The Great Gatsby: Chapter Eight

...You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together...

Narrative perspectives/ voices:
Chapter when Nick and Gatsby share last few moments together prior to Gatsby’s death. Nick notably states: ‘you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together’; hinting along with the eponymous that Nick is very praising of Gatsby, looking past his faults.  

Time Period:
There is a large reference to timings in this chapter, starting at the beginning, when Nick re-tells: ‘it was nine o’clock when we finished breakfast and went out on the porch.’ ‘twelve minutes to my train’ ‘I’ll call you about noon’ ‘three fifty train’..’it was just noon. From these references, it gives the impression that Gatsby is very distant from his usual self, and is quite unconcerned about his friend. This is also evident from the rash decision to fire all of his servants and hire new ones as Daisy regularly ‘visits’ in the ‘afternoons’, to prevent ‘talk’. However, as Gatsby is so well-known and particularly popular due to his generosity, he has prying eyes from different sources than servants- ‘until long after midnight a changing crowd lapped up against the front garage’.

There are a lot of time periods used to track Wilson and Gatsby’s whereabouts and movements over the course of the day leading to Gatsby’s death, shown in the extract below;

‘By six o’clock Michaelis was worn out, and grateful for the sound of a car stopping outside. It was one of the watchers of the night before who had promised to come back, so he cooked breakfast for three, which he and the other man ate together. Wilson was quieter now, and Michaelis went home to sleep; when he awoke four hours later and hurried back to the garage, Wilson was gone.

His movements — he was on foot all the time — were afterward traced to Port Roosevelt and then to Gad’s Hill, where he bought a sandwich that he didn’t eat, and a cup of coffee. He must have been tired and walking slowly, for he didn’t reach Gad’s Hill until noon. Thus far there was no difficulty in accounting for his time — there were boys who had seen a man “acting sort of crazy,” and motorists at whom he stared oddly from the side of the road. Then for three hours he disappeared from view. The police, on the strength of what he said to Michaelis, that he “had a way of finding out,”supposed that he spent that time going from garage to garage thereabout, inquiring for a yellow car. On the other hand, no garage man who had seen him ever came forward, and perhaps he had an easier, surer way of finding out what he wanted to know. By half-past two he was in West Egg, where he asked someone the way to Gatsby’s house. So by that time he knew Gatsby’s name.

At two o’clock Gatsby put on his bathing-suit and left word with the butler that if any one phoned word was to be brought to him at the pool. He stopped at the garage for a pneumatic mattress that had amused his guests during the summer, and the chauffeur helped him pump it up. Then he gave instructions that the open car wasn’t to be taken out under any circumstances — and this was strange, because the front right fender needed repair.’

From this, we learn quite a lot about Nick as a narrator. He is evidently quite controlling and adopts an organised manner to deal with the loss of Gatsby, clear from the relation back to Gatsby throughout the extract- ‘so by that time he knew Gatsby’s name’, and does not hold back his opinions on Gatsby, although he evidently does not think they were wise ones: ‘...and this was strange...’, and yet still holds Gatsby in very high regard.

Setting:
The first setting mentioned in this chapter is with reference to what Nick thinks Gatsby should do; ‘Go away to Atlantic City for a week, or up to Montreal’ This is forcibly refused by Gatsby, and it is unclear from Nick’s reaction whether he expected this or not, but the use of short sentences: ‘he wouldn’t consider it. He couldn’t possibly leave...’ gives the impression that he disproves of Gatsby’s choice.
Wilson’s garage is the next setting, where Michaelis is trying to gain knowledge on Wilson, and trying to grasp at a way of finding help for him. Unfortunately, this does not succeed and Wilson has left, towards Gatsby’s pool before Michaelis’ return after he was ‘worn out’. This soon turns into a tragic series of events, resulting in the death of Gatsby.
Narrative Techniques, Elements and Themes:
Poetic prose; ‘I tumbled with a sort of splash upon the keys of a ghostly piano’

Sensual description; ‘there was a wholesome bulkiness about his person and his position’

Use of sound; ‘fog horn was groaning incessantly’

Use of dramatic dialogue; ‘I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport. I even hoped for a while that she’d throw me over, but she didn’t, because she was in love with me too.’

Surreal description; ‘Wilson’s glazed eyes turned out the ashheaps, where grey clouds took on fantastic shapes and scurried here and there in the faint dawn wind’

 References to; ‘Gatsby’s house’- Nick refers to this setting considerably: also to his ‘garage’

Time references; ‘it was nine o’clock when we finished breakfast and went out on the porch.’ twelve minutes to my train’ ‘I’ll call you about noon’ ‘three fifty train’ ‘until long after midnight a changing crowd lapped up against the front garage’ ‘by six o’clock Michaelis was worn out’ ‘about five o’clock it was blue enough outside to snap off the light.’

Use of names; Michaelis, George Wilson- first time finding out his name: ‘maybe you got some friend that I could telephone for, George?’, Gatsby, Nick, Meyer Wolfshiem: letter regarding not attending the funeral to ‘Mr Carraway’

Colours; ‘golden and silver slippers’ ‘at the grey tea hour’ ‘white car’ ‘about five o’clock it was blue enough outside to snap off the light.’

Themes; time, Gatsby (and his choices, repetitive evaluation of him by Nick)