The Great Gatsby Chapter 8 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." (8.44-45)
Finally, right before Gatsby dies, Nick realizes that all the people he's been hanging around with are no good. Gee, took you long enough, Nick.
He stayed there a week, walking the streets where their footsteps had clicked together through the November night and revisiting the out-of-the-way places to which they had driven in her white car. (8.28)
Once Daisy leaves him, Gatsby walks the streets alone. Probably in the rain. And in rags. Sorry, dude: we know how this scene ends.
It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete. (8.112-114)
Notice that Nick calls this a "holocaust." We're two decades before the World War II holocaust, so that's not a reference point here, but the word still means "mass destruction." The thing is, three bodies is tragic, but it's not exactly mass destruction. We think that something metaphoric is being destroyed here: a way of life? Nick's innocence? The American Dream?