Chapter 8 Reader Response

Hi Mrs. Anrnaboldi! Hi English Class!

My first instinctual reaction to Chapter 8 relates to the differences between my final views of Gatsby and Nick's final understanding. By this point in the novel, at his death, I've accumulated a sizable condemnation for Gatsby, for his criminal history, his vain imaginings and moral flaws, and for his heartlessness after Myrtle's death. I feel that throughout the novel, including all of the parties and actions of the upper class, Nick (along with Fitzgerald) defines the 1920s, along with Gatsby, by deplorable qualities: lasciviousness, cynicism, and cruelty. However, in Gatsby's final appearances in the novel, Nick conveys his admiration for him by saying that Gatsby is "worth the whole damn bunch put together." (154) Nick recognizes that Gatsby is capable of achieving great things with his power to dream and his will to move forward. However, he believes that because his dream focused solely on Daisy, he lost the entire social ‘game’. Nick, then, regards Daisy as an undesirable product of upper-class, societal laws.

Also, the pool served as a remarkable symbol with which to end the chapter. Gatsby’s Butler says he’s going to drain the pool because summer is nearly over and the leaves of the autumn season are beginning to contaminate it. Even though it is clear to Gatsby and to the reader that Daisy has formed an indissoluble bond of reliance and social dignity with Tom, he still refuses to let go of the past, to allow time to control him, which is why he does not succumb to the seasons and uses up his final moments in his pool. With this particular death, I felt a strong correlation to Macbeth’s final moments, and how both of these characters refuse to surrender in the face of death, a mark of true perseverance and proof of the strength of the American Dream.

-Shervin Rezaei