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Jasper Sheff
Daisy is David and Karen’s daughter and Nic and Jasper’s sister. Daisy is 14 years younger than Nic. She understands that her brother is ill but has a difficult time fully grasping what Nic’s addiction means. Daisy and her older brother Jasper both love Nic, but at the same time, Nic’s actions and the worry he causes their parents make Daisy and Jasper afraid of him. The toll that Nic’s addiction takes on them illustrates how addiction not only affects addicts but has severe consequences on their family members as well.
Daisy Sheff Quotes in Beautiful Boy
The Beautiful Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Daisy Sheff or refer to Daisy Sheff. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4 Quotes
I look at the three of them and recall a bewildering emotion that I recognized for the first time back when Nic was born. Along with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying.
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Chapter 19 Quotes
Jasper responds, “I don’t think he wants to do them, but he can’t help it. It’s like in cartoons when some character has a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. The devil whispers into Nicky’s ear and sometimes it gets too loud so he has to listen to him. The angel is there, too,” Jasper continues, “but he talks softer and Nic can’t hear him.”
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Chapter 21 Quotes
I have learned that I am all but irrelevant to Nic’s survival. It took my near death, however, to comprehend that his fate—and Jasper’s and Daisy’s—is separate from mine. I can try to protect my children, to help and guide them, and I can love them, but I cannot save them. Nic, Jasper, and Daisy will live, and someday they will die, with or without me.
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Chapter 25 Quotes
The phone, when it rings, brings on the same state of panic. I am always worried that there is news of another crisis. Or it’s Nic, and I don’t know if he will be sane or high. Or it won’t be him, and I’ll be disappointed. My body tenses up. Oftentimes during meals or when we’re hanging around in the evening, I let the phone ring until the answering service picks it up, because I don’t want to deal with whatever might be coming. I think that everyone feels tension.
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Daisy Sheff Character Timeline in Beautiful Boy
The timeline below shows where the character Daisy Sheff appears in Beautiful Boy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Introduction
...college for summer vacation. Also in the car are Nic’s half-siblings: eight-year-old Jasper and five-year-old Daisy, who are thrilled to see him and catch up on their lives for the past...
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...with the water guns while David and his wife Karen watch from the living room. Daisy even joins in, wielding the garden hose. After everyone is properly soaked, David sends Jasper...
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The next day, Jasper and Daisy goes off to school, while Nic prepares for a job interview at an Italian restaurant....
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...spring semester. He pushes past David, takes the car, and leaves. That afternoon, Jasper and Daisy ask where Nic has gone.
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Chapter 4
...with Vicki, however, to wait until Karen’s new baby is born. Marguerite (whom they call Daisy) is born on June 7. Nic helps give Daisy her first bath. He tells Nancy,...
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Chapter 6
The school year goes by quickly. Nic makes time for Daisy and Jasper between his work, sports, and plays. His report cards are glowing. Then, on...
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Chapter 8
...is moody, but he gets a job as a barista and dotes on Jasper and Daisy. As they play together, David is baffled at how Nic is acting as if nothing...
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That fall, Nic decides to attend Berkeley. Jasper, Daisy, Karen, and David all drive with Nic to drop him off. A few days later,...
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...David gets anxious with grisly thoughts. He starts calling jails and hospitals. When Jasper and Daisy wake, they sense that something is wrong, and when David tells them that he doesn’t...
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Chapter 10
...the effects of drugs on teenagers. He holds it together in front of Jasper and Daisy, but privately he breaks down, weeping uncontrollably in a way that he never has before....
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Chapter 11
...have made the right choices in getting Nic into rehab and worry about Jasper and Daisy. The doctor is supportive of their decision to get Nic into rehab, but his major...
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Chapter 12
...“know[s] the drill.” He calls the hospitals and the police, and talks to Jasper and Daisy. He realizes how preoccupied by Nic their lives are becoming. He sometimes snaps at Karen,...
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Chapter 13
...is in the center, surrounded by figures on the periphery, which represent Karen, Jasper, and Daisy. They are helpless, but tied to the whims of the addict. Another figure hangs between...
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Chapter 14
...been using the whole semester and leaves, slamming the door behind him. When Jasper and Daisy come home, they see that Nic is gone. David is in tears and dissolves into...
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Chapter 16
In June, Nic is not at Jasper and Daisy’s step-up ceremony. David watches the ceremony, in which each class year “steps up” from the...
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David continues on with life, but the disparity between Nic’s experience and Jasper and Daisy’s worlds is sometimes overwhelming. Once, when David hears Eric Clapton’s song about the death of...
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Chapter 17
David goes to a farmer’s market with Daisy and Jasper, where neighbors—most of whom now know about Nic—ask about him with trepidation. Then,...
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Chapter 18
...again.” Karen has been wary of seeing Nic and wary of Nic hurting Jasper and Daisy again. They wonder how they’ll know when they can fully trust him. Still, at the...
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...person report. David tries to keep it together, wary of saying anything to Jasper and Daisy before they know exactly what’s wrong.
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Chapter 19
...is gone for weeks. David tries to keep busy. One weekend, David, Karen, Jasper and Daisy visit Bear Valley, biking along a trail through the forest, then hiking. When David and...
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...the car to chase him—but he can’t find Nic. When he returns home, Jasper and Daisy say that Karen saw Nic driving down the hill in the opposite direction, and she...
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...previous weeks. David is unsure how life can go on, but it does. Jasper and Daisy play games and sports together. One night, they watch a video of a Bob Dylan...
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...at Nic’s hands, Nic himself has suffered the most. Since Nic’s relapse, Karen, Jasper and Daisy have not seen him. Karen is wary of letting Nic visit Inverness. But at the...
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...Nic narrates a tale of PJ Fumblebumble, a detective of Nic’s own invention. Jasper and Daisy fill Nic in about school and their friends. Jasper asks if Nic is going to...
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Chapter 20
...questions: his name is David Sheff. He begins to move again, walking shakily. Jasper and Daisy come to see him, and he reassures them that he will be fine. Nic also...
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Chapter 21
...onto it as much as he can while his head heals. He, Karen, Jasper and Daisy hike together, and when they drive home, Daisy says out of the blue that it...
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...He remembers that lying in the neuro ICU, he’d had a realization: Nic, Jasper and Daisy would survive his death. David is inconsequential to Nic’s survival. He can try to protect...
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A week goes by. On Sunday, David is driving Daisy and a friend to a birthday party. They play a game where they start a...
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Chapter 25
David and Karen take Jasper and Daisy to a family therapist, whom David and Karen met with earlier. The therapist talks to...
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...Nic’s small steps forward include attending AA and repairing his relationships with Karen, Jasper, and Daisy. David thinks that it will take a miracle for Nic’s recovery to succeed, but he...
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Epilogue
Daisy’s tenth birthday is also step-up day: Daisy is stepping up to fifth grade and Jasper...
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...to say hi: he sounds like Nic. Nic says to give Karen and Jasper and Daisy his love, and then he has to go.
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Afterword
...reading also helped David understand how Nic’s biggest victim was himself. David, Karen, Jasper, and Daisy were simply “collateral damage.”
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