The Great Gatsby - Chapter 8

'The Great Gatsby' Reading Log - Chapter 8

Key Events

- Nick can’t sleep and goes to see Gatsby

- Gatsby waited till 4 in the morning and she didn’t come for him – his dream is gone

- Gatsby won’t leave – still has hope Daisy will change her mind

- Gatsby talks about Daisy when he first met her – he loved her youth, vitality and respected her money and popularity – he lied about his background to get her

- Gatsby tells the gardener to not drain the pool – he hasn’t used it all summer

- Nick compliments Gatsby before he leaves – telling him he is better than the rest of them put together

- Nick and Jordan break up

- Nick relays the events that happened after they left the garage

- Wilson believed the eyes in the valley are those of God and it gives him the idea of retribution

- Wilson eventually finds Gatsby’s house and kills him before shooting himself

- Nick imagines what Gatsby’s last thoughts were

Significant moments

- Nick gives Gatsby the only compliment he has ever gave him – finality in the statement – foreshadowing

- Gatsby tells the gardener to not drain the pool – he wants to hold on to the summer – better days

- Wilson becomes overwhelmed with grief – anger – fury and looks for the person that murdered his wife

- Wolfshiem’s people don’t even care to notice that Gatsby has died – they are corrupt

- Gatsby is murdered and Wilson kills himself

Scenes and places

- Gatsby’s house – ‘His house had never seemed so enormous to me’ – ‘great’ – ‘curtains that were like pavilions’ – ‘innumerable feet’ – all contrast against Gatsby’s loneliness at this point – reflects back on when Daisy said she doesn’t know how he lived there alone

- ‘Ghostly’ – ‘dust’ – ‘musty’ – ‘stale’ – ‘dry’ – ‘darkness’ – mirrors the atmosphere – foreshadowing of Gatsby’s death – his house is practically abandoned and it isn’t as grand anymore – due to the loss of his American Dream/Daisy – he doesn’t have anything to keep the façade going

- Daisy’s house - ‘he had never been in such a beautiful house before’ - house symbolises Daisy’s wealth and social status – he is attracted to her money but mistakes the attraction for her

- ‘bedrooms up-stairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors’ ‘lavender’ – this is what he dreamed of – he got it – was too blind with his ambitions and dreams to notice that he had everything he wanted – he even has lavender mentioned in his house – he has reached exactly what intrigued him about Daisy – technically reached his dream

- Louisiana - ‘The track curved and now it was going away from the sun’ - Daisy represents the light – Gatsby’s dreams – the only…