Hello and welcome to "Read it and (Don't) Weep," the podcast that will help you breeze through your high school literature classes. Are you tired of struggling to understand the themes and characters in classic works of literature? Do you wish you could just read the condensed version and be done with it? Well, I’ve got you covered! I am your host, Jackey Taggart, and I taught high school English for almost 20 years. 

Join me each episode as I dive into the world of high school literature and break down the essential elements of each work. From Shakespeare to Steinbeck, I'll cover it all. My goal is to give you valuable insights and analysis on some of the most popular high school literary texts, as well as tips and tricks for acing your tests and essays.  Let’s start reading!

Welcome back!  In this episode, we are going to discuss Chapter 8 in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. If you have not read Chapters 1-7, it might be a good idea to read those chapters and listen to my other episodes before continuing.  

So, Chapter 7 was crazy long and contained the climax of our plot.  The love triangle between Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby erupted and the tension was broken by Myrtle’s death.  By the end of the chapter, I always feel a sense of loss for Gatsby – he was left “watching over nothing.” His dreams are gone, and he seems to have nothing left, not that he realizes it. 

We are now moving to the falling action in the novel.  As Chapter 8 begins, Nick, our unbiased narrator, is restless.  He can’t sleep, so when he hears Gatsby arrive home, he rushes over to talk with him.  He has this overwhelming feeling of foreboding that he can’t wait until morning to speak with him.  Nick tries to convince Gatsby to go away for a while, but Gatsby, still holding on to the dream, says he cannot possibly leave Daisy at a time like this. 

The two sit and talk about Gatsby’s past.  This is when Nick learns about his family, Dan Cody, and how he came to meet and fall in love with Daisy. 

Fitzgerald uses a flashback to describe Gatsby’s first impressions of Daisy, her family’s wealth, her popularity, and her social status.  She was everything he desired, but no matter how wealthy he was to become in the future, in the present, he was a penniless soldier with no notable past to speak of. But Gatsby believed that Daisy was the key to his success. So he embraced the persona of Jay Gatsby, a man of the same social status as Daisy, giving her a false sense of security that he could care for her, when in truth, he had nothing to offer her.  Now, he tells Nick that he was surprised to find out that he loved her, but I don’t think it is quite that simple. He was in love with what she represented, wealth, respectability, and class.  Gatsby's longing for Daisy represents his desire for a life of luxury and social acceptance, a life he believes can only be attained through his relationship with her.

This was the beginning of his pursuit of the dream, but then he was sent off to war, and while they tried to hold on to their relationship through letters, Daisy was impatient.  She was young and accustomed to a life of privilege and instant gratification, and it was challenging to endure the long separation. Plus, her social upbringing required her to follow certain expectations. She was expected to make a socially advantageous match to secure her future – for you Bridgerton fans, this is a similar situation.  Women needed to marry well to secure their future.  Remember, it was considered improper for women of high social status to work outside the home.  Daisy was expected to marry into a wealthy, prestigious family and produce children, and that is exactly what she did.  No matter what her feelings were for Gatsby, she was courted by Tom Buchannan, and they were married in accordance with societal expectations.  Did she love him?  Possibly.  But more importantly, marrying Tom allowed Daisy to maintain her position within the elite circles of society and ensured that she would continue to enjoy the privileges and comforts that she was accustomed to.

Gatsby never believed that Daisy loved Tom. He believed that she loved him then and still loves him now.  You gotta give the man credit for holding on to his dream until the bitter end.  Many others would have given up by now, but not Gatsby.  When he received Daisy’s letter, he left Oxford to search for her back in Alabama, but she was gone. He was penniless, but determined to become worthy of her so he could win her back. 

At this point, Fitzgerald brings us back to the present where Nick and Gatsby are finishing breakfast.  Nick knows he needs to leave to catch his train for work, but he doesn’t want to leave. Something makes him feel as if he should stay.  Gatsby will not leave as he is expecting a call from Daisy, and he tells the gardener not to drain the pool just yet so he can go for a swim, as he hasn’t used the pool all summer.   

