A tragic end...

Chapter eight has been one of the most tragic chapter in the book. This is right after Daisy accidently kills Myrtle, and everyone is a wreck. Poor Gatsby can’t sleep without knowing Daisy is okay. There is an on-going investigation about the murder of Myrtle Wilson. Everything is just a down right mess! In the beginning, in Gatsby’s house, there is a scene where the butler asks if he could close the pool for the season, but Gatsby says no. He says no because he hasn’t used the pool all summer, I found this a little strange and figured it was foreshadowing something bad. I thought it would portend to Gatsby committing suicide, but it was much worse. It then cuts to Wilson’s garage and Wilson is in bad shape, not talking much, rocking back in forth, it was like he completely shut down. Michaelis went over to watch him, and talk to him to try to figure out what happened. Michaelis was practically pulling teeth when he was asking Wilson questions, but suddenly Wilson just snapped. He went a little crazy in realizing his wife was having an affair. He had alleged that the man in the yellow car was the person who cheated on, and killed his wife. “’Oh, my God!’ again in a whisper—his comforter left several explanations in the air. ‘Then he killed her,’ said Wilson. His mouth dropped open suddenly. ‘Who did?’ ‘I have a way of finding out.’ ‘You’re morbid, George.’ […] ‘He murdered her.’ ‘It was an accident, George.’” (158) I was starting to make the connection between Gatsby not wanting to close the pool and Wilson going crazy “having ways of finding out” who killed Myrtle. He was looking for the fellow who owned the yellow car, and thanks to Tom earlier for driving Gatsby’s car and telling them they switched for the time being helped Wilson know who to look for. If, Tom had not have stopped at the crime scene in his own car (and talked to Wilson), Wilson might have thought it was Tom who killed his wife. But it any case, Wilson was on a man hunt for Gatsby. Once again, it skips back over to Gatsby’s house and he is about to take a swim in his pool for the first time that season. “He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about […].” (161) Everything that he built on stilts was falling and he had no choice but to helplessly watch. Everything that he had was for Daisy and she didn’t want it, and that was one of Gatsby’s greatest realizations. All he had took on a whole new look, nothing seemed real to him, he did not want to take in the fact that Daisy did not want him. He is a like a poor ghost, all he was living on was a dream; the problem with that is it is all based on chance. He could have his dream come true, and get Daisy, but it is not very likely due to her being married to a wealthy man (her kind of man). This made Gatsby very distraught. Then all of a sudden, “[…] like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees. The chauffeur—he was one of Wolfsheim’s protégés--heard the shots—afterward he could only say that he hadn’t thought anything much about them. I drove from the station directly to Gatsby’s house and my rushing anxiously up the front steps wad the first thing that alarmed anyone. But they knew then, I firmly believe. With scarcely a word, four of us, the chauffeur, butler, gardener, and I, hurried down to the pool. […] The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing. Like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the red circle in the water.” (161-162). Wilson found Gatsby and finished his business; as for Gatsby his life was cut short by an accusation. Now I’m just going out on a limb here, but I think Wolfsheim’s somehow involved in the murder of Gatsby. I think Wolfsheim wanted Gatsby dead, for some reason or another, and he told his protégés (that worked) for Gatsby to let him die somehow. So when they heard the shots they didn’t act upon it and waited for an outside party (Nick) to come over to see what was going on. Then the other became aware of the situation at hand, and rushed over to see what had become of Gatsby; and there was Wilson off in the garden, just standing there.