Daisy's Valentine

The first sentence of the story, “Joey felt that his romance with Daisy might ruin his life…..” draws me in. It wasn’t clear if Joey was single so I thought maybe he would be ruined in a romantic way – like when we come home after hiking and are tire, we say we are spent, but we mean that in a good way. It is only when we are the middle of the story, that it seems like Joey is literally going to ruin his life chasing after Daisy.

The settings are quite clear. I can visualize the office, Diane’s salad and sushi routine at their house which seems stable enough but had become a little claustrophobic for Joey (on account of his newfound obsession with Daisy), the opera which seems like a fantasy to Joey, each one giving us a glimpse of the inner world of the character.

The office is the regular cold monotonous place where each employee comes to work but does not feel connected – morose gray metal stacks of books, dirty walls, broken chair, scattered papers, ashtray – all reek of disconnection and coldness.

Diane’s salad and sushi routine gives the reader a structured woman – uptight and wound up. She does everything like it ought to be, or like she has always done. She might have dabbled in art but that is what we hear from the narrator. What we see is a rigid, tense, framework of a woman who does not fear calling a spade a spade.

Joey and Diane go to the opera together. It is a ritual for them; however, Joey takes Daisy with him, breaking the rhythm or maybe proving that the ritual was not as sacred for him. He tells Daisy that he goes to opera because it seems like a fantasy – did he go there to escape reality or to live an imaginary life like he imagines saving Daisy from an accident that never happens?

I like that there are several seemingly unnecessary, yet necessary details in the story. Evelyn is described at length though she does not make an appearance after that, the gay men and their desire of leaving the job, the gatekeeper near the building – all characters are described in detail. This gives an authentic tone to the narration – a life like quality where we meet several passersby, who although not important in our lives are a part of the world we inhabit.

One of the most interesting interaction of Joey and Daisy with the setting is when they are outside the building and meet the couple. The building symbolizes everything that Joey and Daisy do not have while the other couple does – stability, closeness, and maybe affinity.

The narrator tells us at the beginning that Joey intends for his romance with Daisy to ruin his life, but as the story progresses this becomes more and more difficult to accept. Did Joey really wanted to be ruined? If he was ready for a relationship with some other woman, why did he eat, drink, and medicate with Diane as always? Why maintain the stability of the homely like with her. He does makes exceptions like taking Daisy to opera but then he comes home and asks Diane to wait it out as he did when he went out with Rita. He wants Diane to hold on to him but when she kicks him out of the house, he is more concerned with finding his earring.

Then again, he pretends or the narrator shows us that Joey is hell bent on going out with Daisy and yet when Daisy leaves him in the end, he seems to be more concerned with jelly beans.

Joey’s behavior makes his perspective unreliable and the narrator (who gives the story from Joey’s perspective) becomes unreliable by association. How can we trust his point of view after such conflicting behavior?

Joey also seems to be unsure about what he is chasing – a woman, or a mirage? He seems to like the illusion of chasing the girl, protecting her, saving her from accidents, rather than actually loving her. He constantly calls her a “perfect shadow” and maybe it is the shadow he is in love with. He seems to be preoccupied with the idea of appreciating fantasy. When Daisy asks him why he like opera, Joey replies that he like it because it is like a “fantasy.” Here we get another glimpse of Joey’s pseudo appreciation of things. The same seems to be the case with his obsession with Daisy. He chases her because she seems like a fantasy – opposite of his reality, opposite of what Diane is – airheaded and petite. And this chase leads him to self-destruction. He gets kicked out of the house and the ending leaves us pondering – where will he go? To the upturned apartment where Rita lives or will he seek a new fantasy like clockwork?