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In Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby dismisses his servants to protect Daisy's reputation and hosts romantic trysts with her. The intense heat of summer symbolizes passion and signals the discord between Daisy and Tom. Gatsby's infatuation with Daisy starts to wane as she begins to believe Tom's allegations. Myrtle is killed by a car, leading Nick to believe Gatsby is responsible. Gatsby anxiously watches over nothing, realizing his pursuit of Daisy has been in vain.
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Gatsby explains he has dismissed his servants in order to protect Daisy’s reputation. • The giver of lavish parties now hosts only romantic trysts with Daisy. • Trimalchio allusion-Latin writer Petroniius 61 AD created a character who was a lavish host
Signals and warnings of temper and passion corresponding to the intense heat of the summertime. • Recurring image in this section is heat. The weather is relentlessly hot. The association between the heat of the summer in the macrocosm and the heat of passion in the microcosm.
Physical heat of the sweltering last day of summer is no more intense than the fiery emotions- temper, passion, jealousy. • Gatsby sees Pammy for the first time a living, tangible result of marriage - Gatsby has been unwilling to accept.
Nick becomes aware of eyes watching, not just those of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg but of Myrtle as she observes the scene from the upstairs window. Eyes, as a pattern of imagery, are noticeable. • Sounds of discord between Daisy and Tom appear.
Daisy begins her metamorphosis. • Gatsby’s extreme wealth starts to lose its appeal as she starts to believe Tom’s accusations of illegal doings. • Gatsby innocently and naively believes Daisy will denounce Tom and her marriage to return to him and the love they had experienced five years before.
Myrtle ran out into the dark toward “a big yellow car,” a “death car,” and the car hit and killed Myrtle and then drove on without stopping. • Naturally Nick assumes Gatsby had killed Myrtle and, in cowardly fashion, had driven on.
Daisy had been driving the “death car.” However, Gatsby will say he was. • She safely retreats back into the insulated protection of the secret society. • Existential assessment of life replicates or at least echoes the sentiment in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, a poem which influenced Fitzgerald significantly.
Cars are exceedingly important in this chapter. Cynically, Tom allows George to think he can buy Gatsby’s car. • He is led to believe that the car belongs to Tom.
On the return trip, however, Daisy and Gatsby drive the big yellow car, “the ‘death car’ as the newspapers called it,” • The car, a symbol of the driving quality, the recklessness of these people. • They could destroy the lives of others and then simply retreat into their money.
Images of cars also reflect the restless, driving nature of the characters. ENNUI of the restless American society in the 1920s. • Nick walks away from Gatsby, who is anxious that Tom might find out that Daisy had been driving.
“standing there in the moonlight- watching over nothing.” • Reminds us of end of chapter 1 where Gatsby watches over the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.
As a goal, as the tangible American Dream, Daisy is inadequate, unworthy, the dreamer, Gatsby, has invested everything to attain her; • now, the narrator tells us, looking at her is like “-watching over nothing.”
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