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The Prophet
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
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5 comments:
Chapter 7:
Chapter seven starts with Gatsby telling Nick how he has fired all of his servants. He did this out of fear that they would talk about his relationship with Daisy, since she now visits him frequently. It was very hot outside the day after this occurred, and Nick went to the Buchanans, where Tom was as well. Gatsby and Nick meet Daisy’s daughter for the first time. Daisy, Nick, Gatsby, Tom, and Jordan decide to take a trip to the city. Tom drives Gatsby’s car with Jordan and Nick as passengers, and Gatsby drives Tom’s car with Daisy as a passenger. On the way, Tom stops at Wilson’s garage in the Valley of Ashes in order to get gas. He and Wilson talk about their cars, specifically Tom’s new yellow car, which actually belongs to Gatsby. Wilson admits that he knows that Myrtle is seeing someone, although he does not seem to know that it is Tom. Nick notices Myrtle peering out the window. Once they arrive in the city they all decide to rent a suite in the Plaza hotel as a way to cure their heat problems. While there, Tom and Gatsby end up having an argument over rumors about Gatsby. Gatsby admits to only studying at Oxford for five months. The conversation then turned to Daisy, and Tom and Gatsby try to convince each other that Daisy never loved the other, and their affair is revealed. Daisy ends up breaking up the argument by saying that it is clear she only loves Tom, even though this isn’t the truth. Tom also reveals that Gatsby has been selling alcohol illegally. At the end of this day Nick realizes that it is his thirtieth birthday. When driving home, Nick, Tom, and Jordan reach the scene of the accident near Wilson’s garage. They find out that Myrtle was killed by a yellow car. Wilson recognizes the car from when he and Tom discussed it earlier. When Nick goes home he talks to Gatsby about the accident, and learns that it was Daisy driving the car when it hit Myrtle. He leaves Gatsby at the Buchanans, who decides to wait and watch the house.
Chapter 9:
The Beginning, the Middle, the End. Everything has turned to dust and all that is left is “Dan Cody, a token of forgotten violence staring down from the wall” (173). Gatsby’s death has ripped apart the foundation of his past, revealing all that was lost and put away. As Gatsby lay upon the floor, with Henry Gatz walking through the halls, is this the death of Gatsby and the restoration of Gatz? Or is it the restoration of lost memories? The last days of Gatsby’s existence upon the rock of the world are coming to a close and everyone who supposedly meant something to Gatsby, except Nick and Henry Gatz, turn their backs. The only others to attend the funeral are a few servants and “Owl Eyes”, whom Nick met at one of Gatsby’s parties. Henry is left to restore the past with the present so that he may carry with him “his pride in his son” (180). The funeral ends with only the vivid memory of who Gatsby was. The empty, extravagant house with its memories of music, laughter and cars is still. Although Nick has revealed much about the life of Gatsby/Gatz, Nick is not as honest as he may make readers think. Nick is caught between the reality of the world and what is left of the world that Gatsby created.
KM--
Thanks for posting these--the following comments are not just for you but for your group members as well.
A couple things--I think that the chapter 9 summary needs a little bit of work. Right now, it reads as a holistic account and while it contains some good information, I think that it must be more specific in its descriptions about what happens in the plot. Where is the Nick's conversation with Tom in NYC? Where is Nick's meeting with Wolfsheim, where do they meet? Where is the description of the last two pages and those lofty words that Fitzgerald uses to close the novel.
Please let me know what I can do in order to be of help--but I do think that we need to spend some time re-working these summaries.
Best,
AK
Chapter 8 part 1:
Gatsby returns to his house in the morning after having spent the night watching to make sure nothing happened to Daisy at her house. At this point it is said that the mansion has never seemed so big to Nick as he helps Gatsby search for cigarettes. Nick advises Gatsby to go away for a week because the car in the accident might be able to be traced. Gatsby refuses, clinging to some empty hope that Daisy still wants to be with him. He begins to talk about her and facts about their relationship are revealed. When Gatsby first met Daisy, he was as excited about her wealth as he was about the fact that Daisy had already been with many other men. He led Daisy to believe that he was well off even though he was still a poor man, basically taking as much from her as he could because he didn’t feel he deserved any of it. He was surprised that he loved her in the first place and continually surprised that she didn’t turn him away. Their relationship served to make Gatsby “overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves”. It seems they did love each other, he and Daisy just spent a quiet afternoon enjoying only each other’s company the day before he was deployed. Gatsby did well in the war. On his return home, he was sent to Oxford by mistake. He was away for so long that Daisy felt pressure to marry someone and settle down. She did so with Tom.
After this reflection, Gatsby shares with Nick that he does not believe that Daisy ever truly loved Tom, and that she only said that in the heat of the moment.
Gatsby returns to his account of his early interactions with Daisy. He returns to Louisville during Daisy and Tom’s honeymoon. Like her house, the whole city held a greater charm and mystery simply because it had been hers. Everything seemed to be going by so fast and “he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever”.
Chapter 8 part 2:
Nick then says he has to leave because his train to New York City leaves in 12 minutes. Nick says he’ll call Gatsby and just before he leaves tells him that “they’re a rotten crowd,” and “you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” While Nick is working in the city, he receives a call from Jordan. She usually does this because it’s hard for them to contact each other otherwise. Her tone of voice is different than usual; her usually refreshing voice seems harsh. She informs Nick that she moved out of Daisy’s house and is now living in Hempstead. Nick acknowledges to himself that although that was probably a tactful thing to do, he still feels a little annoyed with her. Nevertheless they are unable to find a time to meet and the conversation ends abruptly. Afterwards, Nick continually tries to call Gatsby but can’t get through because Gatsby is keeping the line open for a call from Detroit.
On the train home Nick avoided the side where Myrtle was hit. He recounts that they had trouble finding Catherine. When she finally arrived on the scene, not only had she gotten drunk and therefore broken her no alcohol rule, but she also fainted when she learned that the ambulance had already left. She left but the crowed stayed until past midnight. Wilson stayed awake until morning, mumbling about a yellow car and how he could figure out who it belonged to. A man named Michaelis tried to comfort Wilson by asking him basic questions about him and Myrtle (if they had kids, if they went to church, etc). After a moment of quiet, Wilson tells Michaelis to open a drawer where there is a dog leash which Tom bought Myrtle, although Wilson aware of all of these details. He tells Michaelis that he when confronted Myrtle about the affair, he “told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God.” While telling this to Michaelis, he stares at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckelburg.
Wilson leaves the garage and wanders around the city, stopping in garages and asking about a yellow car. By 2 o’clock he was on his way to Gatsby’s. At the same time Gatsby was by the pool where “he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”
The chauffer hears gunshots. The chauffeur, butler, gardener, and Nick rush to Gatsby’s pool. They find Gatsby’s body, the pool now tainted with blood. Wilson’s body is lying in the grass “and the holocaust was complete.”
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