The Great Gatsby

Chapter 8

Nick cannot sleep

• I couldn't sleep all night; a fog-horn was groaning incessantly on the Sound

• I tossed half-sick between grotesque reality and savage, frightening dreams.

Gatsby's house

• At dawn, Nick jumps out of bed and heads to Gatsby's house.

• I saw that his front door was still open and he was leaning against a table in the hall, heavy with dejection or sleep.

• His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night when we hunted through the great rooms for cigarettes.

• I found the humidor on an unfamiliar table, with two stale, dry cigarettes inside.

• Throwing open the French windows of thedrawing-room, we sat smoking out into the darkness.

Gatsby’s Youth• Gatsby wanted to talk about Daisy. • She was the first “nice” girl he had ever

known. • While he was in the army at Camp Taylor,

he went to her house as often as possible.

• It amazed him - he had never been in such a beautiful house before.

• As a penniless young man, he knew that he did not belong there.

• Gatsby knows he misled Daisy, for he had made her think that he came from a similar background to hers, that he could take care of her.

• he committed himself to someday being able to support her, to be worthy of her.

Falling in love• “I can't describe to you how

surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport.”

• “I even hoped for a while that she'd throw me over, but she didn't, because she was in love with me too.”

Off to war• He was a captain before he went to

the front • Following the Argonne battles, he

got his majority and the command of the divisional machine-guns.

Meanwhile, daisy moves on

• Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men.

Tom• That force took shape in the

middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan. There was a wholesome bulkiness about his person and his position, and Daisy was flattered.

Daisy Dumps gatsby

•The letter reached Gatsby while he was still at Oxford.

Gatsby returns•He came back from France

when Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip

Louisville• Gatsby used the last of his money to go

to Louisville and soak up the memories of her.

• As he left Louisville on the train, "He stretched out his hand desperately, as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. . .he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever."

Back to the present• The gardener, the last one of

Gatsby's former servants, came to the foot of the steps.

• “I'm going to drain the pool today, Mr. Gatsby. Leaves'll start falling pretty soon, and then there's always trouble with the pipes.”

• “Don't do it today,” • “You know, old sport, I've never

used that pool all summer?”

After breakfast• Nick is worried• “I didn't want to go to

the city.” • “I didn't want to leave

Gatsby.” • “I missed that train, and

then another, before I could get myself away.”

Nick Leaves• “They're a rotten crowd,” I

shouted across the lawn. • “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.

Nick at work• Just before noon the phone

woke me, and I started up with sweat breaking out on my forehead.

• It was Jordan Baker.

Jordan’s call• “You weren't so nice to me last night.”• “How could it have mattered then?”• “However - I want to see you.”• “I want to see you, too.”• “Suppose I don't go to Southampton,

and come into town this afternoon?”• “No - I don't think this afternoon.”• “Very well.”

• We talked like that for a while, and then abruptly we weren't talking any longer.

• I don't know which of us hung up with a sharp click, but I know I didn't care.

• I couldn't have talked to her across a tea-table that day if I never talked to her again in this world.

Valley of Ashes• When Nick had passed through the

Valley of Ashes on the way to work, he had crossed to the other side of the train.

• He did not want to see the curious crowds that would be gathered around the place of the accident.

Catherine• They had difficulty in

locating the sister, Catherine.

• She must have broken her rule against drinking that night, for when she arrived she was stupid with liquor and unable to understand that the ambulance had already gone

Wilson is going crazy

• Michaelis tries to calm him down.• About three o'clock the quality of

Wilson's incoherent muttering changed - he grew quieter and began to talk about the yellow car.

• At 6 am, one of the watchers of the night before, came back.

Wilson Disappears• Wilson was quieter now, and Michaelis

went home to sleep; when he awoke four hours later and hurried back to the garage, Wilson was gone.

• Wilson had gone out on foot to search for the owner of the yellow car.

• By half past two he was in West Egg, where he asked someone for directions to Gatsby's house.

Gatsby Uses the pool• At two o'clock Gatsby put on his

bathing-suit and left word with the butler that if any one phoned word was to be brought to him at the pool.

• He stopped at the garage for a pneumatic mattress that had amused his guests during the summer, and the chauffeur helped him pump it up.

Wilson Finds Gatsby

• The chauffeur - he was one of Wolfsheim's proteges - heard the shots - afterward he could only say that he hadn't thought anything much about them.

Death at the mansion• Nick arrived at Gatsby's house, anxiously

looking for his friend. He hurried to the pool with the chauffeur, the butler, and the gardener.

• "The laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool," surrounded by a red circle in the water.

• It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass,

• and the holocaust was complete.

Chapter 9

Two Years Later

• Nick writes this chapter two years after Gatsby's death.

• I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the next day, only as an endless drill of police and photographers and newspaper men in and out of Gatsby's front door.

Catherine• She swore that her sister, Myrtle

had never seen Gatsby. • Her sister was completely happy

with her husband and had been into no mischief whatever.

• So Wilson was reduced to a man “deranged by grief.” in order that the case might remain in its simplest form.

• And it rested there.

Preparing for the funeral

• Nick realizes he is the only person who seemed to really care about Gatsby and one of the few who was on his side.

• Nick calls Daisy to give her the news within the hour, but the servants tell him that she and Tom have gone out of town without leaving an address or a date of return.

