Transcript for:
Summary of The Great Gatsby

hi i'm nate seberg and this is one day ahead [Music] welcome to one day ahead this is great gatsby in 45 minutes reading it for real is a two and a half hour adventure so grab some popcorn and buckle up because this summary will give you everything you need to know in one third of the time if you don't have 45 minutes check out the great gatsby in five minutes linked below you'll get all the major beats and then you will get on with your life what this video really is is a stitching together of all those summary sections from my longer gatsby series that series has more analysis it's got key quotes and characters and these pithy summaries so if somehow 45 minutes just isn't enough or you want to go more in depth on those themes or characters check that out for sure finally i do have a teaching unit for educators synced to all of this stuff link below and a couple of other books besides all right enough of that let's start by diving into the great gatsby chapter one [Music] so thirty-year-old nick carraway opens the book by saying that whenever he encounters behavior others might criticize his daddy taught him to consider the advantages you've had he goes on saying in consequence i'm inclined to reserve all judgments as a narrative device this is a good move because over the next 198 pages our boy nick here is going to be hanging out with some really terrible people or at least people making terrible choices gatsby the great included if fitzgerald didn't have us looking through the empathetic non-judgy eyes of nick here i think i would legit hate every last person in this book nick helps soften them up so what might not be clear here is that nick is writing at the end of a timeline that we're about to cover all the stuff that happens later in the text this nick has already lived through and whatever he lived through it hasn't pretty shaken up it's like his whole life is spinning he says that now he just wants the world to be in uniform and had a sort of moral attention forever so whatever it was it was bad the only thing he seemed sure of is a man named gatsby a guy who he says had an extraordinary gift for hope he continues no gatsby turned out all right in the end which if you've read this book before and you think about it for like even a second he does not but nick continues it's what preyed on gatsby what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interests in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men with that beautiful and slightly ominous line as our backdrop nick jumps back to the beginning of his narrative and now we're off and running so it seems nick originally came to new york to sell bonds he's new to this but it's the 1920s so like why not over the next few pages we learn about east and west egg two neighborhoods about 20 miles outside of new york east egg is old money it's snooty stuck up decadent lame while west egg is new rich it's also decadent but way more awesome they face each other across the bay and this will come up later things really get going when my boy nick here heads to the mansion of tom and daisy buchanan on east egg daisy is nick's cousin she's flirty coy fun and engaging while tom by all accounts is a world-class dumpster fire this guy sucks nick describes him as a man who reached such an acute limited excellence at 21 that everything after savored of anti-climax listen if your life has peaked at 21 you need to get yourself some new goals on page 10 nick describes tom as a powerful former football player he talks about his glistening boots his great pack of muscles the effeminate swank of his riding clothes and his cruel cruel body if you find this description to be vaguely sexual so do i the only other character is daisy's friend the androgynously named jordan baker a famous golfer when jordan learns that nick here just moved to new money west egg she asks if he knows gatsby daisy perks up at the name but before nick could reply that gatsby's his neighbor dinner is announced rich people apparently announce their dinner i assume with like a gong so the dinner sucks as servants wait on them tom sets off on this rant about how the nordic race them created everything worth having and thus need to keep the inferior races down all the while no one at this dinner has ever actually made anything and i regret not putting air quotes around inferior races right when most readers are starting to think hey this book is not very good something interesting happens the phone rings students are always surprised to learn they had telephones in the 1920s but yeah it turns out they did they were big clunky and metal but they did have them siri two tom ducks out to take the call daisy follows him outside and after a moment nick and jordan can hear the couple having a muffled shouting match on the other side of the door so what's going on okay keep up jordan informs nick that tom the dumpster fire has a lady friend in new york this is not a friend who happens to be a lady this is a lady friend what's worse daisy knows about it yikes tom and daisy come back into the room and it's super awkward but daisy keeps smiling and laughing like there's nothing wrong and she keeps this act up as the phone rings again and again i couldn't guess what tom and daisy were thinking but i doubt even miss baker was able to put this fifth guest's shrill metallic urgency out of mind i'll say it again yikes after dinner nick and daisy go off together and she tells the story about the birth of her daughter she says she her daughter was less than an hour old and tom was god knows where though like i think we can guess after she finds out it's a girl and cries about that fact for a while she says alright i'm glad it's a girl and i hope she'll be a fool that's the best thing a girl can be in this world a beautiful little fool so feminism the chapter closes with nick