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The Great Gatsby Chapter 8 Analysis

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Chapter 7 begins with Gatsby having lunch with Tom and Daisy. The conversation had heated up between Tom and Gatsby so Daisy interferes and says lets go to town for the day. Gatsby and Daisy drive in Tom's car, while Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive in Gatsby's. On the way, Tom furiously tells Nick that Gatsby is no Oxford man. They stop for gas at Wilson's garage. Wilson tells them that he's decided to move his wife out west, since he recently learned that she's been having an affair; he does not yet, however, know who her lover is. Upon leaving the garage, they see Myrtle peering down at the car from her window. She stares at Jordan with an expression of jealous terror, since she assumes that Jordan is Tom's wife. Feeling that both his wife and mistress are slipping away from him, Tom grows panicked and impatient. …show more content…

Wracked by anxiety, he hurries to Gatsby's mansion shortly before dawn. He advises Gatsby to leave Long Island until the scandal of Myrtle's death has quieted down. Gatsby refuses, as he cannot bring himself to leave Daisy: he tells Nick that he spent the entire night in front of the Buchanan's mansion, just to ensure that Daisy was safe. In the last chapter, Nick reveals Gatsby's lifelong quest to transcend his past as ultimately futile. In comparing this backward-driving force to the current of a river, Fitzgerald presents it as both inexorable and, in some sense, naturally determined. It is the inescapable lot of humanity to move backward. Therefore, any attempt at progress is the result of hubris and outsizes ambition. Nick, in reflecting on America as a whole, links its fate to Gatsby's. America, according to Fitzgerald, was founded on the ideals of progress and equality. The America envisioned by its founders was a land made for men like Gatsby: it was intended as a place where visionary dreamers could

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284 Words | 2 Pages

Like Thomas Foster said “ Geography can also define or even develop character.” In chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby we were introduced to “the valley of ashes”, which was George Wilson’s Repair garage. When Fitzgerald was describing the garage it was as though he was describing George himself. One line that really stood out to me was “this shadow of a garage must be blind…”. I feel like this line is indirectly trying to tell the readers how George is not aware of his wife’s affair with Tom.

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1334 Words | 6 Pages

In The Great Gatsby towards the end of the book, Tom and Daisy are still in a fight and Gatsby is expecting a call from Daisy announcing that she wants to run away with Gatsby forever. After the horrific act of killing Myrtle committed by Daisy, Tom is furious. Wilson is so overcome by grief and anguish that he is willing to do anything to avenge Myrtle’s death. The next day Gatsby invites Nick over for one last time. He is exuding confidence because he knows that daisy will call.

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414 Words | 2 Pages

In The Great Gatsby,written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, three parties have taken place; the Buchanan’s house party, chapter one, the apartment party, chapter two, and Nick’s first Gatsby party, chapter three. Out of all the people that attended each of the parties, Nick relates most to Jay Gatsby. The two reasons that stood out were that both have good morals and both were soldiers in the same war. Both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby have good personal morals. This was seen especially in chapter two by Nick when he was at the party.

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916 Words | 4 Pages

Chapter eight of Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby picks up almost immediately after the dramatic conclusion of chapter seven which involved the climax of the novel, Myrtle’s murder. As the chapter opens, Nick Carraway, the novel’s faithful narrator, upset by the events of his thirtieth birthday, travels to Gatsby's mansion to try to convince him to leave West Egg and avoid the effects of Myrtle's death on the surrounding communities, but Gatsby refuses to listen to Nick’s plea solely due to not wanting to leave Daisy with Tom without Gatsby’s “protection” and possibly Gatsby still has a glimmer of hope that Daisy will choose him over Tom regardless of all of the mess that has happened. Gatsby justifies his willing to stay for Daisy

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815 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby’s dream and adventure towards reaching Daisy’s heart led to his own demise. After Nick and Gatsby discuss Daisy’s hit-and-run outside of the Buchanan house, Nick leaves Gatsby while he stares over Daisy and Tom: “So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight — watching over nothing” (145). Nick’s mention of Gatsby “watching over nothing” displays how Gatsby is blind to the fact that his relationship with Daisy doesn’t have the fiery spark it once had. Gatsby had become deceived by his dream to continue the love he and Daisy had once had years earlier and this illusion disables his ability to let go of the past His persistence towards winning Daisy’s heart causes him to ignore the reality of his situation and drives him to become unable to see that he had failed in his ambitions. Additionally, when Nick realizes that Gatsby was

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299 Words | 2 Pages

Short Summary: In the beginning of this chapter, Nick arrives home after his talk with Jordan and Gatsby is there waiting for him, they talk and Gatsby leaves. On the day that Daisy was coming over, Gatsby is very nervous and scared, since it's the first time he is going to see Daisy after 5 years. When Daisy arrives, Nick tries to leave them alone, but they just wouldn't talk and it became a little awkward. Gatsby asks Nick to go with him to the other room and he freaks out about how horribly thing are going.

