby. For when Gatsby is there, Pammy is of little importance and is used as an object of satisfaction for Daisy to get what she wants from Gatsby. While at the same time, when Gatsby is no longer present, Pammy is finally seen again, as a winning token for finally completing her mother’s goals.
The feud between Daisy and Gatsby has lasted so long that Pammy may have just been neglected as a character as a whole. For Luhrmann to exclude Pammy throughout the movie and not even include her as an extra, perhaps even sitting at the dinner table, makes it seem as though she is either not relevant to the story, or she cannot be a character while at Gatsby’s presence. Had she been present at other times, viewers would have possibly gotten the sense that Pammy is a member of both her family and the part of her mother’s life that is so crucial. In the novel, there is no last-minute look at Pammy. We only get the imagery of them moving out of East Egg to never be heard from again.
Overall, in both the book and the movie, it is clear that neither Fitzgerald nor Luhrmann found it necessary enough to include Pammy Buchanan in the story. Readers and viewers are able to decide for themselves whether or not this was an intentional inclusion (or exclusion rather), or whether it further emphasizes her insignificance to her mother and her mister. One can argue that though there is only so much that could be included within a film, it is evident that Pammy had a character and that character was rejected throughout all events. From the birth of her precious little fool of a girl to her brief moments of satisfaction given by her mom unto her. Truly, one can say that the significance of Pammy Buchanan, is of mystery and cannot be solely analyzed by just one production of the story.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940. The Great Gatsby. New York :C. Scribner's sons, 1925. Print.
Luhrmann, Baz, and Craig Pearce. The Great Gatsby. Film script. Stephen Follows. 13 Nov. 2017. <https://stephenfollows.com/resource-docs/scripts/greatgatsby_sp.pdf>
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