American Literature books summary
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They drive out slowly through the town, in an endless line of soldiers and vehicles. Henry takes a turn sleeping, and shortly after he wakes, the column stalls. He finds that Bonello has given two engineer sergeants a ride, and Aymo has two girls in his car. Exhausted, Henry falls asleep again, and dreams of Catherine.That night, columns of peasants join the retreating army. In the early morning Henry and his men stop briefly at a farmhouse, eating a large breakfast. Soon, they continue slowly on their way, rejoining the line of trucks and soldiers.
Book III, Chapters 29-32
Aymo's car gets stuck in the soft ground; the men are forced to cut brush hurriedly to place under the tires for traction. Henry orders the two engineer sergeants riding with Bonello to help; afraid of being overtaken by the enemy, they refuse, and try to leave. Henry draws his gun and shoots one of them, but the other escapes. Bonello takes Henry's pistol and kills the wounded sergeant.
They begin to cut branches and twigs; in the end, they are unable to save the car. Henry gives some money to the two girls travelling with Aymo and encourages them to go down to a nearby village, Aymo gets in Henry's vehicle, and they set out, now cut off from the main column.
Crossing a bridge, Henry sees a nearby car full of German soldiers. As
they travel, they begin to notice more and more signs of German occupation, and they worry that they have been completely cut off from Italian-
controlled land. They proceed with caution; a sudden burst of gunfire kills
Aymo. They realize he was shot by the Italian rear guard--the Italians are
ahead, but because the rear guard is afraid, they are almost as dangerous
as the Germans.
Fearing death, Bonello leaves in hopes of being taken prisoner. The men
hide in a barn that night, and in the morning they rejoin the Italians. The
enlisted men become furious with the officers, and Piani is afraid they
will try to kill Henry. Suddenly, two men (battle police) seize hold of
Henry. They seize Henry because he is a foreigner, and in the chaos of the
retreat they intend to shoot him for a spy. When they look away for a
moment, Henry dives into the river and swims away.
After floating in the river for what seems like a very long time, Henry climbs out, removes the stars from his shirt, and counts his money. He crosses the Venetian plain that day, then jumps aboard a military train that evening, hiding under a canvas with guns.
Lying under the canvas, Henry thinks about the army, about the war, and about Catherine. He realizes that he will be pronounced dead, and assumes he will never see Rinaldi again. Rinaldi has been concerned he will die of syphilis, and Henry worries for him. Exhausted and hungry, he imagines finding Catherine and going away with her to a safe place.
Book V, Chapters 38-41
That fall, Henry and Catherine live in a brown wooden house on the side
of a mountain. They enjoy the company of Mr. and Mrs. Guttingen, who live
downstairs, and they remain very happy together; sometimes they walk down
the mountain path in Montreux. One day Catherine gets her hair done in
Montreux, and afterwards they go to have a beer--Catherine thinks beer is
good for the baby, because it will keep it small; she is worried about the
baby's size because the doctor has said she has a narrow pelvis. They talk
again about getting married, but Catherine wants to wait until after the
baby is born when she will be thin again.
Three days before Christmas, the snow comes. Catherine asks Henry if he feels restless, and he says no, though he does wonder about his friends on the front, such as Rinaldi and the priest.
Henry decides to grow a beard and by mid-January, he has one. Through
January and February he and Catherine remain very happy; in March they move
into town to be near the hospital. They stay in a hotel there for three
weeks; Catherine buys baby clothes, Henry works out in the gym, and they
both feel that the baby will arrive soon.
Finally, around three o'clock one morning, Catherine goes into labor.
They go to the hospital, where Catherine is given a nightgown and a room.
She encourages Henry to go out for breakfast, and he does, talking to the
old man who serves him. When he returns to the hospital, he finds that
Catherine has been taken to the delivery room. He goes in to see her; the
doctor stands by, and Catherine takes an anaesthetic gas when her
contractions become very painful. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Henry
goes out for lunch.
He goes back to the hospital; Catherine is now intoxicated from the gas. The doctor thinks her pelvis is too narrow to allow the baby to pass through, and advises a Caesarian section. Catherine suffers unbearable pain and pleads for more gas. Finally they wheel her out on a stretcher to perform the operation. Henry watches the rain outside.
Soon the doctor comes out and takes Henry to see the baby, a boy. Henry has no feeling for the child. He then goes to see Catherine, and at first worries that she is dead. When she asks him about their son, he tells her he was fine, and the nurse gives him a quizzical look. Ushering him outside, the nurse tells him that the boy is not fine--he strangled on the umbilical cord, and never began to breathe.
