51 pages • 1-hour read
Daisy Haites
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes graphic violence and sexual content.
Struggle for Personal Autonomy
Daisy’s growing discontent with her family’s life of crime catalyzes her longing for freedom and autonomy. Since Daisy’s parents’ deaths when she was eight years old, her older brother Julian has raised her. Daisy loves and appreciates Julian, but his obsessive control over her life limits her freedom. Julian’s protective instincts toward Daisy compel him to manage everything she does, everywhere she goes, and monitor everyone with whom she’s in contact. This restrictive arrangement grows progressively frustrating for Daisy, escalating her need “to be normal” (10). She wants to live a life free of the fear and violence that define her family’s world. She wants to make her own choices without her brother or the Lost Boys intervening. To Daisy, normalcy means exercising her agency and having the liberty to make her own mistakes.
Daisy’s actions throughout the novel reflect her attempts to claim greater agency over her own life. Doing laundry, cooking, learning to drive, and having sex with multiple sexual partners represent her attempts to claim power over her life. Her domestic chores give her a sense of normalcy and control. She “like[s] doing laundry” and being in the kitchen, because these domestic tasks have an obvious end goal and result (22). She can arrange the desired outcome of her own volition. When she learns to drive, she feels she’s empowering herself. Driving provides an archetypal symbol of freedom. When she’s in the car with Christian, Daisy feels as if she has the power to take hold of the life she wants. Her sexual relationships are also signs of her longing for autonomy. At times, she sleeps with people she knows her brother wouldn’t approve of as small acts of rebellion against him. These partners offer Daisy an “escape from [her] realit[y]” (138). Sex functions as both a way to feel less trapped in her life and as an act of defiance—a way for Daisy to take control of her body.
The controlling nature of her relationship with Julian complicates Daisy’s ability to exercise autonomy over her life and claim the future she wants. She feels loyal to her brother because he saved her life when she was a child and has played a parental role in her life ever since. Julian gives Daisy’s life dimension; she understands herself in the context of their life together. Daisy’s growing ability to recognize the negative aspects of Julian’s controlling nature pushes her to act and assert her independence. Julian’s violation of Daisy’s trust signals his willingness to sacrifice Daisy’s happiness simply to control her. He breaks Daisy’s rules and compromises their agreed-upon moral code under the guise of protecting her. By the novel’s end, Daisy severs ties with Julian to set herself free. In doing so, she takes the first step towards control of her life. Once she is free of Julian and the family business, she’s better able to pursue the life she’s longed for throughout the novel.
The Complexities of Navigating Love and Betrayal
Throughout the novel, Daisy attempts to navigate the interplay between love and betrayal in her romantic, sexual, familial, and platonic relationships form the primary conflicts of Hastings’s narrative. Daisy understands herself according to her intimate connections with others. The way her brother treats her teaches her to see herself as fragile and in need of protection. The way the Lost Boys treat her makes her believe she’s another pawn in the Haites family business. Often, her sexual and romantic partners make her feel like a diversion or a plaything rather than an equal. Daisy never feels sure who she can trust and whose love for and loyalty to her is real. The more erratic Julian’s, Christian’s, and Romeo’s behavior grows, the more complex Daisy’s self-discovery journey becomes.
The past betrayal Daisy experienced in her relationship with Romeo threatens her connection to Christian, challenging her to redefine love and loyalty on her own terms. Although Daisy has fallen in love with Christian, she feels incapable of expressing her feelings to him because she knows he still has feelings for Magnolia Parks. Hastings roots Daisy’s connection to Romeo in their shared history—the two grew up together, and Romeo has loved and protected Daisy for years. She feels attached to him because he is her “oldest friend” and they’ve “been through more shit than [Daisy] wish[es] [they] had” (57). However, Romeo’s infidelity four years prior to the narrative present makes Daisy doubt his loyalty and integrity, and contributes to her instinctive distrust of Christian’s intentions as well. Romeo’s betrayal leaves Daisy fearful that Christian will betray her or leave her for Magnolia.
These complex, intimate relationships—staples of the mafia romance genre—intensify the narrative stakes as Daisy’s relationships with Christian and Romeo complicate how she understands romance and loyalty. In her world of crime, love and betrayal go hand-in-hand. The people she trusts are often the people who prove unreliable. This is particularly the case with her brother Julian. After he betrays her, Daisy begins to understand that love should be honest, kind, and true. Daisy’s decision to profess her love for Christian, sever ties with Julian, and leave the family business illustrates her desire for a new kind of love grounded in mutual trust and respect. She no longer wants her relationships to be defined by fear, questioning, and doubt. She wants a love she can depend on. When she voices her desires and needs to Christian at the novel’s end, she is taking a step towards pursuing this kind of love for herself.
Influence of Family Legacy
Across the narrative, Daisy moves from allowing her family’s legacy to dictate her identity and future to embracing her own autonomy and independence. Daisy has never lived outside of her family’s criminal world. Since she was a little girl, she’s been exposed to violence, death, theft, betrayal, dominance, and fear, but in the narrative present, these facets of her family culture begin to compromise Daisy’s sense of freedom and her peace of mind. Daisy doesn’t believe “that we’re born bad,” but she does believe that “children carry the sins of their fathers” (23). The more crimes she and Julian commit, the more true this notion feels. While Julian believes “it’s just the family business,” Daisy regards their criminal life as “the family sin”—a perspective that pushes her toward change (24). She disagrees with much of the Lost Boys’ illegal activity and carries a sense of guilt and regret as a result. Her family’s legacy weighs on her, compromises her moral code, and complicates her ability to see and think for herself.
Daisy’s complex relationship with her brother Julian intensifies her frustration with her family culture. Julian believes their life of crime is “like a game”; it’s “[h]igh stakes, high pay, good times, usually” (75). Julian’s pragmatic view puts him in conflict with Daisy, who increasingly feels that their life violates her moral code. Daisy finds herself torn between her love for her brother—her only remaining tie to her nuclear family—and her belief in what is right. Initially, Daisy feels compelled to protect and defend Julian despite her frustrations with him. She hesitates to cast Julian out, because she fears a life without him. To Julian, the family business and legacy are of utmost importance. He prioritizes “keeping [his] sister alive,” but he does so at the expense of Daisy’s happiness and comfort (163). He believes that “to our people, in our world, [he and Daisy] are royalty” (163). The escalating tension created by Julian and Daisy’s diverging worldviews ultimately forces Daisy to choose between her loyalty to her family legacy and her freedom. Daisy’s decision to leave the family business and cut Julian out of her life epitomizes her character growth. She no longer wants to define her future according to her family’s history. Although saying goodbye to Julian is difficult, Daisy must do so to establish herself as an individual.
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