getting home and sitting outside for a while suddenly he sees his neighbor come out of his ridiculous mansion after a moment the neighbor who nick rightly assumes is gatsby reaches his hand out across the water trembling slightly nick looks across the bay to see what he's trying to like use the force on but he doesn't see anything except for a single green light at the end of a dock across the bay and that's a summary so chapter 2 opens with our boy nick talking about the valley of ashes it's a charming little spot between new york and the eggs as its name suggests it's a place where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally with the transcendent effort of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air so that's lovely the ashes are a byproduct presumably of new york city and on an abstract level fitzgerald introduces this place to show that the booming fever pace of the 1920s with its forgotten morals and uninhibited quests for money has a hidden but very real cost so only the eyes of dr t.j eckelberg see this injustice they're actually eyes on an old faded billboard that overlook the valley and they see everything and they watch unblinkingly so in case you're missing the very subtle symbolism here tj's eyes represent the eyes of god and as far as symbols goes this one's a little on the nose we quickly discover that tom and nick are taking the train to new york nick to take in the city and tom to i don't know kick children however as they stop at the bridge in the valley of ashes tom grabs nick by the elbow and quite literally forces him off the train they're going to go meet tom's mistress myrtle but they first run into her husband the anemic but painfully honest wilson he owns a garage and he thinks he is this close to buying a car off tom nick describes myrtle as having anne immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering they get wilson out of the room and they make a plan to get myrtle to new york all the while nick just stands there stupidly next thing you know they've met up in the city and after stopping to buy myrtle a dog they head to tom's city apartment so that tom and myrtle can you know nick wants to leave because like who wouldn't but they peer pressure him into staying by calling up some friends for a party it turns out it's just people getting drunk like there's a difference but there it is of the friends the only two that matter are myrtle's sister catherine and a man named chester mckee nick says mr mckee was a pale feminine man from the flat that's an apartment below he informed me that he was in the artistic game and i gathered later that he was a photographer so for those of you keeping score nick just described him as being a rather effeminate man with artistic sensibilities folks this is 1920s code for homosexuality mckee is a photographer and since portraits required a great deal of planning and care they're often referred to and are referred to here as studies they're considered like art at the time and so they like have names and things they talk about studies at the party and you'll be lost for like three pages if you don't know this and speaking of the party it sucks whiskey keeps going around the room and nick partakes heavily writing i have been drunk just twice in my life and the second time was that afternoon so everything that happens has a dim haze cast over it the only exception is catherine who says she feels just as good on nothing at all during the course of the party we learn how tom and myrtle met it's boring we also learned the only reason tom and myrtle can't get married right away is tom claims daisy is catholic and then he can't get a divorce this of course is a lie because tom of course is a dumpster fire as the evening drags on something strange happens to nick he writes i wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time i tried to go i became entangled in some wild strident argument yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets and i was him too looking up and wondering i was within and without ha at some point around midnight the wheels finally come off nick writes tom buchanan and mrs wilson that's myrtle stood face to face discussing and impassioned voices whether mrs wilson still myrtle had any right to mention daisy's name daisy daisy daisy shouted miss wilson i'll say it whenever i want to daisy daisy making a short deft movement tom buchanan broke her nose with his open hand chester had been dozing in a chair but the chaos that follows this move is enough to wake him up and he sees the blood and screaming as his cue to go to bed and nick well to understand what happens next we need to move to our next segment let's really get to the crux of it here nick when chester leaves the party you exit with him in the elevator with the elevator operator standing there he invites you to lunch sometime then we get something very interesting we get dot dot dot so it's actually called an ellipse but you know whatever that's how the kids say it and i'm i'm down with the kids i've seen a mimi so dot dot dot that's international sign for i've left something out what'd you leave out there nick following the elevator scene we get a cryptic fragment dot dot dot i was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets clad in his underwear with a great portfolio in his hands beauty and the beast loneliness old grocery horse brooklyn bridge those are the names of chester's studies aren't they in his chester sitting up in bed nick i get that it's 1920s america that you can't live openly as a gay or bisexual man like i get that but my concern isn't that you're lying to us it's that you might be lying to yourself if you cannot be honest about something as foundational as your sexuality if you need to speak in half truths and riddles if you need to fracture your life into being within and with that if you need to hedge your