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418 Words | 2 Pages

The novel The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is a story about a man, a man who is in love with a married woman from his past. Who changes his whole life to impress her and get her back? A story told through the eyes of a friend, describing the events of his life. The scene in chapter 9 where very few people attend the funeral made me think about how life can change so quickly and how your life can just end in the blink of an eye.

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991 Words | 4 Pages

How the American Dream lives in The Great Gatsby Imagine one’s dream nearing destruction, however regains its value during a crucial time of analyzation. In his novel The Great Gatsby (1925), Fitzgerald experiments with numerous themes. Although, the most prevalent and intriguing to the audience is the theme of the American Dream. The dream endeavors to unfold the thoughts and feelings of Fitzgerald and his numerous characters.

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

Myrtle Wilson is George Wilson’s wife, but she is also Tom’s mistress. Myrtle conflicts with the society of her time because she is a married woman having an affair. Myrtle shows great jealousy of Daisy. While Myrtle was with Tom, she kept repeating Daisy’s name until Tom broke her nose with his bare hand. Once George Wilson realizes his wife is having an affair, he becomes physically ill.

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419 Words | 2 Pages

In chapter 8, early the next morning Nick goes over to check up on Gatsby. He has been at Daisy's all night, watching to see if she was safe. He and Nick stay up talking about Gatsby's past. Gatsby is being very honest with Nick and tells him that Daisy was the first nice girl he had ever really met. He was in love with her and planned on marrying her but the war split them apart.

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614 Words | 3 Pages

As Nick and Gatsby waited for Daisy’s arrival, Gatsby realized the meeting was “a terrible, terrible mistake” (Fitzgerald 92). This moment of clarity allowed Gatsby to see that winning back Daisy was impossible, and that their lives had changed dramatically in the last five years. Nick expands this thought by saying “[he] wouldn’t ask too much of her… you can’t repeat the past” (Fitzgerald 116). However, Gatsby’s determination to succeed and “fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 117) while protecting her from Tom ultimately led to his death. Another aspect where foreshadowing is prevalent is Tom’s animosity towards Gatsby.

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523 Words | 3 Pages

In the given passage from the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author compares and contrasts two sets of characters, Tom and Daisy with Gatsby, to surface the differences that had been drawn between them due to their attitudes and moral values. Through the usage of dialogues, focus on the moral values of each set and Nick Carraway’s description of the characters the author conveys this idea to the readers. One reason behind the significance of this passage is the fact that through the usage of dialogues and Nick Carraway’s descriptions the author adds a dimension to the ‘careless’ characters in the novel, Tom and Daisy. Throughout the novel Tom has proven to be a selfish and hypocritical man who would do anything to save

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820 Words | 4 Pages

Flagg’s character Evelyn Couch is seen as a believable character, because the reader gets a bit of background on who she is and why she goes to the nursing home. In the novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Evelyn is described as a “forty-eight year old . . . [who] had gotten lost somewhere along the way” (37). After her children left to college Evelyn felt as if she did not know what to do with her life anymore, because before it revolved around her family and taking care of each one of them. In the late 1980’s women began to have more job opportunities; however, in Evelyn’s case she was already too old to go out and work for a company without having went to college.

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951 Words | 4 Pages

The novel concludes “So we beat on, boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past” (108). This means as we keep trying to move forward we are still restricted and defined by our past. Throughout the book Gatsby could not let go of the past and Fitzgerald related this to society. America was meant to be the new world filled with potential but this idea was soon ruined by old aristocratic values, like the Buchanans represent in the novel. To Fitzgerald, America is not full of possibilities, its frontier that failed to rise above its aristocratic European origins, just as Gatsby failed to escape from his

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1604 Words | 7 Pages

Are scientists going too far with their experiments and studies? This is a question many people would ask when they hear about a new technology. There is only one answer for this question which is no, they are not. Everything in life has consequences; pros and cons, but the trick is: what exceeds what? So, if the pros of something are greater than its cons, why not give it a try?

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