As Nick leaves, he calls back to Gatsby saying, “They’re a rotten crowd, …You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”  What the heck is he saying?

Well, Nick is finally fed up with his shallow, corrupt upper class “friends.”  Specifically, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan are a “rotten crowd.” In Nick’s eyes. These characters lack genuine moral values and are consumed by materialism, greed, and superficiality. We can see this in Tom's infidelity, Daisy's indifference, Jordan’s lies and their collective disregard for the consequences of their actions. On the other hand, Nick sees Gatsby as an exception. He recognizes Gatsby's noble qualities, such as his unwavering love for Daisy, his pursuit of the American Dream, and his idealism. Nick views Gatsby as a man of substance and integrity, worth more than the entire group of wealthy individuals he has encountered in the East.  In my opinion, this is what makes Gatsby great. Sure, he is a corrupt businessman who associates with some dangerous people, like Wolfsheim, but it has all been in pursuit of his dream. These are the noble qualities Nick sees in Gatsby, and what I feel make him worthy of being “great.”  I could be wrong, and you can feel free to make an argument against my views.  In fact, take a minute to jot down some ideas in your reading journal – Is Nick correct? Is Gatsby better than the others – is he “great”?

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Back to the action!  Nick heads into work, but he is distracted.  He gets a call from Jordan, but they really don’t have much to say to one another. He tries to call Gatsby, but the line is busy.  With a very unsettled feeling, Nick makes it through the rest of his day and takes the 3:50 train back to West Egg. 

At this point, Fitzgerald shifts to an omniscient narrator, as Nick describes to readers what happened at Wilson’s garage after he, Tom, and Jordan left. In order for readers to understand the upcoming events in the story, it is essential for Nick to shift from first-person limited to first-person omniscient (or all knowing) narrator.  Otherwise, readers would have no idea what happened at the garage during the time between when he, Tom, and Jordan left the garage and when Nick returns home from work. So, the timeframe in this passage is about midnight until late afternoon.  

Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, is brought to the garage as visitors continue to rotate through offering condolences to Her and Wilson.  Wilson is incoherent, rocking himself back and forth on the sofa in the office.  About 3 am, Wilson starts muttering to his neighbor, Michaelis, about a yellow car and an incident a few months back when Myrtle came home with a broken nose. Michaelis tries to distract Wilson, but he only gives short brief responses.  That is until he tells Michaelis to look in the drawer where he finds a “small but expensive dog leash,” which Wilson discovered yesterday afternoon.  Where the heck has the dog been all these months??? Who is taking care of it??  Who knows!

Anyway, back to Wilson’s mutterings.  Wilson’s mind is racing, and he is starting to put together bits and pieces of information until he decides that whoever Myrtle’s “lover” was is the man who killed her. Myrtle wasn’t just running towards any car; she was running towards a car she recognized as her ‘lover’s’ car.  For readers, this makes sense.  We know that Myrtle saw Tom, Nick, and Jordan in the yellow car at the garage just a few hours prior to the accident.  We also know that Myrtle has no idea that it is not Tom, but another driver in the yellow car (we know it is Daisy, but this detail is irrelevant). 

Michaelis tries to tell him that he is wrong – it was just an accident. But then Wilson continues muttering that God sees everything, referring to the pair of large eyes visible from the office window.  Now, we know that it is just the billboard of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg and not really the eyes of God, but the billboard does serve as a symbol. Remember, we are in the valley of ashes which represents the decay and moral corruption that lies just beneath the surface of the wealthy characters' lives. We discussed this way back in Chapter 2 in case you forgot.  Dr. T.J. Eckleburg symbolizes the presence of a higher power observing the actions and fading American Dream.  Wilson, who is grieving over the death of his wife, Myrtle, seeks meaning and answers for her tragic death. He turns to spirituality to make sense of the tragedy and the moral corruption in the world, where actions are observed and weighed by a higher power.