bets by saying you were drunk so everything that happened had a dim haze cast over it and then how could we trust that the story you're telling us is even true now add this the central character of this story gatsby is someone you already described using the word gorgeous on the second page of the book i feel for you nick i wish you could just be you but man if this story is gonna end up with you hating everyone from the east except for this one guy who you call gorgeous who just happens to be a gajillionaire well you're gonna need to forgive me if i take your account with a grain or like a barrel of salt with love nate chapter three kicks off with nick running us through a typical party at his neighbor gatsby's mansion you get the sense that he's describing a party as seen from the outside like he's spending a lot of time looking out of windows and creeping behind curtains but by all accounts the parties do sound awesome the famous and the hip flock from new york playing on the beach all day before cutting loose at night nick clearly wants to go but he's the awkward new kid and he hasn't actually met gatsby anyway someone must have noticed creeper mcgee here because one day a butler shows up with an invitation from gatsby at the party that night nick shows up alone which has got to be uncomfortable he really gets hung up on the fact that he was invited and keeps bringing it up with everybody he needs when he can't take this lonely awkwardness any longer nick turns to the sweet sweet refuge of alcohol i was on my way to getting roaring drunk from sheer embarrassment we call these coping skills but thankfully my boy nick does eventually find rescue when he mercifully runs into jordan baker remember her they met in chapter one she was the aloof golfer friend of daisy hello i roared advancing towards her my voice seemed unnaturally loud across the garden listen nick says he was on his way to getting roaring drunk but when your first thought is wow i sound loud you've arrived jordan is as cool and aloof as ever but she does let nick tag along throughout the night even taking him back to meet her escort for the evening who he describes as a persistent undergrad given to violent innuendo that means sex jokes and obviously under the impression that sooner or later jordan was going to yield him up her person to a greater or lesser degree ah young love so the talk of the party is all speculation about their hosts and confusion reigns some things that gatsby was a german spy during the war that would be the great war or world war one the last war that humanity would ever have some think that he killed a man and others that he was in the american army what's interesting however is that all this rumor spreading about gatsby is done on the hush nick has this great line it was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world we still don't know much about gatsby at this point but it seems clear that he is a man of great wealth who has for some reason surrounded himself with freeloaders sycophants and party crashers many of whom he's never actually met really makes you wonder why nick and jordan go in search of their hosts ending up in a grand library where they happen upon owl eyes great name he's drunk and marveling at something that will take some explanation owl eyes is dumbfounded by the fact that the books in gatsby's library are real so stay with me here it turns out that back in the day and right now on amazon you can buy fake cardboard books it was an inexpensive way to fill out your library they look all impressive and regal on the outside but inside they're empty if you're starting to think hey this might be a metaphor like definitely go with that instinct the idea is you'll have the appearance of literary well-roundedness without going to the trouble of actually acquiring all those books the modern equivalent would be buying followers on instagram or twitter which my students assure me like is a thing but gatsby's books are real as allies will tell you they have pages and everything so so far things are looking pretty good for our boy gatsby he's got lots of books and his books our books but hold on having words in them is not all that owl eyes is stunned by saying gatsby knew when to stop too didn't cut the pages but what do you want what do you expect again i'm so sorry but stay with me in those days publishers would print several pages on one large sheet of paper which they would then fold up multiple times into what's called a signature stack multiple signatures add some glue a binding and some sewing and you've got yourself a book the deal is because things got all origami in that first step a first-time reader would actually need to cut along the outer signature folds to release some individual pages but gatsby's pages critically are uncut meaning his books are real but he's never actually read them nick and jordan return to the party where nick is engaged by a stranger who says he remembers meeting him in the war they make small talk for a bit and the stranger offers to take nick up in his hydroplane meaning this not that in the morning nick tells the man that he was invited but that he hasn't met the host yet the man is bewildered for a moment before blurting out i'm gatsby it's awkward until gatsby turns on its smile nick writes he smiled understandingly much more than understandingly it was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it it concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor it understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood believe in you as you would like to believe in yourself or in visual form nick really does like that smile the party carries on at some point jordan is plucked from the throng to have a private discussion with gatsby when she re-emerges she's all in a tizzy but she won't say why finally the night ends and as gatsby ushers them out the