Great Gatsby Ch 8

1.       Chapter 8

Pages 147-162

2.       The chapter opens with Nick going over to Gatsby’s house after not sleeping to see house Gatsby is doing and to advise him to leave town for a little while because the police know the description of the car that hit Myrtle.  Gatsby starts to tell Nick about his life with Daisy before the war and expresses how they were so deeply in love with each other and how she was the woman of his dreams but she was rich and he was not.  They were both in love with each other but when Gatsby left for the war and did not return for five years, Daisy could not wait and met Tom Buchanan.  He explains that they got married and Gatsby has been trying to get back into her life ever since.  After this conversation, the gardener comes to them informing Gatsby that he is going to drain the pool but Gatsby stops him explaining that he wants to go in one last time before the season is over because he hasn’t gone in it all year.  Nick leaves Gatsby and heads for his train when Jordan calls him unexpectedly.  It is a very straight forward conversation and once it becomes silent, they hang up.  Fitzgerald then changes scenes and goes to George Wilson and Michaelis and George is assuring that he will find Myrtle’s killer; Michaelis leaves to sleep then returns to find that George is not there anymore.  George has gone to Gatsby’s house because he is sure that it was he who killed his wife.  He finds Gatsby lying on a mattress in the pool and he shoots him, and then shoots himself.  They are both found dead by Nick and Gatsby’s servant.

3.       A) Michaelis

B) “He didn’t like to go into the garage because the work bench was stained where the body had been lying so he moved uncomfortably around the office—he knew every object in it before morning—and from time to time sat down beside Wilson tryin to keep him more quiet.” (157)

C) Michaelis could be the only truly “good” person we have met in the book thus far.  He is a kind man who sees what happened to Myrtle and feels George’s pain and tries to sympathize with him. He gives up his time to make sure George is doing well and does everything he can to get George’s mind off of what happened and make him feel better. 

D) Michaelis has a pretty important role in the novel because he is the one who witnessed Daisy killing Myrtle and he is the man in charge of taking care of George during this time.  He does the best he can to help the police and help George, but he talks about marriage with George which is very touchy for him and then he loses it. Ultimately, Michaelis is the reason for Gatsby’s death.

4.       “They're a rotten crowd . . . You're worth the whole damn bunch put together."(Page 154)

This quote stuck out to me because even though I had thought Gatsby was bad for trying to take another man’s wife, but when you compare him to the rest of the people, he looks like a saint. Gatsby really is a good man; though many think he is a bad person, he has overcome adversity in his life and he has the determination to achieve his goals.  I think this quote represents Gatsby very well and it should be the way people see him.