• He then tries to call Meyer Wolfsheim at his office, but it is after five o'clock, and no one answers.

No one cares• When Nick is in the room with Gatsby's

body, he imagines him saying, “Look here, old sport, you've got to get somebody for me. . .I can't go through this alone.”

• The next day no one telephoned, even though everyone would have read about Gatsby's murder in the newspaper.

• no one comes to Gatsby's house. • Nick feels very alone.

Shady Business• When the phone finally rang, Nick

thought it would be Daisy at last. • It was someone named Slagle, who

did not know Gatsby was dead.• “Young Parke's in trouble,” he said

rapidly. “They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter.”

• When Nick tells him Gatsby is dead, he hangs up quickly.

Henry C. Gatz

• On the third day after Gatsby's death, a telegram arrives from Gatsby's father.

• It said to postpone the funeral until he came from Minnesota.

• Mr. Gatz was a solemn old man, very helpless and dismayed.

• he was proud of his son “Jimmy” and the wealth he had amassed.

• He tells Nick that “he had a big future. . .”

• “If he'd of lived he'd of been a great man. . . helped build up the country.”

Klipspringer• That night an obviously frightened person

called up, and demanded to know who I was before he would give his name.

• It was Klipspringer, the boarder• Nick tells him about the funeral arrangements,

scheduled for the next day at three o'clock.• Klipspringer indicates that he is tied up and

probably will not be able to make it. • He was more concerned about a pair of shoes

he had left at Gatsby’s mansion.• Nick hung up on him.

Wolfsheim • The morning of the funeral,

Nick went to New York to see Meyer Wolfsheim.

• His secretary said he was in Chicago.

• He knows she is lying. • Nick mentions Gatsby, and

the secretary goes into the office to get Wolfsheim

Memories of Gatsby• “My memory goes back to when I first met him,”

he said. “A young major just out of the army and covered over with medals he got in the war.”

• “He was so hard up he had to keep on wearing his uniform because he couldn't buy some regular clothes.”

• Wolfsheim tells Nick about how he discovered Gatsby and “made him -- raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter.”

• Wolfsheim then says he regrets he cannot come to Gatsby's funeral, confessing “I can't get mixed up in it.”

Leaving Wolfsheim’s• “When I left his office

the sky had turned dark and I got back to West Egg in a drizzle.”

• Nick changes his clothes and goes over to check on Mr. Gatz.

Mr. Gatz• The old man explains he last saw Gatsby

two years ago when he came home for a visit and to buy his father a house.

• Gatz then shows Nick a picture of Gatsby's mansion that he has carried in his wallet to show his friends.

Gatsby’s Schedule• He also shows a ragged copy of

“Hopalong Cassidy,” a book Gatsby owned when he was a boy.

• Inside, on the back cover, Gatsby had written out a detailed schedule for his day on September 12, 1906.

• At the bottom of the schedule were his “resolves,” including “no wasting time” and “be better to parents.”

The Funeral• A little before three the Lutheran

minister arrived from Flushing, and I began to look involuntarily out the windows for other cars.

• So did Gatsby's father. • The minister glanced several times at

his watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour.

• But it wasn't any use. Nobody came.

• About five o'clock our procession of three cars reached the cemetery and stopped in a thick drizzle beside the gate - first the hearse, then Mr. Gatz and the minister and I in the limousine, and a little later four or five servants and the postman from West Egg in Gatsby's station wagon.

• As we started through the gate into the cemetery I heard a car stop and then the sound of someone splashing after us over the soggy ground.

• I looked around. It was the man with owl-eyed glasses whom I had found marvelling over Gatsby's books in the library one night three months before.

Nick Goes Home

• After Gatsby's death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction.

• So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home.

Goodbye Jordan• There was one thing to be done

before I left, an awkward, unpleasant thing that perhaps had better have been let alone. But I wanted to leave things in order and not just trust that obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away.

• I saw Jordan Baker and talked over and around what had happened to us together, and what had happened afterward to me, and she lay perfectly still, listening, in a big chair.

• When I had finished she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man.

Goodbye Tom• One afternoon late in October I saw Tom

Buchanan. • "What's the matter, Nick? Do you object

to shaking hands with me?"      "Yes. You know what I think of you."      "You're crazy, Nick," he said quickly.

• "Tom," I inquired, "what did you say to Wilson that afternoon?"

Tom & Wilson• “I told him the truth,” he said. “He

came to the door while we were getting ready to leave, and when I sent down word that we weren't in he tried to force his way up-stairs.”

• “He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn't told him who owned the car. His hand was on a revolver in his pocket every minute he was in the house...”

Tom & Daisy• I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I

saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified.

• It was all very careless and confused. • They were careless people, Tom and

Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . .

Goodbye Gatsby• Gatsby's house remained empty, but

it haunted Nick. • On weekends, he still heard the

music and laughter of Gatsby's extravagant parties; as a result, he went into the city to escape the sounds in his head.

• On his last night on West Egg, Nick walks over to Gatsby's mansion and down to the beach.

• “He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”

• What Gatsby never really knew or accepted was that the dream was in the past.

• For the Great Gatsby, however, as long as he could see the green light, he had a purpose in life.

The End

•So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.