The Great Gatsby
Content
The Great Gatsby
Chapter 8
By: Ambika Gosyne L6L
Indu Singh L6G
Point of View
Nick Carraway is our first-person narrator, but he's not
the center of the story—and that makes him a
peripheral narrator, someone who's always on the
outside looking in. He tells us at the beginning of the
first chapter that "I'm inclined to reserve all
judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious
natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few
veteran bores" (1.3). People like to tell Nick their
stories. Example; Gatsby's story, Tom's story, Jordan's
story, Daisy's story, and even the story of the Wilsons.
Ultimately, Nick's major character trait – reserving
judgment – allows him to be almost an "invisible"
narrator, similar to a traditional third-person omniscient
point of view.
Characterisation (George Wilson)
He is the only person who does not belong to the rich
class, and thus highlights the contrast between the rich
and the poor and what the rich characters might lack.
He is also the second tragic figure in the novel (Gatsby
is the first) because he is at the mercy of rich people.
Tom treats him condescendingly and he acts as a victim
of the rich people’s game in the novel. George Wilson
works hard to give Myrtle a better life and never cheats
on he; in contrast, his wife never really loves him and
doesn’t even respect him. Despite this, he still blames
himself for his wife’s death and suffers terrible
emotional pain, which strongly contrasts the more
shallow, materialistic love that other characters display.
Themes
Isolation
“He stayed there a week, walking the streets
where their footsteps had clicked together through
the November night and revisiting the out-of-theway places to which they had driven in her white
car. (8.28)”
Themes
Society and class
“We shook hands and I started away. Just before I
reached the hedge I remembered something and
turned around.
"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the
lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put
together." (8.44-45)
Daisy and Tom may have been born with money,
but they're not "worth" anything. But Gatsby—
despite his ill-gotten money—is.
Themes
Violence
The end of the novel, of course, consists of
violence against Gatsby. The choice of handgun as
a weapon suggests Gatsby's shady past, but it is
symbolic that it is his love affair, not his business
life, that kills Gatsby in the end.
Setting
In the previous chapter, Gatsby’s confrontation
with Tom took place on the hottest day of the
summer and showed both frustration and
destruction. On the other hand, the cooler weather
in chapter 8 illustrates calming things down. Now
that the fire has gone out of Gatsby’s life with
Daisy’s decision to remain with Tom, the weather
suddenly cools, and autumn creeps into the air and
the “leaves [will] start falling pretty soon”. In the
same way that he is attached to the hope of
making Daisy love him the way she used to, he
insists on swimming in the pool as though it were
still summer, trying to hold on to memories of the
past and reliving those days.
Setting
Furthermore, Wilson kills Gatsby on the first day of
autumn “among the yellowing trees” (Fitzgerald,
161), at the time where Gatsby was floating in his
pool despite a chill in the air. This is a symbolic
attempt to stop time and restore his relationship
with Daisy, but in the end his hopes and dreams
get put to rest by a gunshot from the barrel of
Wilson.
Plot Outline
• Nick finds Gatsby in his home after he had waited
all night for a sign from Daisy.
• Nick suggests Gatsby leave or else his car may be
traced.
• "Flashback" about Daisy- Gatsby meeting Daisy,
being with Daisy...
• Flashback/Recall of Gatsby in the war, at Oxford,
away and worried about Daisy.
• Nick leaves Gatsby, complementing him and
seeing him alive for the last time.
• Conversation between Nick and Jordan Baker
over the phone.
Plot Outline
• Nick passes by the "valley of ashes" - tells reader
about what happened the night before there.
• Description on Wilson and his emotional/mental
condition. Several men and Michaelis watched over
him since the incident, Michaelis ultimately
remained.
• Michaelis realizes Wilson is gone, attempts to find
him.
• Gatsby goes for a dive in his pool.
• Gatsby's chaffeur and other staff members hear a
shot.
• Nick arrives, and all of them discover Gatsby and
Wilson dead.
Symbolism
The colour silver is also used— “Daisy, gleaming like
silver, safe and proud above the struggles of the
poor.” (p150) and “A hundred pairs of golden and
silver slippers shuffled the shining dust.” (p151) In
this case silver is used to symbolize not only wealth,
but the carelessness and untaintedness of the object
which it is described with. Daisy, although surrounded
by poor, gives no thought to them as she has never
been subject to that style of life, but only the
extravagant. The slippers highlight that point once
again as they are carelessly dancing in the dust,
without a care about the dirtiness, but only revelling
in the beauty and splendour of themselves.
