Chapter 8: Summary

Nick wakes up to find Gatsby returning from Tom and Daisy’s house. Worried that his car will be identified as the “death car,” Nick suggests that Gatsby leave town for a few days. Gatsby refuses to do so; in fact, he is unable to do much more than dwell on his past. He talks about Louisville in 1917, when he’d first started courting Daisy.

Daisy, Gatsby reveals, was his social superior, yet they fell deeply in love. Daisy and Gatsby had been intimate with each other, which made Gatsby feel that he was in fact “married to her.” Then he had been enlisted in the war, and when he returned, Daisy had already married Tom.

Nick and Gatsby are having breakfast when they are interrupted by the gardener, who wants to know if he can clean the pool. Interestingly enough, Gatsby has never used his own pool. Now, finding himself wanting to take a swim, he asks the gardener to wait for a day. Nick goes to work, but is unable to focus. Jordan wants to meet him for a date, but he refuses.

The narrative once again shifts, as Fitzgerald goes back in time, to the evening prior, in the Valley of Ashes. Nick gets the details from Michaelis, who owns a business next door to Wilson’s garage. George Wilson talks to Michaelis all night, telling him the details of his confrontation with Myrtle about her affair. Wilson decides to seek revenge. He resolves to find out about the owner of the car that killed Myrtle.

Wilson, though had seen Tom in the car, is sure he was not driving it when it hit Myrtle. Eventually, he goes to Gatsby’s house. There he finds Gatsby floating on an air mattress in the pool. Wilson, feeling sure that Gatsby is responsible for his wife’s death, shoots and kills Gatsby. Nick finds Gatsby’s body floating in the pool and later discovers Wilson’s lifeless body in the grass.

Chapter 8: Analysis

Chapter 8 displays the tragic side of the American Dream, central to which is Gatsby’s gunning down by George Wilson. Nick nonetheless helps to keep the myth of Gatsby alive, but Gatsby’s death marks the end of an era. Gatsby, in one way, represents pure idealism, a type that cannot survive the emerging harsh modern world.

Gatsby represents the America of the 1920s. The pursuit of happiness, which was the original American Dream, is replaced by the pursuit of wealth and privilege. Gatsby, consumed by his love for Daisy, is unable to accept that the dream has been shattered. He’s unable to admit as much when confronted by Tom; in fact, he doesn’t admit it even when Daisy refuses to acknowledge their relationship.