The Great Gatsby
Chapter 6-7-8-9
Tom and Daisy come to a party at Gatsby’s. The
party strikes Nick as particularly unpleasant. Tom
is disdainful of the party, and though Daisy and
Gatsby dance together she also seems to have a
bad time. As Tom and Daisy are leaving, Tom says
he suspects Gatsby's fortune comes from
bootlegging, which Nick denies(sympathizes with
Gatsby). Daisy says Gatsby made his money from
drug stores that he built up himself.
After the party, Gatsby is depressed. He suspects
that Daisy neither enjoyed the party nor
understands the depth of his feelings for her. Nick
reminds him that the past is impossible to repeat,
but Gatsby disagrees. He says he will return
everything to the way it was before. Daisy became
an idealized dream for Gatsby and the center of his
life.
Gatsby believes in the future and the American
Dream, and believes that money can buy both.
Gatsby's house becomes much quieter, and his
party's come to an end. Nick visits, and learns
that Gatsby ended the parties because he no
longer needed them to attract Daisy. He also learns
that Gatsby also fired all of his servants because
Daisy thought they might gossip about their
relationship.
As soon as he gets Daisy, Gatsby no longer needs
"new money" parties. But Gatsby can't escape the
way he corrupted himself in his quest to become
rich enough to win Daisy, as the presence of
Wolfsheim's men shows.
Gatsby senses that Daisy's daughter symbolizes a
shared past between Daisy and Tom that Gatsby
can't touch.
The opposition of the houses shows the rivalry
between Gatsby and Tom.
For Daisy, corrupted by the consumer culture of the
Roaring Twenties, love is just another material thing
that can be advertised. Gatsby comments that
Daisy's voice is "full of money."
While selling him the gas, Wilson inquires about
buying Tom’s other car to resell it. He says he's
trying to raise money to finance the move west that
he has planned for him and his wife Myrtle. Tom is
startled at the imminent loss of his mistress.
Wilson has his own dream of moving west. With
Daisy's affair and Myrtle about to go west with
Wilson, Tom's world now really is falling apart.
Wilson adds that he has "wised up" recently and
became physically ill upon discovering that his wife
has been living a double life. Nick realizes that
Wilson has figured out his wife is having an affair
but doesn't know that Tom is the other man.
Myrtle seeing Tom with Gatsby's car is another
crucial plot point. Myrtle's despair at seeing Tom
with his "wife" is linked to T. J. Eckleburg's dead
eyes.
Wilson tries to make his dream of a new life with
Myrtle a reality.
Nearly every character's "Dream" dies with Myrtle's
death.
Daisy caused the crash, but just as old money hides
its corruption behind a veneer of good manners,
Daisy hides behind Gatsby. Gatsby dedicated his life
to winning Daisy's heart. Now he only cares about her
and ignores Myrtle's death. Gatsby's story explains
his actions. He was in love with the idea of Daisy:
Daisy's love gave Gatsby an identity as a young man,
and made his manufactured "new money" identity
legitimate.
Myrtle's death destroys Wilson's dream, leaving
him nothing. The Roaring Twenties conflict
between old and new money has destroyed him:
he can't even distinguish an advertisement from
Eckelberd. Wilson's "way" of finding out who killed
Myrtle is mysterious. Fitzgerald is building tension.
The recklessness of the Roaring Twenties destroys
every relationship: Myrtle and Wilson, Myrtle and
Tom, Daisy and Gatsby, Jordan and Nick. Only "old
money" prevails: Daisy returns to Tom.
Gatz's appearance confirms that Gatsby rose from
humble beginnings to achieve the American Dream.
Yet in the process he left behind his father, who
truly loves him. He gave up his past.
Gatsby's "new money" friends are shallow,
emotionless parasites who care only about "fun.“
Nick returns to Gatsby’s house for the funeral.
Only, Nick, Henry Gatz and, to Nick's
surprise, Owl Eyes show up. Owl Eyes pities
Gatsby as a "poor son-of-a-bitch."
The American Dream had long involved people
moving west, to find work and opportunity. The
novel documents a time when the tide had shifted
the other way, as Westerners sought to join those
making money in financial industries like "bonds"
in the East. But now Nick seems to see such
searching after wealth and status in the east as
corrupt and deadening, as people returning to their
past only to find ghosts.
Tom doesn't even know that Daisy was really
driving the car. Tom is completely blind to the
emptiness of his old money world. He even sees
himself as a victim for losing Myrtle, his mistress.
His corruption is complete.