door he reminds nick of their upcoming hydroplane ride employing his trademark phrase old sport you'll notice nick never actually agreed to go with gatsby but apparently gatsby's a quick judge of character the chapter ends with nick talking about how he wants to date jordan but how it feels dishonest because of that vague relationship thing he's got going on back home it came up in chapter one he breaks everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues and this is mine i am one of the few honest people that i've ever known which as we know from last week is only kind of true and that's the summary so chapter 4 opens on an unnamed young woman drinking gatsby's liquor from gatsby's crystal on gatsby's beach all the while trading in the salacious rumors that surround her host she claims he's a bootlegger meaning he sells alcohol something recently made illegal with the passage of prohibition and that he killed a man who found out he was nephew to von hindenburg von hindenburg oh could she be referring to paul ludwig hans anton von breckendorf and von hindenburg that's his full name he's he's german hindenburg was the supreme commander of the german military during world war one and then he was elected president after the war how'd that turn out for the world oh he went on to appoint hitler chancellor of germany awesome admittedly he did that under pressure all right so you might associate his name with this but he didn't build that they just named it after him next we get a few pages of nick listing off the people who came to gatsby's party you should skip it jump back in when gatsby turns up at nick's place and announces you're having lunch with me today and i thought we'd ride up together as they drive to new york gatsby suddenly breaks out unprompted with his entire life story you know like you do to nick the story sounds stale and rehearsed he says with an effort i managed to restrain my incredulous laughter the very phrases were worn so threadbare they evoked no image according to gatsby he was raised in san francisco in considerable wealth before being educated at oxford but now everyone's dead and gatsby has their money he claims to have spent the time after college traveling around europe like a young raja and trying to forget something very sad that happened to him a long time ago something very sad worse than everyone you know dying but that's not all next raja gatsby is pulled into world war one where he won a medal from every allied government including little montenegro nick doesn't believe a word which explains his shock when gatsby produces an authentic medal from little montenegro with the inscription major j gatsby for valor extraordinary next he produces a photo from his oxford days and like nick were left wondering one why he carries this crap around with them and two what is actually true about this guy the rest of the drive is eventful but not important to the plot they pass myrtle in the valley of ashes gatsby gets pulled over but has a um rich so there are no consequences for mikard and nick treats us to some old-fashioned racism on 73 good times things pick back up when they arrive at a speakeasy where they meet meyer wolsheim almost immediately after they first meet wolshine turns to nick and says i understand you're looking for a business connection nick has no idea what this means and neither do most readers until they hear it aloud connection is obviously gangster for connection gatsby jumps in oh no this isn't the man this is just a friend i told you we'd talk about that another time so this exchange shows us that our boy gatsby is in some sort of business arrangement with wolsheim a notorious gangster so you know follow that away during lunch we learned that wolsheim thinks highly of gatsby and that his cufflinks are made from the finest specimen of human muller that's disgusting but i do like that they're the finest specimen like he took the time to examine them for tartar buildup and passed over some other ones so they talk and eat for a while before tom dumpster fire buchanan spots nick from across the room and comes to say hello introductions are made and gatsby looks suddenly strained and embarrassed next thing you know he's just gone so from there the chapter makes a big jump now it's later in the day and nick is having tea with jordan baker it's still nick writing but now it's jordan's story and jordan's words in short when jordan was in her teens she once saw daisy with a strapping young lieutenant named wait for it jay gatsby there's some evidence they fell in love but her family disapproved and at around the same time gatsby was shipped off to the war a year later daisy has her society debut societal debut i i don't care it's a rich girl i'm growing up now come marry me thing and it totally works because three months after the war is over she's engaged to tom and four months after that the night before her wedding daisy receives a letter it never says who it's from but come on it's from gatsby after reading the letter daisy has a meltdown she gets wildly drunk throws away tom's wedding gift and keeps repeating tell about daisy change your mind so things get bad this is not cute crying we are in we're in ugly cry territory so jordan's a bridesmaid and with the help of a chambermaid they get daisy into a cold tub to sober her up and a half hour later they have her dressed and downstairs the next day she marries a burning pile of garbage i mean tom so it's a rough start but then everything seems fine according to jordan they're in love they honeymoon they start a life together that is until tom is in a car wreck that makes the papers because someone with him was injured that's someone the chamber made from the wedding we don't know the details of what comes next but we do know daisy and tom stay together have a kid go to france then chicago then come to new york it seems