Chapter 7 pgs 113-145
Summary: Nick tells us that Gatsby has stopped throwing his lavish parties every week and fired all his old staff members to hire new ones. The next day is very hot and Jordan, Gatsby, and Nick go over to the Buchanan’s house for lunch. When Tom leaves the room, Daisy tells Gatsby that she loves him and kisses him. They go to the city and stay at a hotel suite. Tensions rose as Tom accuses Gatsby of lying and not actually attend Oxford, and Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy never really loved him at all. Daisy at first, says that she never loved Tom, but then tells Gatsby that he is asking for too much and forcing her to say that. Daisy says that she did love Tom, but loves Gatsby now. On their way home, Nick, Tom, and Jordan stop at George Wilson’s garage and find out that Myrtle has been hit by a car and killed. George Wilson had just found out that Myrtle was cheating on him so they were going to move out of town the next day. Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy was driving and killed Myrtle on the way home, but Gatsby says that he will tell the police he did it.
a. George Wilson
b. “Generally he was one of these worn out men: when he wasn’t working, he sat on a chair in the doorway and stared at the people and the cars that passed along the road. When any one spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable, colorless way. He was his wife’s man and not his own” (136).
c. George Wilson is a nice man who has been described as a dull and grey. In chapter 2, he is described as “A blond, spiritless man, anemic, and faintly handsome” (25) and “.. dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity” (26). In this chapter he is described as a quiet and colorless man. However, this chapter also tells us that he was faithful to his wife and lived for Myrtle. It says that he was his wife’s man and not his own. This tells us that he really did care for her, but she didn’t show this back because she cheated on him with Tom. In a way, he is giving her a second chance by wanting to move away with her, instead of leaving by himself.
d. I think George Wilson’s role in the novel is representing the normal middle class in the world who work hard and try to become successful. George lives in the valley of ashes of “grey land and spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it” (23). However, there is sign of hope in George, unlike the other rich people in the novel such as Tom. This was illustrated when George saw Tom and Nick come in his garage in Chapter 2 and “a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes” (25). This illustrates that there may be hope in these people who work hard to achieve their dreams and become wealthy.
Quote: “But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room” (134).
This stood out because Nick acknowledges that Gatsby’s dream may be dead. Nick describes it as “no longer tangible, struggling unhappily and undespairingly.” This tells us that all Gatsby has planned and strived for may be falling apart and failing. Gatsby tries to defend himself against all of Tom’s accusations of being a fraud, but to no success. Tom reminds Daisy of their past, and she admits that she did love Tom. Gatsby’s dream is already not going the way he planned it to be because Daisy said that she loved Tom.
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