Symbolism
Gray in this book has been used to symbolize utter
hopelessness, and blue is used to signify hope for
the future. In this sentence, Fitzgerald shows that
although the past is gone, the new day is already
dawning in lost dreams and situations; there are
still ghosts of Gatsby’s hope left. Still holding on to
his dream of being with Daisy, though it will soon
be overwhelmed by the daylight of harsh reality.
Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes
From Wilson’s sorrowed eyes, Doctor T.J.
Eckleburg’s eyes are the eyes of God, which he
says “[know] everything,” meaning Myrtle could’t
hide her sin from the eyes of God. Wilson tells
Michaelis that before Myrtle died, he confronted
her about her affair and told her that “God knows
what [she’s] been doing” and that she could “fool
[him] but [she couldn’t] fool God.” Wilson takes Dr.
T.J Eckleburg’s eyes for the all-seeing eyes and
derives his misguided belief that Myrtle’s killer
must have been her lover. He decides that the eyes
represent a moral standard and that God demands
revenge for the sin Myrtle has convicted and leaves
to track down the owner of the car.
Flashback
Gatsby, in his misery, tells Nick the story of his
first meeting with Daisy. He does so even though it
patently gives the lie to his earlier account of his
past. Gatsby and Daisy first met in Louisville in
1917; Gatsby was instantly smitten with her
wealth, her beauty, and her youthful innocence.
Realizing that Daisy would spurn him if she knew
of his poverty, Gatsby determined to lie to her
about his past and his circumstances. Before he
left for the war, Daisy promised to wait for him;
the two then slept together, as though to seal their
pact. Of course, Daisy did not wait; she married
Tom, who was her social equal and the choice of
her parents. This is shown through a flashback.
Motifs
The green light
Struck with insomnia, Nick rushes to Gatsby’s house
with the urge to tell him something important. When
he arrives, Gatsby immediately tells Nick how he
was waiting outside of the Buchanan’s house earlier.
He says that “she came to the window and stood
there for a minute and then turned out the light.” At
first Gatsby sees Daisy in the green light through the
window which represents Gatsby’s dream. But when
she turns off the lights, the darkness represents the
realities of Gatsby’s dream and his failure to succeed
in achieving his American Dream and happiness.
The End
Chapter 8
By: Ambika Gosyne L6L
Indu Singh L6G
Point of View
Nick Carraway is our first-person narrator, but he's not
the center of the story—and that makes him a
peripheral narrator, someone who's always on the
outside looking in. He tells us at the beginning of the
first chapter that "I'm inclined to reserve all
judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious
natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few
veteran bores" (1.3). People like to tell Nick their
stories. Example; Gatsby's story, Tom's story, Jordan's
story, Daisy's story, and even the story of the Wilsons.
Ultimately, Nick's major character trait – reserving
judgment – allows him to be almost an "invisible"
narrator, similar to a traditional third-person omniscient
point of view.
Characterisation (George Wilson)
He is the only person who does not belong to the rich
class, and thus highlights the contrast between the rich
and the poor and what the rich characters might lack.
He is also the second tragic figure in the novel (Gatsby
is the first) because he is at the mercy of rich people.
Tom treats him condescendingly and he acts as a victim
of the rich people’s game in the novel. George Wilson
works hard to give Myrtle a better life and never cheats
on he; in contrast, his wife never really loves him and
doesn’t even respect him. Despite this, he still blames
himself for his wife’s death and suffers terrible
emotional pain, which strongly contrasts the more
shallow, materialistic love that other characters display.
Themes
Isolation
“He stayed there a week, walking the streets
where their footsteps had clicked together through
the November night and revisiting the out-of-theway places to which they had driven in her white
car. (8.28)”
Themes
Society and class
“We shook hands and I started away. Just before I
reached the hedge I remembered something and
turned around.
"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the
lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put
together." (8.44-45)
Daisy and Tom may have been born with money,
but they're not "worth" anything. But Gatsby—
despite his ill-gotten money—is.
Themes
Violence
The end of the novel, of course, consists of
violence against Gatsby. The choice of handgun as
a weapon suggests Gatsby's shady past, but it is
symbolic that it is his love affair, not his business
life, that kills Gatsby in the end.
