Daisy Haites

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).