Seven. . .
Gatsby's Saturday night parties stop. When Gatsby come at Daisy's asking to lunch at her house the next day, Nick learns that Gatsby has new servants, "some people Wolfshiem wanted to do something for"- he feared they would leak information about he and Daisy. Because of the weather during lunch, everyone is uncomfortable. Tom leaves the room to talk to his mistress on the phone while Daisy kisses Gatsby and declares her love for him. Tom notices a glance between Daisy and Gatsby and cannot deny the two of them having an affair anymore. Tom, extremely upset, agrees on going to town and gets a bottle of whiskey and they set out. Tom, Jordan, and Nick are in Gatsby's car while Gatsby and Daisy are in Tom's car. Tom has been suspicious of Gatsby all along and decided to have him investigated.
Tom pulls into Wilson's gas station to get gas when he sees Wilson is not looking his best. Wilson tells Tom that he caught Myrtle having an affair with an unknown person and they were heading West soon. Tom, being even more enraged for losing his mistress and wife, questions Gatsby and confronts him about his love for Daisy. Gatsby shows no signs of being intimidated and tells Tom "Your wife doesn't love you... She never loved you. She loves me." Tom turns to Daisy who hesitates. Gatsby is now shaken, but tries another way to get Daisy. He declares: "Daisy's leaving you", but Tom assures him Daisy would never leave him for a bootlegger. Tom makes Daisy and Gatsby go home in Gatsby's own car, while Jordan, Nick, and himself follow in his car.
After this, the chapter goes into narration of George Wilson, who was found ill by his neighbor, Michaelis. Wilson tells him that he has Myrtle locked inside and how she'll stay there until they leave in two days. Michaelis heads back into his restaurant and returns a couple hours later when he hears Myrtle's voice and sees her break away from Wilson and run into the road. As she is entering the highway, she gets hit by a passing car that doesn't stop. Nick, Tom, and Jordan arrive on the scene closely after the accident to find Myrtle's body laying on a worktable. Tom learns that the car that struck Myrtle sounds like the same of Gatsby's car by description. Tom invited Nick inside to wait for a cab from East Egg to take him home. Nick can see theupsetting attitudesin Tom, Daisy, and the whole society they represent and declines. Outside, Nick bumps into Gatsby who asks if there was trouble on the road. After asking a couple of questions, Nick learns Daisy was driving, but that Gatsby will take the blame.
Eight. . .
Nick wakes up when he hears Gatsby return home from his all night stay out at the Buchannans. He goes to Gatsby, who says that nothing happened. Nick tells Gatsby he should leave town for a while because his car would be found out as the "death car." This makes Gatsby spill the story of his past and tells Nick that Daisy was Gatsby's social superior, and they fell deeply in love. While they courted, they had been intimate with each other that bonded him to her, feeling "married to her." Gatsby left her for the war, succeeded in battle and when the war was over, he tried to get home, but ended up at Oxford instead. Daisy didn't understand why he didn't immediately come back, and ended up breaking the relationship.
Gatsby and Nick continue to talk of Daisy and how Gatsby had gone to find her when he returned to the United States, but she was on her honeymoon and left Nick to wish that he searched harder to find her. Gatsby's gardener arrives as the men finish breakfast and plans on draining the pool due to the season, but Daisy asks him to wait because he hadn't used it at all. Nick moves to his train, but doesn't want to leave Gatsby and declares "They're a rotten crowd... You're worth the whole damn bunch together." The day goes on, and when Jordan calls Nick, he cuts her off. He tries calling Gatsby, but after no answer, decides to go home early. The narration changed time and focus, and we are found to be in the valley of ashes the evening before.Wilson, upset about Myrtle's death, is irrational when Michaelis tries to talk to him and converse with him. Michaelis is tired by morning and goes home to sleep.
When he goes back to Wilson four hours later, Wilson is gone and has gone to Port Roosevelt, Gads Hill, West Egg, and Gatsby's house. Gatsby is floating on an air mattress in the pool thinking things over when Wilson shoots and kills Gatsby, sure that he is responsible for his wife's death. Nick finds his body floating in the pool and while walking to the house with Gatsby's dead body, the gardener finds Wilson's dead body in the grass.
Nine. . .
The final chapter starts with the police and paparazzi all around Gatsby's house. Nick is concerned that he might have to handle Gatsby's burial arrangements. He calls Daisy to tell her about Gatsby's death, but finds out she and Tom left, leaving no itinerary. Th next day, Nick sends for Wolfshiem, but he sends a letter back saying he won't be involved with Gatsby's death. When Gatsby's phone rings and Nick answers, the speaker hangs up after he tells them Gatsby is dead. Three days later, Nick gets a telegram from Henry C. Gatz, Gatsby's father in Minnesota. He learned of his death through the Chicago newspaper. He refuses to take the body to the Midwest. Later that day, Klipspringer calls and Nick answers, hoping it would be another mourner joining the funeral, is disappointed when he hears that he is only calling to find out about Gatsby's tennis shoes. The morning of the funeral Nick forces his way into Wolfshiem's office, hoping to convince his closest business associate to show up to the services, but he refuses again. He does, however, disclose that he did not just give Gatsby a start in business. It tells us that he made Gatsby's fortune by using him in many questionable activities.
When Nick gets back to Gatsby's, he finds Mr. Gatz going through his son's house, getting more and more proud as he sees more and more things. He pulls out Hopalong Cassidy, which used to be owned by Gatsby as a kid. He had a daily schedule written in the back on the book. The men then go to the funeral. A few servants, the mail man, the minster, Nick, and Mr. Gatz are all that attend. Not one person from the parties thrown by Gatsby, with the exception of a man known as "Owl-eyes".
Nick starts to think about the memories of traveling West when he went home from college. He remembers how as the train got closer and closer into the West, he got more and morecomfortable. This puts Nick into a conversation about the Midwest versus the vices of the East. The chapter ends with Nick talking to two people from his past. Jordan, who he still feels fondly for, dismisses her once again. The other, one fall day, is Tom on Fifth Avenue. Tom sees Nick first and speaks. Nick refuses to shake his hand, mad with what Tom represents now. During this short talk, Nick learns that Tom had a role in Gatsby's death. Wilson worked his way to the Buchannan house in East Egg when Tom told him who owned the car that hit Myrtle. At the end, he shakes Tom's hand because he "felt suddenly as though he were talking to a child. The night before Nick leaves to move back West, he goes over to Gatsby's place and remembers how his house used to be. He thinks about how far Gatsby had gone in his life, how he took all the time to pick out a house to pick out Daisy's dock in the night, and how he hoped he had a future. Nick has one last thought, which is how society is the boats that always move against the current on the Sound.
Sources. . .
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "The Great Gatsby: Summary and Analysis: Chapter 7 - CliffsNotes."Get Homework Help with CliffsNotes Study Guides. Web. <http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/The-Great-Gatsby-Summary-and-Analysis-Chapter-7.id-119,pageNum-11.html>.
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "The Great Gatsby: Summary and Analysis: Chapter 8 - CliffsNotes."Get Homework Help with CliffsNotes Study Guides. Web. <http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/The-Great-Gatsby-Summary-and-Analysis-Chapter-8.id-119,pageNum-12.html>.
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "The Great Gatsby: Summary and Analysis: Chapter 9 - CliffsNotes."Get Homework Help with CliffsNotes Study Guides. Web. <http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/The-Great-Gatsby-Summary-and-Analysis-Chapter-9.id-119,pageNum-13.html>.
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