Take 'em downstairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mine. Say: 'Daisy's change' her mine!'
Chapter 4 · Daisy Buchanan
Context
On the night before her wedding to Tom Buchanan, a drunk Daisy pulls out the $350,000 string of pearls Tom gave her and tells Jordan to return them. She slurs her words in declaring she has changed her mind about the marriage, having just received a letter presumably from Gatsby.
Analysis
The pearls symbolize the material transaction at the heart of Daisy's marriage—Tom's wealth exchanged for Daisy's beauty and social grace—and her attempt to return them represents a fleeting rebellion against this commodified union. The slurred dialect ('change' her mine') simultaneously humanizes Daisy in a moment of raw vulnerability and foreshadows her inability to act decisively: even her rebellion is impaired, and by morning the pearls will be back around her neck.
How to Use in Essay
Strong for essays arguing that Daisy is trapped by the economic logic of her class, or for analyzing the pearls as a recurring symbol of the material forces that prevent Daisy from choosing authentic love over security.