1. Why does Gatsby let all his domestic help go? Whom does he use instead?
Gatsby lets all of his help go because he believes that they will gossip about him. In their stead, he hires people suggested by Wolfsheim.
2. Why do the characters decide to go to New York? Who rides with Gatsby?
The characters decide to go to New York because of the hot weather. Daisy rides with Gatsby in Tom's car.
3. Describe Days and Gatsby's new relationship.
Daisy and Gatsby are now in an intimate relationship.
4. Compare George Wilson and Tom. What did each man learn about his wife and how did they each react?
Both George and Tom realized that their wives have been cheating on them. The audience should by now know that Tom was cheating with George's wife, and that Tom's wife has been in a more intimate relationship with Gatsby as of late. George locks Myrtle, his wife, up in their room and intends to leave New York with her soon, whereas Tom is simply giving in to his anger as he notices the very close relationship his wife has with Gatsby.
5. Tom is accusing Gatsby of having a romantic relationship with his wife, to which Gatsby does not deny. However, remaining very calm, he states that Daisy does not love Tom, nor has she ever loved him. Tom thinks Gatsby is trying to cause chaos in his house for whatever reason he has, and Gatsby simply thinks that Daisy has never loved Tom.
6. What was the significance of Nick's 30th birthday?
The significance of Nick's birthday was that it marked his epiphany of his desire to not be lonely and that he had Jordan by his side.
Chapter eight Questions
1. Why won't Gatsby leave the area, so he doesn't get blamed for the death of Myrtle?
Gatsby does not want to leave unless Daisy wishes to leave.
2. How has "Jay Gatsby broken like glass against Tom's hard malice"? What does this mean?
This quote refers to Gatsby's image and dreams being broken by Tom's assault upon him in chapter seven, where he calls Gatsby out on his illegal business of selling alcohol.
3. How does Gatsby deceive Daisy when they first meet?
Gatsby gave her a sense of false security.
4. Why does Daisy ultimately choose Tom Buchanan over Gatsby? Why is it ironic that her letter reaches him while he is at Oxford?
5. Why is Myrtle's death called a "tragic achievement'?
Myrtle's death is considered a "tragic achievement" because it covered up the evidence of Tom's affair with her.
6. How do Jordan and Nick leave their relationship?
Jordan and Nick left their relationship in a very distant manner.
7. What arouses George's suspicions about Myrtle's affair?
George remembers the time that Myrtle came home bleeding with her nose broken.
8. Who discovers the bodies at the end of the chapter? What has happened?
The chauffeur heard the shots, but he was later accompanied by the butler, gardener and Nick who found the bodies by the pool. George Wilson and Gatsby have died at the end of the chapter.
Chapter nine questions
1 Why does Catherine lie about Myrtle's marriage?
Catherine probably lied about Myrtle's marriage situation to save her sister's honor.
2. What does Nick discover about Gatsby's life as he tries to "get someone" for him?
Nick discovers that Gatsby was actually just an average kid before he got into illegal business.
3. Who is Slagle, and what does he want?
Slagle is a man who calls the Gatsby house from Chicago. He wanted to know if Gatsby got his "wire".
4. How does Fitzgerald characterize Gatsby's father?
Fitzgerald displays Gatsby's father as a "solemn old man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster against the warm September day".
5. What does Gatsby's father show Nick from Gatsby's youth?
Mr. Gatz shows Nick a book from Gatsby's childhood which has a list of things to do on the back page.
6. Who attends Gatsby's funeral? Why do they call Gatsby a "Poor son-of-a-bitch"?
The man with the thick glasses, whom attended one of Gatsby's parties, attends his funeral. He calls Gatsby a "Poor son-of-a-bitch" because he suffered the tragedy of losing his one goal in life--Daisy--and then dying almost immediately afterwards, without even recovering from it.
7. Why does Nick call this "A story of the West" (184)?
Nick calls this "A story of the West" because the main characters come from the Midwest, and their culture is more family-oriented and morally sound, which clashes against the cold and distant principles of Modernism which can be seen in the setting of New York in the Great Gatsby.
8. What role did Tom play in Gatsby's death?
Tom told Wilson that it was Gatsby's car that ran Myrtle over.
9. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made..." (188). Nick differentiates himself from Tom and Daisy here. How, and why? How has he behaved differently than they in this situation?
Nick differentiates himself from Tom and Daisy by showing their moral flaws in this quote. He is different from them because as he stated in the beginning chapters, he was a moral person. This also supports why Nick creates a schism between himself and the Buchanans. He himself does not shy away from the situation as the Buchanans have, as he has stuck by Gatsby's side until the bitter end, even though he states that he disapproved of him in earlier chapters.
10. Pay close attnetion to the closing paragraphs of the novel. The last lines, "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past," hold an importance not only for Gatsby and the characters in his story, but for Fitzgerald. What might Fitzgerald be trying to say about the pursuit of dreams? Contemplate this for at least a few sentences.
Fitzgerald is trying to say that the characters, and himself, have been battered and confused by the circumstances in life, but they believed in their dreams and continued to reach for them. Like Gatsby for instance, he used the green light as a symbol of hope to achieve his dreams, to obtain Daisy, and to wake up to, as Fitzgerald words it, the "One fine morning".
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