The Great Gatsby

Chapter 8

pp 154-170

Summary

Chapter Eight begins with a change in mood after Myrtle's death. The first paragraph foreshadows the preeminent doom of Gatsby's death. The foghorns and nightmares, which disrupt Nick's sleep also, are used as symbols to allude to the tragic ending. Fitzgerald also uses the weather as an ominous symbol in this chapter. The novel opens in the spring with Nick's move to the East. The story eventually climaxes at the heat of the summer, and the falling leaves of autumn close the story with Gatsby's death.

The narrator, Nick Carraway, has a change of heart for Jay in this chapter. He still does not approve of Jay's vulgar habits and illegal actions; however, he has learned to respect him and his dedication to Daisy. This change in perspective is the sum of what Nick learns during the stay in the East.

In the flashback to the relationship of Daisy and Gatsby five years before, Jay refers to her "youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves...gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor." Gatsby means that her money has preserved her beauty. The flashback changes the reader's view of Daisy and serves to soften her image after we discover that she drove the murderous car. She is portrayed as weak and forced to marry (Tom) under society's restrictions. When the author states, "Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief," he shows us the side of Daisy that struggles only slightly and then easily gives in to stronger opposition. Gatsby believes that Daisy never loved Tom, and "it was only personal." This describes his interpretation of love as intense and much deeper than just a relationship between two people. According to him the emotion is "fused" with the ideal, which explains the strength of his "incorruptible dream."

Gatsby refuses to let go of his dream of winning Daisy's love, so he turns down Nick's advice to leave town and get away for a while. His faith in the love of their past never diminishes. Ironically, Gatsby dies while waiting for the call from Daisy.

Meanwhile, Wilson slips into complete delusion and, under Tom's encouragement, shoots and kills the wrong man (Jay) to avenge his wife's death. He ends his own life minutes after. The timing of Gatsby's death leaves the reader with feelings that Gatsby died an admirable death because he held on to his vision despite his limitations.

Nick comes to the conclusion that the material world which corrupted Gatsby is grotesque and unreal without a necessary spiritual element attached to give it meaning and purpose. In the end it was Jay who tries to keep some sort of value alive in the immoral lives led by the Buchanans.

Symbols

Foghorn's groan - foreshadows Gatsby's death

Nick's nightmares - also foreshadowing Jay's death

Autumn - signals the end is near; the story is presented with a symbolic changing of the seasons

Characters

Nick Carraway - the narrator

Jay Gatsby - romantic idealist who spends his adult life amassing wealth he believes will win him Daisy

George Wilson - misguided murderer of Gatsby and himself

Daisy Buchanan - Gatsby's "incorruptible dream" and Tom's emotionally weak wife, the driver of the car that killed Myrtle

Tom Buchanan - Daisy's protective husband, he leads Wilson to believe Gatsby is to blame for his wife's death.

Thematic Elements

Holy Grail - Daisy stands for everything Gatsby is not. He wants everything about her, including her house and her possessions, and the fact that she is chased by other men makes her more valuable to Jay. And so he, "committed himself to the following of a grail" and made marrying Daisy his ultimate goal in life.

The grail is what the Knights of the Round Table were searching for because if they found it, they would be saved. Fitzgerald uses the word "grail" in the book to suggest that, to Gatsby, marrying Daisy was a sort of religious quest.

Setting

Chapter Eight occurs primarily in George's garage and then later in Gatsby's mansion where he is shot.

Significant Quotations

- "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. I think that he would have acknowledged anything, now, without reserve, but he wanted to talk about Daisy" (155).

This quotation shows how strongly Jay feels about Daisy. He could think and speak of no one else.

- "'...You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.' I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time" (162).

Nick changes his opinion of Jay during the course of the novel. This quotation demonstrates that Nick's prior judgment is now irrelevant because after several months of friendship, he realizes that Jay places less emphasis on material items than he first thought.

- "'Maybe you got some friend that I could telephone for, George?' This was a forlorn hope--he was almost sure that Wilson had no friend: there was not enough of him for his wife" (167).

This quotation leads up to George's suicide and shows how the characters in the book slowly begin to lose George to insanity.

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Page last updated on April 28, 1999.
Curator: Jenny Neyland