Diamond Pups

While reading The Diamond as Big as the Ritz when Kismine was introduced I often compared her to Daisy. She came from a well off family who was concerned with nothing but their own wealth. Furthermore, when she and John fell in love, it led to even more comparisons to The Great Gatsby. Daisy just as Kismine fell in love with men who were not born into the same lavish ways as they were. Although while reading further into the story, one major difference stood out to me. Kismine although just as caught up in her riches as Daisy did not leave the man she claimed to love just because he was not born rich. Daisy, on the other hand, did. Once she found out Gatsby had to work for his lavish ways she quickly left him and ran away with Tom.

Although they were mostly similar, they both relied on the riches of other people to make their way through life. Kismine at the end of DBR asks John, "'will father be there?" (DBR, 113) This illustrates that even though she is still faithful to John, she can't imagine a life without her father being there spoiling her with an unimaginable amount of jewels. In a similar way Daisy relied on the riches of her husband, and at one point Gatsby, to provide her with everything she would ever want. Both characters in The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and The Great Gatsby take advantage of the riches that surround them to create a lavish lifestyle for themselves.