Chapter 7 Chapter Summary – The Great Gatsby

- Gatsby and the Buchanans’ family go to the city

- Daisy killed Myrtle Wilson in a hit and run
- Tom Buchanan and Gatsby get into a fight, as Gatsby forces Daisy to confess her love
for him in front of Tom
o Daisy cannot stand this anymore
o Mental breakdown

Key Quotations:

“I want to ask Mr. Gatsby one more question…”

“Daisy… just tell him the truth, that you never loved him”

“You never loved him”

“I never loved him, she said imperceptibly”

“Please Tom, I can’t stand this anymore”

“So we drove on towards death”

“Was Daisy driving? Yes, he said after a moment, but of course I’ll say I was”

Chapter 7 Timeline:

1. Lunch at Buchanan’s house

2. Gatsby, Nick, Jordan, and the Buchanans head to New York
3. Tom and Gatsby start arguing
4. They leave to head home after Tom wins
5. Tom sends Daisy and Gatsby home in Gatsby’s yellow car
6. Daisy is driving the car and hits Myrtle Wilson, killing her in front of the gas station
7. Tom, Jordan and Nick arrive at the gas station after, and finds Myrtle lying dead.
8. George is furious at Tom because he thinks Tom was driving the yellow car.
However, Tom quickly explains to George that it was Gatsby’s car that killed Myrtle,
as he was driving his blue coupe.

Chapter 7 Weather Symbolism:

What was the weather like on this eventful day? Identify a quote and explain how the
weather is symbolic of the characters’ emotions within this chapter.

The weather on this eventful day was “broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of
the summer”. By using pathetic fallacy, Fitzgerald establishes a boiling and balmy setting in
the climax of the novel; Chapter 7, and hence, denotes the frustration and fiery attitude of
the characters within this chapter, especially Tom Buchanan and Gatsby, as they both
quarrel over Daisy.

Sample Paragraph:

“I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. There’s something very
sensuous about it – overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.”
- Jordan

The symbolism with the heat of the “summer afternoon” connotes the climactic and intense
emotions and foreshadows the ferocity of events later that afternoon. This is accentuated
with Jordan’s simile of “funny fruits” falling into the characters’ “hands”; the characters will
all be confronted with peculiar truths later in the chapter.