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The Great Gatsby

Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis May 2011

+Chapter Eight – Summary

Nick wracked by anxiety – hears Gatsby come home and heads to his house

Gatsby had been outside of Daisy’s house all night

Nick advises Gatsby to leave town – Atlantic City, Montreal

Cannot leave Daisy

+Chapter Eight – Summary

Gatsby tells Nick the real story as to how he first met Daisy

1917, Louisville Smitten with her wealth, beauty and youthful innocence

Gatsby lied about his poverty and past

Daisy promised to wait for him after the war Daisy married Tom, her social equal and her parents’ choice

When Nick leaves, he gives Gatsby a compliment “worth the whole damn bunch [of the Buchanans and their

East Egg friends] put together.”

+Chapter Eight – Summary

Valley of Ashes

George Wilson being consoled by Michaelis

George Wilson tells Michaelis that he confronted Myrtle with the evidence of her affair

She could not hide it from the eyes of God

George Wilson mistakes Dr. T.J. Eckelburg for the eyes of God

Assumes the driver of the car was Myrtle’s lover

+Chapter Eight – Analysis

Although Gatsby has a criminal past and nouveau riche affectations, Nick cannot help but admire him for his nobility

Nick does recognize Gatsby as a visionary, capable of grand passion and great dreams

Represents an ideal that had grown rare in the 1920s, which was an age of cynicism, decadence and cruelty

+Chapter Eight – Analysis

Nick believes Gatsby’s great mistake was loving Daisy

American Dream has degenerated into the crass pursuit of material wealth

Gatsby strived only for wealth once he had fallen in love

Gatsby, not murdered for his criminal activities, but his unwavering devotion to Daisy

Nick writes, Gatsby “[pays] a high price for living too long with a single dream.”

+Chapter Eight – Analysis

Gatsby unable to accept that his dream is over – continues to insist that Daisy may still come to him

Clear to everyone, including the reader, she is bound to Tom

Gatsby’s death seems inevitable – dreamer cannot exist without his dreams

Through Daisy’s betrayal, he loses his reason for living

+Chapter Eight – Analysis

Wilson – Gatsby’s grim double in Chapter VIII

Fundamentally alters the course of his life by attaching symbolic significance to something that is, in and of itself, meaningless

Gatsby, Daisy and her green light Wilson, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckelburg

Destroyed by their love for women who love the brutal Tom Buchanan

Both consumed for longing for something more Gatsby, “American Dreamer” – in-so-far as his dreams of

wealth Wilson, exemplifies the fate of the “Failed Dreamer” –

poverty deprived him of even his ability to hope

+Chapter Eight – Analysis

Wilson – Gatsby’s grim double in Chapter VIII

Gatsby’s death takes place on the first day of autumn

Decision to use his pool in defiance of the change of seasons

Gatsby’s unwillingness to accept the passage of time Summer = reunion with Daisy

End of summer = end of their romance

+Chapter Eight – Key Questions

1. How does Fitzgerald achieve a melancholic mood in the beginning of this chapter?

2. How are seasons used in constructing this novel?

3. Who is Dan Cody and what is his significance in Gatsby's life?

4. How does Nick's statement "You're worth the whole bunch put together" show a change in Nick from the beginning of the novel?

5. How does T. J. Eckleberg affect Mr. Wilson?