Chapter Eight is vital for the reader to be able to fully understand Gatsby's character. Fitzgerald has previously in the novel revealed only some details of Gatsby's past, but here he completes the background of James Gatz (Jay Gatsby) and how Gatsby came to know Daisy.
The chapter opens with Nick's going over to Gatsby's early the next morning after a restless night for both men. Gatsby had spent the entire night waiting outside of Daisy's window hoping for a signal of her wanting to escape with him but to no avail. Nick is not able to rest all night, due to recurring visions of Myrtle causing him to turn between "grotesque reality and savage frightening dreams" (154).
Gatsby's spirit is crushed by Tom, and now Jay feels able to confide the truth about himself in Nick. Very similar to the discussion Gatsby had had with Nick about Dan Cody, Jay now reveals even more personal truths about his relationship with Daisy. Gatsby had been overwhelmed by Daisy since he first met her. He then began visiting her regularly with other officers from Camp Taylor, but soon he came alone. He was awed by her beautiful home and surroundings and was astonished at how natural she felt in such wealth. Gatsby was attracted to her partly because of her incredible wealth and partly because so many other men were.
Gatsby, however, felt that Daisy was out of reach for him because he was penniless. He would settle for taking whatever he could get for a while until he succeeded in being intimate with her. Instead of this making him happy, it only makes him angry with himself for misleading her about his social status. Rather than despise himself, he became infatuated with Daisy, converting her more into a quest than a realistic date. He had originally planned to take what he could of her and then leave, but became overwhelmed by her, and felt committed to her, even married. Gatsby professes his love for Daisy to Nick and describes how their mutual affection grew daily as they talked about the future. Their love reached a new height and depth the day before he was to leave for the war.
Gatsby then explains to Nick about his experience in the war. He had done extremely well in the war earning officer promotions and command of the machine gun division. After the Armistice he had tried frantically to return home to Daisy, but a misunderstanding in the military sent him to Oxford rather than back to America. He was still receiving letters from Daisy, but her letters had taken on a new tone of concern about his inability to get home and reassure her of her actions. She desperately needed guidance in her life by a strong male figure. Tom Buchanan, who flattered her, filled this void of influence. Gatsby learned of the crushing news in a letter while he was still at Oxford.
Gatsby attempts to reassure himself of Daisy's sole love for him by telling Nick repeatedly that she loved him all along more than Tom if she ever loved him. Jay returned from France while Tom and Daisy were still on their honeymoon and found Daisy's hometown still intriguing but empty and lonely.
Jay and Nick return to the present to discover a drastic change in the weather. The day is more autumn now. Gatsby's last servant tells him that he is going to drain the pool today, but Jay requests that he wait a while so that he could swim in it just once before it is emptied since he hadn't all summer. Nick feels a desire to stay with Gatsby and not leave him, so he misses two trains before he finally is able to leave. Nick promises to call Gatsby at noon, and Gatsby hopefully replies that Daisy might call him as well. As Nick is leaving he calls out to Gatsby calling the Buchanans and their friends a "rotten crowd" and tells Gatsby that he's worth all of them put together. It is the first and only compliment Nick gives him. Gatsby only stands on the steps of his house in his pink suit distinguishing him from the white steps. Nick is reminded of the first time he came to Gatsby's house and everyone there hypothesized about Gatsby's hidden corruption, not realizing his true hidden life. Then Nick departs from Gatsby, thanking him for his hospitality as he and many others had done before.
While at work, Nick receives a phone call from Jordan, but is extremely uninterested and rather indifferent to their breakup over the phone. Then he tries calling Gatsby four times at noon as promised but the line was busy. He learns from the operator that the line is open to a long distance call from Detroit.
Nick, as narrator, retells the events at the garage that had occurred after they had left. Myrtle's sister Catherine arrives, after some searching for her, drunk despite her earlier rule against drinking. Wilson sits dazed in his garage, the object of passersby' looks, until Michaelis joins him attempting to distract him. George admits to Michaelis that he does not attend church and then begins to tell about his belief that Myrtle was having an affair, remembering the time she had come back from the city bruised and with a broken nose, and displayed the new dog collar he had discovered as proof of his theory. Wilson does not accept any of Michaelis' reasons for Myrtle's having a dog collar but insists on her being murdered by the driver of the car rather than it having just been an accident. Wilson states how Myrtle had run into the road to talk to the driver, but he would not stop. Wilson then explains how he had told Myrtle that God knew everything that she was doing and had taken her to the window to look up at the overseeing eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, stating that God sees everything.
At six o'clock, Michaelis goes back home to sleep when the next watcher arrived to monitor Wilson. Four hours later, however, Michaelis returns to discover Wilson has disappeared. Boys say that they had seen Wilson "acting sort of crazy." He is in search of clues to find out whom the yellow car belongs to. He walks all over town, but by half past two, he is in West Egg asking for Gatsby's house.
At two o'clock Gatsby makes his way outside carrying the mattress for the pool, refusing aid by the chauffeur to carry it for him, and makes it to the yellowing trees. He leaves specific instructions not to take the car out despite the damage to the fender, and that all calls should be brought to him. The call from Daisy never comes and perhaps Gatsby believed it never would, realizing that he has paid a high price for his single dream. He looked at the world in a different light.
Although the chauffeur heard the shots but did not think much of them until Nick came running up the steps of the house, and they know then what had happened. Four of them, Nick, the chauffeur, butler, and gardener, go down to the pool. There, they find the mattress, touched by a cluster of leaves, revolving irregularly in the almost still water, leaving a thin red circle in the water. It is not until after they start moving Gatsby's body towards the house, that the gardener sees Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, completing the "holocaust."
The color yellow representing danger: earlier the car, now the leaves on the trees that Gatsby goes into before his swim. The color yellow can also represent recklessness foreshadowing doom.