| Why was the young Gatsby drawn to Daisy? | Because she’s beautiful, she’s the 1st “nice” girl he had known, he loves her house, how she lives, and the fact that men already loved her increased her worth. Like she was a prize or stock. Mainly because of HER HOUSE. |
| What is the cause of the problem between Jordan and Nick? | Nick is getting tired of her because she’s just like Daisy and Tom, and after last night with all of the commotion he’s sick of all of them. Basically tired of East Egg people. |
| In what context do Dr. Eckleburg’s eyes appear in this chapter? | George points them out to Myrtle right before she dies. They appear as the eyes of God. |
| When Wilson disappears for three hours, where do you guess he might have gone? | He probably met with Tom who told him Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle and that he had the affair with her. We found out later in the book that he went looking to find who owned the car. |
| Gatsby asks the groundskeeper not to drain the pool. Why? In light of what happens at the very end of this chapter, how is this exchange symbolically meaningful? | He never used it, but he is gonna use it today; which is the first and the last time that he will ever use it. His flaw is his inevitability to let things go. The leaves are falling which means that the season has changed. Fall is when everything dies. He gets shot, while floating in his pool for the first time. |
| How can Wilson’s actions at the end of this chapter be explained? | He thought Gatsby killed Myrtle and had an affair with her; because he couldn’t live with it and he couldn’t live without Myrtle, he decides to kill himself. |
| What were Nick’s final words Gatsby? Why is this a fitting goodbye? | “They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” Nick suddenly tells us that he disapproves of Gatsby. |
| Why does Nick feel responsible for getting people to the funeral? Why do you suppose Wolfsheim reacts the way he does? | Nick felt responsible for getting people to the funeral because he was Gatsby’s only friend and he wanted people at Gatsby’s funeral to honor Gatsby’s life. Wolfsheim says that he can’t go to the funeral. Wolfsheim reacts the way he does because he’s afraid that if he goes to the funeral that he is going to miss an important opportunity for his business. |
| What does young Jimmy Gatz’s daily schedule say about him? | It says Jimmy was working to be better, it says self improvement was very important to him. He was serious about it, he had goals. Jimmy Gatz, James Gatz, and Jay Gatsby are all the same person. Henry is his dad’s name. |
| Is Nick surprised that Daisy has not sent a message or flowers? Are you? | He wish she would have but he’s not surprised. At this point I think Nick expected it because that’s just who Daisy is. That’s how all of them are. They only care about themselves and disappear the minute it gets hard/difficult. |
| Nick’s fantastic dream involves El Greco figures. What is the dream, and what might this dream represent in regard to Nick’s present feelings about the East? | El Greco was a painter. The dream is about cold houses and 4 men carrying a drunk woman on a stretcher and they turn into the wrong house because nobody knows who she is and nobody cares about her. It shows us that Nick thinks the East is very cold, uncaring, and heartless. |
| What shocking piece of information does Nick receive in his chance meeting with Tom? What is Nick’s final feeling about Tom and Daisy? | Nick learns that Tom told George it was Gatsby who hit and killed Myrtle. They are careless people who smash up things and creatures and then retreat back into their money or their vast carelessness and let others clean up the mess they made. He can’t forgive them or hate them because that’s the way they are and they won’t ever change. |
| In the last four paragraphs, Nick makes the symbol of the green light very concrete. What does the green light symbolize? | The green light symbolizes the orgastic future that’s close and the same time so far away, because people work hard toward it but it eludes them because they get stuck in the past. Connection to the American Dream. A better life. |
| Keeping the last few paragraphs in mind, what does the last sentence in the story mean? | You will never get it. It is constantly receding. The American Dream doesn’t exist. You will never have the perfect life. You can never have everything, because you will always want something. |
The Great Gatsby, Ch. 8-9 Questions
April 1, 2020