Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The photograph taken by NASA is that of the New York City skyline. The picture of the New York City skyline is appropriate foe the seventh chapter of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, because in this chapter, Nick, Gatsby, and the Buchanans travel to New York City for the day where a lot of important events take place such as some outbursts by Tom directed at Jay Gatsby. Tom verbally attacks Gatsby a few times, criticizing Gatsby’s term “old sport” which he calls Nick and others throughout the novel. Tom also accuses Jay of being a bootlegger.

Quotes

"Her voice is full of money" (127). - Gatsby on Daisy

"Oxford, New Mexico" (129). - Tom insulting Gatsby's credibility

"Even alone I can't say I never loved Tom" (140).- Daisy on her marriage

"He spoke as if Daisy's reaction was the only thing that mattered" (151). - Nick on the hit and run

Analysis

In the seventh chapter of the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a theme of the American dream. The theme in this chapter is more specifically how the American dream fails our titular character, Jay Gatsby. One of the concepts of the American dream is the freedom of the pursuit of happiness. The only thing that would make Gatsby happy is the love of Daisy Buchanan. He pursues Daisy for five years and it all comes out in this chapter. After a brutal confrontation with Daisy’s husband, Tom, Gatsby exclaims that Daisy was never in love with him and only settled to marry him because he was much better off financially than Gatsby. Tom claims that this isn’t true and that he and Daisy’s marriage is very much one based on love. During the confrontation, Daisy realizes that she is after all in love with her husband and not Gatsby. This makes happiness impossible to pursue for Gatsby and thus, the American dream has failed him. This also makes a lot of his life up until that point meaningless. He wasted years of his life gaining wealth and moving his way up the social ladder just so that he could impress Daisy enough that he could convince her to trade her life with Tom and marry him instead.

The contrast between west and east is also further explored in this chapter. Wilson decides that he is going to move west because he believes people there are generally better people. This idea is contrasted throughout the novel with both East Egg and West Egg and eastern United States and western United States.