Michaelis has no clue how to respond, so he doesn’t.  Eventually, Michaelis goes home to get some sleep, but when he wakes up 4 hours later, Wilson is gone.  He made his way from the valley of ashes to West Egg and discovered Gatsby’s name.  

Now, back to Nick as a first-person limited narrator.  Nick arrives home after work and learns from the chauffeur, one of Wolfsheim’s protégées, and learns that Gatsby did go for a swim, however, the chauffeur did remember hearing shots, but thought nothing of it.  What?!?!?  I mean if I hear gunshots, I’m reacting – running, hiding, calling the police, something!  But it makes sense if he works for Wolfsheim, who is involved in organized crime circuits.  I am sure any of the staff who were provided by Wolfsheim has been trained not to respond in these circumstances.  So, Nick, the butler, the chauffeur, and the gardener head to the pool only to find Gatsby’s body floating in a circle of blood with Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass.  Murder-suicide.  Nick’s feelings of foreboding were correct. 

Now, some may argue that Gatsby’s death, not Myrtle’s death, is the climax of the plot.  If you have been listening, you know that I disagree.  I feel that the highest point of tension occurs at the end of the argument in New York when Daisy and Gatsby leave in the yellow car.  Myrtle’s death is the turning point where readers see Gatsby’s reversal of fortune. He no longer can achieve his dream as it is long gone.  His lack of action, (holding on to see if Daisy will call or come to him) brings about his downfall.

Before we finish this chapter, I want to discuss Gatsby as a tragic hero.  There are others who argue that Gatsby is not a tragic hero, so feel free to disagree with me, but I do consider Gatsby a tragic hero for the following reasons. 

According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a character of noble birth, with a tragic flaw or hubris, who has a reversal of fortune, which leads to his downfall.   Now, you might be saying, but wait! Gatsby isn’t of noble birth, and you are correct.  Gatsby was born poor, BUT he works tirelessly for years to better himself. These traits, determination, ambition, and unwavering hope are what make him admirable, especially to Nick. Gatsby embodies the ideal of the American Dream – going from rags to riches. So, while he is not of noble birth, we can admire him for these noble traits.  

Gatsby’s tragic flaw, or hubris, is his inability to let go of the past. Remember, Gatsby says, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” His relentless pursuit of his romanticized relationship with Daisy blinds him to the consequences of his actions (or lack of actions depending on how you look at the situation). 

The reversal of fortune occurs after that argument in New York, I mentioned this earlier.  Up until that point, everything seemed to be going great for Gatsby. He made his fortune, he got the girl back, they were going to live happily ever after, until reality set in and everything changed.  Daisy ran back to Tom leaving Gatsby with nothing.  This directly leads to his downfall, or death. 

What do you think? Is Gatsby a tragic hero?  Or is his life just a tragedy? I’ll answer these questions with another question. Do you empathize with Gatsby? Meaning can you relate to his struggles – his financial struggles? His desire to have a better life? His drive to attain his goal? According to Aristotle, this is catharsis – when the reader connects with a character, understands his struggles, and sees some of themselves in the character.  Take a few minutes to jot down some ideas in your reading journal.  While you’re at it, make some predictions.  How will the novel end? 

We are almost there! One more chapter and our adventure will end.  Join me in the next episode for the conclusion of The Great Gatsby. 

Thanks for listening to this episode of Read it and (Don’t) Weep. Be sure to subscribe to the show so you will be notified when new episodes are released. If you liked today’s show, please leave a review so others can discover my show.  If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, drop me an email at readitanddontweep@gmail.com, or reach out to me on social media. I would love to hear from you. The links are in the show notes.  

Thank you for listening.  I am Jackey Taggart and remember to read it and don’t weep. 

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