The Great Gatsby | Discussion Questions 61 - 65

In The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8, what does Michaelis see through the window where George Wilson had told Myrtle that he and God knew about her affair?

Michaelis realizes that George had been looking at the billboard for Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes look down upon all within the valley of ashes and represent an omnipresent or divine judge.

After Jay Gatsby's death in Chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby, how does Nick Carraway become, in effect, the clearinghouse for "every surmise about him, and every practical question"?

Nick was among the people who discovered Gatsby's body in the pool and George Wilson's body in the grass nearby. After he phoned the police with news of the "catastrophe," he became the clearinghouse for information on Gatsby.

In Chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby, how does Nick Carraway get word of Jay Gatsby's death—and impending memorial service—to his business associate Meyer Wolfsheim?

Nick initially has Gatsby's butler deliver the news in a note to Wolfsheim, expecting that he will come quickly once he receives it. When Wolfsheim responds with a letter but makes no mention of coming for the memorial service, Nick travels to the city to confront Wolfsheim. By this time Nick notes that he had "a feeling of defiance, or scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all."

In Chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby, who, in addition to Nick Carraway, attends Jay Gatsby's funeral?

Despite all of Nick's phone calls and notes, Gatsby's funeral is attended by only a handful of people in addition to Nick: the minister, Gatsby's father Henry Gatz, a few servants, the postman, and Owl Eyes (the man Nick and Jordan Baker discovered in Gatsby's library during a party).

In Chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby, when "the boarder" Ewing Klipspringer calls about Gatsby's death, Nick Carraway is dismayed to discover what about Klipspringer's reason for calling?

Although he expresses shock and sadness in regard to Gatsby's death, Klipspringer is actually calling to inquire about a pair of shoes he left at Gatsby's house. Nick is so stunned by the inconsequence of "the boarder's" inquiry in contrast to a man's death that he hangs up on him.