LIFESTYLES
THE MANIC PIX
The different portrayals for the ‘Manic Pixie
female was captivated by Daisy, she is famous perfect: flirty, carefree and has a character in n a reader’s fevered imagi- “voice full of money.” On impres- m e d i a nation, they will come across sion, Daisy is a delightfully beautia bubbly, shallow, cinematic ful woman, and men cannot seem creature that writers and directors to resist her charm, though, becreate to teach men to embrace hind all the glamour, there is a lack life and its mysteries. She is im- of substance. Her carefree perpulsive; she is eccentric, and she sonality blocks all consequences has a troubled past. Whatever the an average person would have as situation, she opens a chapter for she continually travels out of repa male protagonist, but she ex- aration because of her privilege. ists solely for him and has little to To Gatsby, Daisy performs as the no agency of her own. Often re- paragon of perfection; he longs ferred to as a Manic Pixie Dream for her. What about her, though? Girl or MPDG —a term coined by She attains this aura of charm film critic Nathan Rabin after view- and sophistication, though, uning Elizabethtown —we know this der that, her character is merecharacter in all different types of ly selfish and shallow. Gatsby media. In books fed to us in class- needs Daisy to complete him, rooms such as The Great Gatsby he built himself up for her, and Fahrenheit 451, or popular in- but readers cannot seem ternational media to find what like the Bollywood makes her so film, Jab We Met. worthy of his [...] MEN CANNOT In the famildevotion. This SEEM TO RESIST iarized novel, The trope is known HER CHARM. Great Gatsby, never to grow written by F. Scott past their youth, Fitzgerald and taught at CHS, and Daisy appears to be perthe female lead, Daisy Buchan- petually stuck in her naive youth an, is a beautiful feminine flapper and cannot seem to grow up. girl who comes from and marries This 2D character is money, the male antagonist Tom not only present in novBuchanan. Through the eyes of els or films in the US, Gatsby, the male protagonist who as it seems to be a
SANIYA LAUNGANI
I
copy editor
20 | DESIGNED BY PRITHIKA SUNDAR
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