Setting
In the previous chapter, Gatsby’s confrontation
with Tom took place on the hottest day of the
summer and showed both frustration and
destruction. On the other hand, the cooler weather
in chapter 8 illustrates calming things down. Now
that the fire has gone out of Gatsby’s life with
Daisy’s decision to remain with Tom, the weather
suddenly cools, and autumn creeps into the air and
the “leaves [will] start falling pretty soon”. In the
same way that he is attached to the hope of
making Daisy love him the way she used to, he
insists on swimming in the pool as though it were
still summer, trying to hold on to memories of the
past and reliving those days.
Setting
Furthermore, Wilson kills Gatsby on the first day of
autumn “among the yellowing trees” (Fitzgerald,
161), at the time where Gatsby was floating in his
pool despite a chill in the air. This is a symbolic
attempt to stop time and restore his relationship
with Daisy, but in the end his hopes and dreams
get put to rest by a gunshot from the barrel of
Wilson.
Plot Outline
• Nick finds Gatsby in his home after he had waited
all night for a sign from Daisy.
• Nick suggests Gatsby leave or else his car may be
traced.
• "Flashback" about Daisy- Gatsby meeting Daisy,
being with Daisy...
• Flashback/Recall of Gatsby in the war, at Oxford,
away and worried about Daisy.
• Nick leaves Gatsby, complementing him and
seeing him alive for the last time.
• Conversation between Nick and Jordan Baker
over the phone.
Plot Outline
• Nick passes by the "valley of ashes" - tells reader
about what happened the night before there.
• Description on Wilson and his emotional/mental
condition. Several men and Michaelis watched over
him since the incident, Michaelis ultimately
remained.
• Michaelis realizes Wilson is gone, attempts to find
him.
• Gatsby goes for a dive in his pool.
• Gatsby's chaffeur and other staff members hear a
shot.
• Nick arrives, and all of them discover Gatsby and
Wilson dead.
Symbolism
The colour silver is also used— “Daisy, gleaming like
silver, safe and proud above the struggles of the
poor.” (p150) and “A hundred pairs of golden and
silver slippers shuffled the shining dust.” (p151) In
this case silver is used to symbolize not only wealth,
but the carelessness and untaintedness of the object
which it is described with. Daisy, although surrounded
by poor, gives no thought to them as she has never
been subject to that style of life, but only the
extravagant. The slippers highlight that point once
again as they are carelessly dancing in the dust,
without a care about the dirtiness, but only revelling
in the beauty and splendour of themselves.
Symbolism
Gray in this book has been used to symbolize utter
hopelessness, and blue is used to signify hope for
the future. In this sentence, Fitzgerald shows that
although the past is gone, the new day is already
dawning in lost dreams and situations; there are
still ghosts of Gatsby’s hope left. Still holding on to
his dream of being with Daisy, though it will soon
be overwhelmed by the daylight of harsh reality.
Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes
From Wilson’s sorrowed eyes, Doctor T.J.
Eckleburg’s eyes are the eyes of God, which he
says “[know] everything,” meaning Myrtle could’t
hide her sin from the eyes of God. Wilson tells
Michaelis that before Myrtle died, he confronted
her about her affair and told her that “God knows
what [she’s] been doing” and that she could “fool
[him] but [she couldn’t] fool God.” Wilson takes Dr.
T.J Eckleburg’s eyes for the all-seeing eyes and
derives his misguided belief that Myrtle’s killer
must have been her lover. He decides that the eyes
represent a moral standard and that God demands
revenge for the sin Myrtle has convicted and leaves
to track down the owner of the car.
Flashback
Gatsby, in his misery, tells Nick the story of his
first meeting with Daisy. He does so even though it
patently gives the lie to his earlier account of his
past. Gatsby and Daisy first met in Louisville in
1917; Gatsby was instantly smitten with her
wealth, her beauty, and her youthful innocence.
Realizing that Daisy would spurn him if she knew
of his poverty, Gatsby determined to lie to her
about his past and his circumstances. Before he
left for the war, Daisy promised to wait for him;
the two then slept together, as though to seal their
pact. Of course, Daisy did not wait; she married
Tom, who was her social equal and the choice of
her parents. This is shown through a flashback.
Motifs
The green light
Struck with insomnia, Nick rushes to Gatsby’s house
with the urge to tell him something important. When
he arrives, Gatsby immediately tells Nick how he
was waiting outside of the Buchanan’s house earlier.
He says that “she came to the window and stood
there for a minute and then turned out the light.” At
first Gatsby sees Daisy in the green light through the
window which represents Gatsby’s dream. But when
she turns off the lights, the darkness represents the
realities of Gatsby’s dream and his failure to succeed
in achieving his American Dream and happiness.
The End