He goes out for dinner, and when he returns the nurse tells him that
Catherine is hemorrhaging. He is filled with terror that she will die. When
he is allowed to see her, she tells him she will die, and asks him not to
say the same things to other girls. Henry goes into the hallway while they
try to treat Catherine, but nothing works; finally, he goes back into the
room and stays with her until she dies.
The doctor offers to drive him back to the hotel, but Henry declines.
He goes back into the room and tries to say good-bye to Catherine, but says
that it was like saying good-bye to a statue. He leaves the hospital and
walks back to his hotel in the rain
CHARACTERS’ PROFILE
Frederic Henry - The novel's protagonist. A young American ambulance
driver in the Italian army during the First World War, Henry is disciplined
and courageous, but feels detached from life. When introduced to Catherine
Barkley, Henry discovers a capacity for love he had not known he possessed, and begins a process of development that culminates with his desertion of
the Italian army. Throughout the novel, the Italian soldiers under Henry's
command call him "Tenente"--the Italian word for "lieutenant."
Catherine Barkley - An English nurse who falls in love with Frederic Henry.
Catherine's fiancee was killed in the battle of the Somme before she met
Henry. Catherine has cast aside conventional social values, and lives
according to her own values, devoting herself wholly to her love for Henry.
Her long, beautiful hair is her most distinctive physical feature.
Rinaldi - Frederic's friend, an Italian surgeon. Mischievous and wry,
Rinaldi is nevertheless a passionate and skilled doctor. Rinaldi makes a
practice of always being in love with a beautiful woman, and at the
beginning of the novel is attracted to Catherine Barkley; Rinaldi's
infatuation causes him to introduce Frederic and Catherine to one another.
Helen Ferguson - A friend of Catherine's. Though she remains fond of the
lovers and helps them, Helen is much more committed to social convention
than Henry and Catherine; she vocally disapproves of their "immoral" love
affair.
Miss Gage - An American nurse. Miss Gage becomes a friend to both Catherine
and Henry--in fact, she may be in love with Henry. Unlike Helen Ferguson, she sets aside conventional social values to support their love affair.
Miss Van Campen - The superintendent of nurses at the American hospital
where Catherine works. Miss Van Campen is strict, cold, and unlikable; she
is obsessed with rules and regulations and has no patience for or interest
in individual feelings.
Dr. Valentini - An Italian surgeon who comes to the American hospital. Self-
assured and confident, Dr. Valentini is also a highly talented surgeon.
Frederic Henry takes an immediate liking to him.
Count Greffi - A spry ninety-four year old nobleman. Henry knows Count
Greffi from his time in Stresa, and the two play billiards together toward
the end of the novel. Despite his advanced age, the count is intelligent, disciplined, and fully committed to life.
The Grapes of Wrath
Full Summary
Chapter One: Steinbeck begins the novel with a description of the dust bowl
climate of Oklahoma. The dust was so thick that men and women had to remain
in their houses, and when they had to leave they tied handkerchiefs over
their faces and wore goggles to protect their eyes. After the wind had
stopped, an even blanket of dust covered the earth. The corn crop was
ruined. Everybody wondered what they would do. The women and children knew
that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole, but the
men had not yet figured out what to do.
Chapter Two: A man approaches a small diner where a large red transport
truck is parked. The man is under thirty, with dark brown eyes and high
cheekbones. He wore new clothes that don't quite fit. The truck driver
exits from the diner and the man asks him for a ride, despite the "No
Riders" sticker on the truck. The man claims that sometimes a guy will do a
good thing even when a rich bastard makes him carry a sticker, and the
driver, feeling trapped by the statement, lets the man have a ride. While
driving, the truck driver asks questions, and the man finally gives his
name, Tom Joad. The truck driver claims that guys do strange things when
they drive trucks, such as make up poetry, because of the loneliness of the
job. The truck driver claims that his experience driving has trained his
memory and that he can remember everything about a person he passes.
Realizing that the truck driver is pressing for information, Tom finally
admits that he had just been released from McAlester prison for homicide.
He had been sentenced to seven years and was released after only four, for
good behavior.
Chapter Three: At the side of the roadside, a turtle crawled, dragging his
shell over the grass. He came to the embankment at the road and, with great
effort, climbed onto the road. As the turtle attempts to cross the road, it
is nearby hit by a sedan. A truck swerves to hit the turtle, but its wheel
only strikes the edge of its shell and spins it back off the highway. The
turtle lays on its back, but finally pulls itself over.