that in all that time daisy had never once heard gatsby's name until jordan mentioned it back when nick came over in chapter one when daisy asks about it later jordan puts it together that gatsby the eccentric millionaire is the same lieutenant from the car so from there the book jumps back to the present because remember jordan is telling the story to nick over t nick says it's a strange coincidence they both ended up on the eggs and jordan responds with the stunning but it wasn't a coincidence at all gatsby bought that house so that daisy would be just across the bay finally jordan gets to the point of the t jordan informs nick that gatsby asked jordan to ask nick to invite daisy over for t the idea is that gatsby can just happen to you know pop by we go on to learn that gatsby has spent the last few years scouring the chicago papers for daisy's name and that he throws all these parties because each night brought with it the slim yet tragic chance that she might attend he was hoping she would just wander in one night as the chapter closes nick is undecided on what to do i think he knows that this request is insane but also he has the constitution of a pool noodle so rather than making up his mind instead he sidesteps the question altogether he says unlike gatsby and tom buchanan i had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding sides and so i drew up the girl beside me she smiled and so i drew her up again closer this time to my face so he ends the chapter not by making a decision but by kissing jordan interestingly it's not clear from the text if he even likes her or if he simply wants the closeness of someone who is alive and owns a face and that's the summary so chapter five directly follows nick's tea with jordan you know where she relays the story of gatsby and daisy's past and it ends with a big ask from gatsby invite daisy to t so gatsby can show up and the two can be reunited for a little context every decision gatsby has made for the last five years has been guided by this singular goal and now is the time dude decides to play it cool saying oh that's all right i don't want to put you to any trouble and nigga's all like no really i'll do it and god she's like okay like if you want to so in return gatsby proposes a little quid pro quo saying look here old sport i carry on a little business on the side a sort of sideline what he means is that it's illegal and that he's willing to cut nick in on the action but ever honest nick turns down this pseudo bribe and the next day invites daisy to tea that morning nick gets up and realizes he had forgotten to tell his finn to come back so he drove to west egg village to search for her if you're lost and everyone is lost by this that's his finnish housekeeper he mentioned her one time in chapter one on the day of the t gatsby is a piano wire while i'm sure he looked resplendent in his white flannel suit he's described on a single page with derivatives of nervous pale sleepless blank vague hollow and vacant so not great at precisely 3 58 2 minutes before the t is set to start he storms for the door saying no one is coming to t it's too late luckily daisy chooses this moment to arrive so a quick note on daisy she is an attention loving socialite who is fond of koi's statements that make her seem fresh and fun like her greeting is this absolutely where you live my dearest one so when she whispers to nick are you in love with me or why did i have to come alone she does not want to get with her cousin this is a joke same with her next line come back in an hour ferdie his name is ferdi it's funny well i mean not really anyway they walk into the house and nick is baffled to find the living room empty suddenly there's a knock on the door nick writes i went out and opened it gatsby pale as death with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes evidently gatsby ran out the back door and circled around to the front nick continues with his hands still in his coat pockets he stalked by me into the hall turned sharply as if he were on a wire and disappeared into the living room it wasn't a bit funny i mean to him it's kind of funny to me so nick stands frozen in the hallway as an awkward and absolute silence fills the house before it is mercifully broken by daisy singing out i certainly am awfully glad to see you again nick goes into the living room and thus begins the second time nick has third wheel to date in this book so i'll skip the particulars of their reunion other than to say it is a social train wreck that won't stop wrecking for example gatsby catches a clock that he knocks over and then they can't seem to not talk about it daisy mentions that it's been a while since they've met but then gatsby ruins that progress by naming exactly how long it has been and finally nick grasps on the thought of making tea win and i love this the demonic finn brought it in on a tray finally nick just exits leaving them space to say what needs to be said when he returns he finds the tension gone the trio then decided to go on a tour of gatsby's mansion now i want to be clear here i was against all of this from the start nick inviting daisy to tea in the first place was a terrible life choice but nick going with them on the mansion tour that's just ridiculous so they do they go on a tour of the mansion and daisy is suitably impressed with the obvious markers of ostentatious wealth in one room they come across a man doing liver exercises which evidently are a thing his name is clip springer and i only bring him up because he'll come up again later and so that i could talk about liver exercises which i want to be clear are a thing finally they reach gatsby's bedroom and it's a surprisingly simple affair minus the toilet seat made of pure gold gatsby opens two large cabinets saying i've got a man in england who buys me clothes he sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season