Chapter 8 displays the tragic side of the American dream as Gatsby is gunned down by George Wilson.

Crossing his lawn, I saw that his front door was still open and he was leaning against a table in the hall, heavy with dejection or sleep.

After the Armistice he tried frantically to get home, but some complication or misunderstanding sent him to Oxford instead. Move on to the summary of Chapter 9, or revisit the summary of Chapter 7. Buy Study Guide The Great Gatsby Summary and Analysis of Chapter 8. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg on the billboard near the garage.

“You ought to go away,” I said. The other half of the chapter is all police thriller, as we hear Michaelis describe Wilson coming unglued and deciding to take bloody revenge for Myrtle’s death. Characters are driven by emotional or material greed, by selfishness, and by a complete lack of concern about others. Nick tells Gatsby he should go away, before the police trace his car, but Gatsby holds on to his dream of being with Daisy. “Have you got a church you go to sometimes, George? “That was a long time ago.” She was the first “nice” girl he had ever known. Of course, thinking in this way makes it easy to understand why Gatsby is able to discard Daisy’s humanity and inner life when he idealizes her. He might have despised himself, for he had certainly taken her under false pretenses. It was this night that he told me the strange story of his youth with Dan Cody—told it to me because “Jay Gatsby” had broken up like glass against Tom’s hard malice, and the long secret extravaganza was played out. b) How does the house appear now? Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Activities Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Character Summaries Themes - American Dream Nick Carraway - Narrator Timeline Narrative Structure Construction of Gatsby Fitzgerald's Language and Style First Person Narrative Setting This is the night that Gatsby tells Nick of his first meeting with Dan Cody. “You must remember, old sport, she was very excited this afternoon. At work, Nick gets a phone call from Jordan, who is upset that Nick didn’t pay sufficient attention to her the night before. Jordan phones, but Nick cuts her off. “In any case,” he said, “it was just personal.”. “Go away NOW, old sport?”

After that, he stayed there alone with Wilson until dawn. but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself. Eventually Daisy moved again into society, feeling the need to have some stability and purpose in her life. For a while the door of the office was open, and every one who came into the garage glanced irresistibly through it. Although the reader cheers him as he pursues his dreams, one also knows that pure idealism cannot survive in the harsh modern world. Then she fainted and had to be taken away. Silence for a moment. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education. Of course she might have loved him just for a minute, when they were first married—and loved me more even then, do you see? It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy — it increased her value in his eyes. Wilson walked all the way to West Egg, asking about the yellow car. at the garage after Myrtle was killed (the details of which Nick Didn’t you get married in a church?” However, it calls into question Nick’s version of events, and his interpretation of the motivations of the people around him. So, rather than risk having his dream disintegrate in front of him, he perpetuated his illusion by studying at Oxford before heading back to the States. Gatsby, in his misery, tells Nick the story of his first meeting with Daisy. Chapter Eight.

“You ought to have a church, George, for times like this. Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief.


The day-coach—he was penniless now—was hot. He found her excitingly desirable. Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). Wilson had told Myrtle that God could see everything she was doing. All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the "Beale Street Blues" while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. In the lawless, materialistic East, there is no moral center which could rein in people’s darker, immoral impulses. He felt married to her, that was all. (8.102-105). He believed that Mrs. Wilson had been running away from her husband, rather than trying to stop any particular car. Clearly Wilson has been psychologically shaken first by Myrtle’s affair and then by her death - he is seeing the giant eyes of the optometrist billboard as a stand-in for God.

but then she married Tom, whose social position was solid and who By six o’clock Michaelis was worn out, and grateful for the sound of a car stopping outside. A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. Upon hearing Gatsby's true story, Nick cannot help but be moved and spends the rest of the day worrying about his friend. Taking out my time-table, I drew a small circle around the three-fifty train.

He recalls saying said to Myrtle, “God knows what you’ve been doing.” Then he warns Myrtle, “God sees everything.” Wilson makes figures out that something is up because they don’t have a dog. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about .

from your Reading List will also remove any He might have despised himself, for [Gatsby] had certainly taken her under false pretenses . She moved in a world Gatsby aspired to and unlike other people of that particular social set, she acknowledged Gatsby's presence in that world. Come on, George, sit still—I asked you a question.

and any corresponding bookmarks? A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees. four o’clock in the morning and that nothing happened—Tom did not Nick suggests that The focus

That force took shape in the middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan. Michaelis made a clumsy attempt to distract him. Until long after midnight a changing crowd lapped up against the front of the garage, while George Wilson rocked himself back and forth on the couch inside. Nick has stayed so long talking to Gatsby He found her excitingly desirable. He did extraordinarily well in the war. The shadow of a tree fell abruptly across the dew and ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves. work, and even refuses to meet Jordan Baker for a date. I don’t mean that he had traded on his phantom millions, but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself — that he was fully able to take care of her. All of this made him see her as a prize. Some one, kind or curious, took her in his car and drove her in the wake of her sister’s body. Gatsby reveals that nothing happened while he kept his watch. “Don’t do it to-day,” Gatsby answered. is familiar with the car’s owner—he saw Tom driving the car earlier Amidst the parties and gaiety of Daisy’s youth, her “dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor” (8.19). It amazed him — he had never been in such a beautiful house before, but what gave it an air of breathless intensity, was that Daisy lived there — it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. “It’s pretty certain they’ll trace your car.” Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Great Gatsby and what it means. Gatsby still didn’t realize that his dream wasn’t real, that the girl he believed Daisy to be wasn’t the real, live woman.
It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. What evidence had Wilson found that his wife was having an affair? (How sad that Gatsby's judgment is so clouded with societal expectation that he can't see that a young, idealistic man who has passion, drive, and persistence is worth more than ten Daisys put together.).