| How is the behavior of the characters linked to the hottest day of the summer? | Well it’s really hot and the heat makes the characters uncomfortable and more irritable, so it’s really tense between Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy. |
| What does Tom discover that unnerves him, and how does he discover it? | He discovers that there’s something going on between Daisy and Gatsby. He finds out because Daisy looked at Gatsby with an expression of love; a way she used to look at Tom. |
| What does Gatsby understand about Daisy’s voice that Nick does not? | He understand that her voice is full of money; it’s part of her East Egg spacey aura. |
| In what cars do the five of them travel into the city? | Jordan, Nick, and Tom take Gatsby’s yellow car while Daisy and Gatsby take Tom’s blue coupé. |
| Why do you suppose that Tom decides to let Wilson finally have the car he has been promising him? | It’s to throw suspicion away from Tom over having the affair by being nice to George or maybe Tom actually feels sorry for him. |
| What indication is there at this point that Tom means quite a bit to Myrtle? | She stares intently with jealousy at Jordan who she thinks is Tom’s wife and doesn’t even realize she’s being watched by Nick. |
| Besides Myrtle’s what other eyes “kept their vigil”? | Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes |
| As always, there is a grain of truth in what Gatsby says. In what sense is he an Oxford man? | He went to Oxford for 5 months because when he was in the military the officers were given the opportunity to go to any university in England or France. |
| What does Nick mean and why does he say, “Angry as I was…, I was tempted to laugh whenever [Tom] opened his mouth. The transition from libertine to prig was so complete”? | It’s funny and ironic becasue Tom is being immoral becasue of his affairs and yet he is preaching fidelity and morality to Daisy. |
| Why does Daisy say that Tom is “revolting”? | Because Tom’s saying that Daisy can’t leave him but yet he cheated on her so many times. She’s had it with the sickening affairs and the “sprees”. |
| Why does Daisy have a tough time saying, as Gatsby wishes, that she never loved Tom? | Becasue at one point she did love Tom, and Gastby. She’s also afraid that once she says she never loved Tom she will be Gatsby’s permanetly. |
| Why is it important to Gatsby that Daisy say she never loved Tom, only him? | Becasue Gatsby wants to erase the past and pretend Daisy never wanted Tom so they can get married and move on. |
| How has Gatsby gotten some of his money, and what does Tom say that startles Gatsby? | He and Wolsheim bought a lot of streetside drug stores and sold grain alcohol over the counter. Tom also says Gatsby has something big going on but Walter Chase won’t tell him becasue he’s afraid Wolfsheim will kill him. |
| Why does Tom make the point to Wilson that he just drove the coupe from New York and the yellow car is not his? | Becasue he’s affraid that Wilson will remember that Tom was in the yellow car earlier and think that he killed Myrtle. He wants to make sure Wilson doesn’t suspect him or think he did it. |
| What does the reader learn that Tom does not know? | That Daisy was driving that car that killed Myrtle, not Gatsby. |
| What is the scene that Nick observes taking place between Tom and Daisy in the kitchen? | They’re sitting opposite each other and Tom has his hand over hers. He is talking very intently with Daisy nodding. They aren’t happy or unhappy. It seems like they’re very close almost plotting, trying to set their story straight. |
Gatsby ch 7
April 11, 2020