next gatsby began throwing them one by one before us shirts which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in a mini-colored disarray the shirts mount higher and higher until suddenly with a strange sound daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormly because shirts so obviously there's more going on here nick creeps around gatsby's room and he finds a photograph of an old man named dan cody stay tuned on him finally as clip springer plays the piano gatsby and daisy hold hands and begin whispering to each other they become so lost in their love-filled world that nick realized they hardly know he's there any longer i looked once more at them and they looked back at me remotely possessed by intense life then i went out of the room and down the marvel steps into the rain leaving them there together and that's the summary so after some nonsense at the beginning this chapter really has three distinct scenes in scene one we finally get the straight story on gatsby so it turns out his real name is james gatz which i think we can all agree is not the kind of name you can have if you want to be a mysterious aristocratic millionaire bachelor the way nick tells this story is a mixed up mess but i'll put the events in chronological order for you gatsby was born in north dakota to shiftless and unsuccessful farm people because of their humdrum lives internally at least gatsby rejected them as his parents he chose instead to literally reinvent his life from the ground up so sometime in his teens the persona of jay gatsby of west egg long island sprang from his plutonic conception of himself james gatz leaves his parents at around 15 and heads off to a small lutheran college in minnesota he makes it there two weeks dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny to destiny itself and despising the janitor's work with which he was to pay his way through evidently he preferred a rambler's life to emptying trash cans and wiping up pee because for the next year he's transient picking up odd jobs like digging clams and fishing salmon we also learned that he knew women early which like okay finally fate intervenes while walking along the beaches of lake superior the now 17 year old james gatz sees a yacht over a shallow section of water that had a reputation for wrecking boaters james borrows a rowboat pulls out to the yacht introduces himself as jay gatsby and informs the millionaire yacht owner dan cody of the danger cody's impressed with jay he takes him under his wing and over the next five years they travel the world this time with cody is jay's education in high society and wealth he acquires a certain measure of posh and sophistication it's also due to cody that he learns to leave liquor alone after one too many wild parties where women would rub champagne into his hair when cody dies jay emerges again penniless but he was left with his singularly appropriate education the vague contour of jay gatsby had filled out into the substantiality of a man presumably next comes enlistment meeting daisy europe the war little montenegro all that so there you go the real jay gatsby story finally on 107 nick pulls us from this regression back to the present and we begin seeing two drinks with tom one sunday afternoon as nick and gatsby are hanging out tom buchanan and some friends just drop in unannounced apparently rich people just show up at the homes of other rich people and they they're rich together all you need to know is that gatsby gets just a touch aggressive with tom bringing up that he knows daisy in a sort of like hinty kind of way it's enough so that tom resolves to find out more by attending gatsby's next party and scene three is that party apparently it's just as robust and wild as ever but this one because it's attended by that dumpster fire gave the evening its peculiar quality of oppressiveness nick continues they were the same people or at least the same sort of people the same profusion of champagne the same mini color mini keep commotion but i felt an unpleasantness in the air a pervading harshness that hadn't been there before gatsby takes daisy and tom around introducing them to notable guests and referring to tom always as mr buchanan the polo player which is funny daisy and gatsby dance a surprisingly graceful and conservative foxtrot together and at one point they sneak off one assumes to like make out after asking nick to stand look out in the garden which nick just say no like one time in your life later dinner is served and tom has to eat with another group go ahead answer daisy genially and if you want to take down any addresses here's my little gold pencil this may seem like more coy daisy nonsense and that's certainly there but the next line reveals that there's more she looked around after a moment and told me the girl was common but pretty so it's debatable but i think this pencil thing is actually a subtle flex from daisy tom is hitting on another girl and daisy in a sort of veiled screw you hands him a pencil to get her information she's essentially saying i might not be able to stop you but don't think i don't know what you're doing it's kind of awesome so as the night is wrapping up tom rejoins daisy and nick and begins asking some questions who is this gatsby anyhow demanded tom suddenly some big bootlegger daisy rises to his defense saying i can tell you right now he owned some drug stores a lot of drug stores he built them up himself so you know add that to the list of things we hear about gatsby after the revelry is finally over gatsby asked nick to stick around he is despondent daisy plainly didn't enjoy the party and remember all of this is for daisy it's here that we see more evidence of gatsby's blind need to warp reality and control time in an effort to get to the daisy he's built up in his head he wanted nothing less of daisy than that she should