The Great Gatsby Chapter 7 Summary
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Setting
Chapter seven of the great Gatsby is set in the oppressive New York City heat
Main Characters
Nick Caraway- he is the narrator, a thirty-year-old moralist who lives next door to Jay Gatsby and becomes Gatsby’s link to his cousin, daisy.
Jay Gatsby- is a romantic idealist who devotes his life to accumulating wealth which he believes will win Daisy and thus fulfill his dream.
Daisy Buchanan- she is Nick’s cousin, Tom’s wife, and Gatsby’s dream girl. Incapable of love, she represents the idolized upper class.
Tom Buchanan- he is daisy’s husband. Incapable of feeling guilt or any other emotion, he represents brutality, the moral carelessness of the rich, and racism.
Jordan Baker- she is daisy’s friend from Louisville. A young and compulsively dishonest professional golfer,
Pammy Buchanan – she is Daisy and Tom Buchanan's young daughter
George Wilson- he is the proprietor of a garage in the Valley of Ashes.
Myrtle Wilson- she is George’s wife.
Plot summary
Gatsby's house becomes much quieter, and his party has come to an end. Nick visits and learns that Gatsby ended the parties because he no longer needed them to attract Daisy. He also learns that Gatsby also fired all of his servants because Daisy thought they might gossip about their relationship. He replaced the servants with some of Wolfsheim's men. On the hottest day of the summer, Daisy invites Nick and Gatsby to lunch with her, Tom, and Jordan. At one point, while Tom is out of the room, Daisy kisses Gatsby on the lips and says she loves him. But the next instant the nurse leads in her young daughter, Pammy. Daisy basically ignores the child, but Gatsby keeps glancing at the little girl in surprise.
When Tom and Gatsby take a tour around the house, Gatsby points out that his house is direct across the sound from Tom's house. The lunch is awkward, at least in part because of the intense heat. At one point Daisy asks what they should do with the rest of the day and the next thirty years of their lives. She cries out that she wants them all to go to the city. Daisy and Gatsby lock eyes, and Daisy comments that Gatsby always looks like an advertisement. Tom can see in Daisy's eyes that Daisy and Gatsby are in love. He suddenly agrees that they should all go to the city.
Before they leave for the city, Nick and Gatsby have a moment alone, in which they agree that Daisy is indiscreet. Gatsby comments that Daisy's voice is "full of money." Tom insists on driving Gatsby's big yellow car. Gatsby and Daisy travel alone in Tom's coupe, while Tom drives Nick and Jordan. It is clear Tom now knows about the affair between Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby's car is low on gas, though, and Tom pulls into Wilson's Garage in the Valley of Ashes.
While selling him the gas, Wilson inquires about buying Tom's other car to resell it. He says he is trying to raise money to finance the move west that he has planned for him and his wife Myrtle. Tom is startled at the imminent loss of his mistress. Wilson adds that he has "wised up" recently and became physically ill upon discovering that his wife has been living a double life. Nick realizes that Wilson has figured out his wife is having an affair but doesn't know that Tom is the other man. He also thinks that Wilson and Tom are identical, except that Tom is healthy and Wilson is sick. Nick notices the haunting eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg looming in the distance, and then spots Myrtle Wilson staring down from the windows above the garage at Jordan Baker, whom she seems to have mistaken for Daisy, her rival in love.
Themes
- The American dream. The Great Gatsby shows the tide turning east, as hordes flock to New York City seeking stock market fortunes. The Great Gatsby portrays this shift to symbolize the American Dream's corruption. It is no longer a vision of building a life, only about getting rich.
- Past and Future. Nick and Gatsby are continually troubled by time—the past haunts gatsby and the future weigh down on Nick. When Nick tells Gatsby that he can't repeat the past, Gatsby says "Why of course you can!" Gatsby has dedicated his entire life to recapturing a golden, perfect past with Daisy. Gatsby believes that money can recreate the past.