The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8

Owen Marshall Honors Language Arts, Lohman March 27, 2013 Chapter 8 This chapter begins with Nick talking to Gatsby after the horrible events of the night before. Gatsby tells Nick how he spent his night waiting for Daisy to see him just for her to ignore him the whole time. He then tells Nick about why he fell in love with Daisy, and why he is still so deeply attached to her. Nick then leaves for work, shouting to Gatsby reassuring words seeing as he is obviously lost and depressed.
After Nick leaves we are told about the actions of grief stricken George Wilson. We are told that George believed that the driver of the car that killed his wife was Gatsby and George acts upon this information. He spends the day making his way to Gatsby’s house and upon his arrival kills Gatsby in his pool and then ends his own life. Suspense This chapter creates a very deep suspense through the actions of George Wilson.
Fitzgerald cultivates this suspense for the climax of the novel by describing George’s actions with little detail, describing them as if we are being told by a police report. He skirts what actually occurred, instead describing the setting in vivid detail. He mentions the “…cluster of leave…”(pg 170) that are in the pool foreshadowing Gatsby’s fate by having the leaves represent the end of the season and the end of his life. Fitzgerald uses this suspense to keep the reader intensely reading keep Gatsby’s death a shock.