go to tom and say i never loved you after she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could go back to louisville and be married from her house just as if it were five years ago then we get perhaps the most famous line in the book nick in an astonishing moment of almost courage says i wouldn't ask too much of her i ventured you can't repeat the past gatsby replies with the tragically misguided can't repeat the past he cried incredulously why of course you can and that's the summary in chapter 7 we get the showdown you knew was coming tom v gatsby for the love of daisy it all starts when nick jordan and gatsby are invited to the buchanans for lunch on a broiling hot day they sit around and complain about the heat for a while and then we get something cryptic gatsby's eyes floated towards daisy ah she cried you look so cool their eyes met and they stared at each other alone in space she had told him that she loved him and tom buchanan saw he was astounded what told him she loved him listen don't spend any time trying to figure this one out it does not make sense daisy speaks in nonsense but tom can translate daisy nonsense and now he knows and speaking of nonsense tonbra gains control by declaring rather hotly that they're all going to the city for the afternoon and that he and gatsby will drive each other's cars for seriously no discernible reason gatsby's hesitant at first saying there's not enough gas in his car but tom's comes back with plenty of gas and if it runs out i can stop at a drugstore you can buy anything at a drugstore nowadays so shots fired gatsby and daisy take tom's blue coop and tom nick and jordan drive gatsby's yellow circus wagon during the drive tom puts together that nick and jordan already know about the affair he is not pleased at jordan's insistence they stop for gas at what turns out to be the very garage owned by wilson and myrtle here we learn that wilson has discovered myrtle's affair but he hasn't yet figured out that it's with tom he declares that they're moving out west and as they're talking nick spidey senses something behind him looking back he notices the eyes of myrtle wilson she's looking through a window with jealous terror but not at tom her eyes are locked on jordan baker who she assumes to be tom's wife so the crew get into new york and they rent rooms at the plaza hotel tom is like not in a good place he was feeling the hot whips of panic his wife and his mistress until an hour ago secure and in violet we're slipping precipitously from his control this state of mind helps explain the blow up between him and gatsby that follow so it starts kind of catty but before long tom goes right at it saying i want to ask mr gatsby one more question what kind of row were you trying to cause in my house anyhow they were out in the open at last and gatsby was content the fight lasts for a few pages but i'll give you some highlights time goes on i suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let mr nobody from nowhere make love to your wife daisy sides with gatsby by calling tom revolting and not denying the affair then gatsby makes his play daisy just tell him the truth that you never loved him and it's all wiped out forever daisy first tries to dodge this request but gatsby needs this he has to obliterate those four years so he repeats himself you never loved him daisy hesitates but it was done now it was too late i never loved him she said with perceptible reluctance hearing her tone palm smells blood in the water he goes all puppy dog not in kapiolani demanded tom suddenly not that day i carried you down from the punch pool to keep your shoes dry there was a husky tenderness in his tone daisy knowing tom is right daisy cracks oh you want too much she cried to gatsby i love you now isn't that enough which evidently daisy has not been paying attention so gatsby decides to table the whole did the last four years even happen debate he's all like we'll come back to that you don't understand he says to tom daisy's leaving you nonsense i am though she said with a visible effort but now tom sets to work eroding the facade of gatsby he accuses him of bootlegging names and associate gatsby screwed over and claims knowledge of a scam darker and bigger than all of his other schemes finally daisy breaks she begs to leave saying please tom i can't stand this anymore please tom this fight is over but tom's a dumpster fire and he wants to flaunt his triumph over gatsby you two start home daisy said tom in mr gatsby's car he won't annoy you i think he realizes his presumptuous little flirtation is over they leave and the other three soon follow in tom's blue coop so the great confrontation turns out to be almost nothing at all it's disappointing really but worry not nick manages to keep us turning pages with the final line of the scene so we drove on towards death in the cooling twilight as they drive from the city the trio comes upon an accident at wilson's garage they stop to gawk but tom's excitement turns into horror as he sees myrtle lying dead the victim of a hit and run by speeding yellow car it seems she ran out into the road almost like she expected it to stop through his pain wilson suspects tom but tom points to his blue coop before pushing his way out of the crowd on the drive home tom breaks down in tears the god damn coward he whimpered he didn't even stop his car it's late when they arrive at the buchanan mansion they order nick a taxi and he waits for it outside suddenly gatsby steps out from behind a bush because apparently this chapter will never end silence falls after a moment they discuss the accident and nick tells him that myrtle is dead nick asks how on the devil did it happen well i tried to swing the wheel he broke off and suddenly i guessed at the truth was daisy driving yes he said after a moment but of course i'll say i was gatsby took the wheel following