Chapter 7

Summary

• since Gatsby now has Daisy, he stops throwing parties at his house
• in order to prevent gossip, he fires his servants
• Nick meets Tom and Daisy on the hottest day of summer (motif: Weather)
  
  • Jordan and Gatsby are there as well
  • while Gatsby is taken aback by Daisy‘s daughter, Daisy is rather uninterested in her
  • Daisy asks Gatsby to go to New York City and Gatsby gives her a passionate stare, revealing his feelings for Daisy to Tom
• they all go to the city - Nick, Jordan and Tom ride Gatsby‘s car whereas Daisy and Gatsby ride Tom‘s car
• stopping at George Wilson‘s gas station, they learn from Wilson that he knows about his wife‘s affair although he does not know the name of her lover
• George claims that he wants to move to the West with her
• Nick notices that Tom and George are in the same situation
• arriving at the city, the group takes a suite at the Plaza Hotel
  
  • Tom actually has planned to confront Gatsby there: he mocks his habit of using "old sport" to call people and accuses Gatsby of not having attended Oxford
  • Gatsby claims that he went there as a part of an army program after the war
  • Tom asks Gatsby about which intentions he has for Daisy and Gatsby states that Daisy loves him and not Tom
  • Tom explains that Gatsby cannot possibly be able to understand what he and Daisy have together and lays Gatsby‘s involvement with the bootlegging crime bare
  • Daisy emotionally moves farther away from Gatsby and Tom notices that he has outmatched Gatsby and sends Daisy and Gatsby back to Long Island
  • Nick notices that it is his 30^th birthday
• when Nick, Tom and Jordan head back to Long Island, they pass the Valley of Ashes and see the scene of an accident
• a person was hit fatally by a car and a Greek restaurant owner tells the group that Myrtle has been killed in a hit-and-run crash
• Nick realizes that Gatsby and Daisy must have killed Myrtle and Tom mentions to Wilson that the yellow car belongs to Gatsby and that he was the driver
• although Myrtle had an affair with Tom, Tom does not seem the slightest bit mournful over her death
• at Tom‘s house, Nick finds Gatsby who is hiding in some bushes
• Gatsby claims that he is waiting there in order to make sure that Tom won‘t hurt Daisy
• Nick finds out that it was Daisy who drove the car and hit Myrtle and also, Gatsby tells Nick that he will take the blame for Myrtle‘s death
• Nick checks on Daisy through a kitchen window to reassure Gatsby and finds Daisy and Tom in the kitchen eating fried chicken
• it seems as if they are talking about their differences as if they were conspiring together
• in Nick‘s opinion, they seem happy and unhappy at the same time

Function

• unfolding of the conflict between Gatsby and Tom
  
  • it becomes obvious that Gatsby has engaged in criminal activities
  • Tom‘s sexist behaviour and the hypocrisy become even more evident: while he does not care a single bit about having an extramarital affair, he scorns his wife‘s infidelity and considers himself a victim of her affair
• forceful attempt to precipitatedly resurge the past
  
  • Gatsby asks Daisy to tell Tom that she has always loved Gatsby
  • he needs to know from her that she was in love with him
  • Tom also evokes the intimate feelings that Daisy has for him in her and thus controls the past and in fact, he simply eliminates Gatsby‘s and Daisy‘s future together
  • Gatsby‘s dream has died, which is also the reason why Tom sends Gatsby and Daisy back to Long Island together
• Gatsby‘s deep and intense love for Daisy is demonstrated by his decision to take the blame for Myrtle‘s death
  
  • him standing outside and watching over Daisy stands in contrast to Daisy and Tom sitting inside, eating cold chicken
  • however, his dream has irrevocably vanished and he "watches over nothing" (page 93)