the accident hid the car in his garage and now was holding vigil in the garden to make sure tom doesn't turn violent nick heads home but gatsby stays standing there in the moonlight watching over nothing and that's the summary following the hotel room showdown the vanquishing of gatsby and the hit-and-run murder and the reveal that daisy was driving nick can't sleep it's probably his mattress he hears gatsby arrive home at dawn and goes to chat with him nick encourages gatsby to leave town for a couple of days but evidently gatsby didn't read chapter 7 because he still thinks daisy is about to change her mind so he's sticking around just in case he rationalizes his way to it saying you must remember old sport daisy was very excited this afternoon and the result was she hardly knew what she was saying so that's dumb the next few pages are spent filling in more details about their prior relationship it's nice but let's move this along finally nick has to go to work it's hard to remember these people work but he does he sells mods he promises to call around noon and gatsby says i suppose daisy will call two nick leaves him but before entering his house he turns there a rotten crowd i shouted across the lawn you're with the whole damn bunch of them put together i've always been glad i said that with nick at work the narrative switches back to the night before to the garage following the hit and run wilson is understandably in a dark place his behavior and speech are erratic but it's clear wilson believes her death was no accident that myrtle ran out to speak with her lover and was murdered when he refused to stop wilson declares that he has a way of finding out who it was and he leaves at dawn police are later able to piece together his movements throughout the morning all except a three-hour chunk they could not account for but the upshot is this by 2 30 that day wilson is in west a asking for directions to a mansion owned by a guy named gatsby at two o'clock gatsby decides to go for a swim something he hasn't done all summer long he leaves instructions regarding the phone call that any minute now is definitely coming from daisy and heads to the pool nick narrates no telephone message arrived but the butler waited until four o'clock until long after there was anyone to give it to if it came nick returns and along with some staff finds gatsby floating dead in his pool his blood mixing with the water and the fallen leaves it's not until they start carrying him up towards the house that they find wilson as well lying in the grass the victim of his own grief and gunshot and that concludes chapter eight chapter nine finds nick at the center of gatsby's funeral arrangements he first tries to contact daisy but she and tom have left a really fled town nexi reaches out to wolsheim who refuses to come to the funeral wolfy says when a man gets killed i never like to get mixed up in it in any way i keep out wilshine's office by the way is labeled the swastika holding company but don't read into this when fitzgerald wrote this the nazis weren't really a global thing yet so nick is striking out for his dead friend but finally gatsby's father appears he's a cute old grief-stricken man who's read about his son's murder in the paper walking around the mansion he shows awe and pride at what his son has accomplished gatsby's memorial is held at the house but nobody comes then the sad little procession moves down to the cemetery where only one other guest turns up it's owl eyes that drunk guy from the library when he's told no one came to the house he sums it all up perfectly why my god they used to go there by the hundreds the poorest son of a [ __ ] a few more disconnected things wrap up the book nick has a regression about taking the train west during school i'm sure it's full of deep and resonant meaning but i like mostly don't get it he also closes things up with jordan baker who in a bit of relationship jiu jitsu suddenly claims to be engaged to some guy she'll really do about anything to stay aloof and detach that's kind of her jam and finally nick encounters tom in new york tom holds out his hand but nick does not what's the matter nick do you object to shaking hands with me yes nick responds you know what i think of you wait did nick finally grow a backbone tom i inquired what did you say to wilson that afternoon he stared at me without a word and i knew i had guessed right about those missing hours missing hours refers to wilson's movements on the day of the murder nick has guessed that wilson visited tom and that tom gave him gatsby's name as the driver of the yellow car tom responds hotly what if i did tell him that fellow had it coming to him he threw dust into your eyes just like he did in daisy's but he was a tough one he ran over myrtle like you'd run over a dog and he never even stopped the car nick narrates there was nothing i could say except the one unutterable fact that it wasn't true and as for no backbone he does shake tom's hand before leaving but the text says that it seems silly not to for i felt suddenly as though i were talking to a child so nick doesn't find courage per se but he does reframe tom as someone to pity not confront so you know like baby steps the book comes to an end with nick reading to return west he is emotionally speaking exactly where he started this book disgusted with everyone and everything out east except gatsby he muses on wonder hope and the dream and promise of america he brings us back to that moment gatsby first picked out that green light and the text concludes with these lines gatsby believed in the green light the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us it eluded us then but that's no matter tomorrow we will run faster stretch out our arms further and one fine morning so we beat on boats against the current born back ceaselessly into the past and that's the summary