Chapter Four: After getting out of the truck, Tom Joad begins walking home.
He sees the turtle of the previous chapter and picks it up. He stops in the
shade of a tree to rest and meets a man who sits there, singing "Jesus is
My Savior." The man, Jim Casy, had a long, bony frame and sharp features. A
former minister, he recognizes Tom immediately. He was a "Burning Busher"
who used to "howl out the name of Jesus to glory," but he lost the calling
because he has too many sinful ideas that seem sensible. Tom tells Casy
that he took the turtle for his little brother, and he replies that nobody
can keep a turtle, for they eventually just go off on their own. Casy
claims that he doesn't know where he's going now, and Tom tells him to lead
people, even if he doesn't know where to lead them. Casy tells Tom that
part of the reason he quit preaching was that he too often succumbed to
temptation, having sex with many of the girls he Њsaved.' Finally he
realized that perhaps what he was doing wasn't a sin, and there isn't
really sin or virtue there are simply things people do.
He realized he didn't Њknow Jesus,' he merely knew the stories of the
Bible. Tom tells Casy why he was in jail: he was at a dance drunk, and got
in a fight with a man. The man cut Tom with a knife, so he hit him over the
head with a shovel. Tom tells him that he was treated relatively well in
McAlester. He ate regularly, got clean clothes and bathed. He even tells
about how someone broke his parole to go back. Tom tells how his father
Њstole' their house. There was a family living there that moved away, so
his father, uncle and grandfather cut the house in two and dragged part of
it first, only to find that Wink Manley took the other half. They get to
the boundary fence of their property, and Tom tells him that they didn't
need a fence, but it gave Pa a feeling that their forty acres was forty
acres. Tom and Casy get to the house: something has happened nobody is
there.
Chapter Five: This chapter describes the coming of the bank representatives
to evict the farmers. Some of the men were kind because they knew how cruel
their job was, while some were angry because they hated to be cruel, and
others were merely cold and hardened by their job. They are mostly pawns of
a system that they can merely obey. The tenant system has become untenable
for the banks, for one man on a tractor can take the place of a dozen
families. The farmers raise the possibility of armed insurrection, but what
would they fight against? They will be murderers if they stay, fighting
against the wrong targets.
Steinbeck describes the arrival of the tractors. They crawled over the
ground, cutting the earth like surgery and violating it like rape. The
tractor driver does his job simply out of necessity: he has to feed his
kids, even if it comes at the expense of dozens of families. Steinbeck
dramatizes a conversation between a truck driver and an evicted tenant
farmer. The farmer threatens to kill the driver, but even if he does so, he
will not stop the bank. Another driver will come. Even if the farmer
murders the president of the bank and board of directors, the bank is
controlled by the East. There is no effective target which could prevent
the evictions.
Chapter Six: Casy and Tom approached the Joad home. The house was mashed at
one corner and appeared deserted. Casy says that it looks like the arm of
the Lord had struck. Tom can tell that Ma isn't there, for she would have
never left the gate unhooked. They only see one resident (the cat), but Tom
wonders why the cat didn't go to find another family if his family had
moved, or why the neighbors hadn't taken the rest of the belongings in the
house. Muley Graves approaches, a short, lean old man with the truculent
look of an ornery child. Muley tells Tom that his mother was worrying about
him. His family was evicted, and had to move in with his Uncle John. They
were forced to chop cotton to make enough money to go west. Casy suggests
going west to pick grapes in California. Muley tells Tom and Casy that the
loss of the farm broke up his family his wife and kids went off to
California, while Muley chose to stay. He has been forced to eat wild game.
He muses about how angry he was when he was told he had to get off the
land. First he wanted to kill people, but then his family left and Muley
was left alone and wandering. He realized that he is used to the place, even if he has to wander the land like a ghost. Tom tells them that he
can't go to California, for it would mean breaking parole. According to
Tom, prison has not changed him significantly. He thinks that if he saw
Herb Turnbull, the man he killed, coming after him with a knife again, he
would still hit him with the shovel. Tom tells them that there was a man in
McAlester that read a great deal about prisons and told him that they
started a long time ago and now cannot be stopped, despite the fact that
they do not actually rehabilitate people. Muley tells them that they have
to hide, for they are trespassing on the land. They have to hide in a cave
for the night.
Chapter Seven: The car dealership owners look at their customers. They
watch for weaknesses, such as a woman who wants an expensive car and can
push her husband into buying one. They attempt to make the customers feel
obliged. The proffts come from selling jalopies, not from new and
dependable cars. There are no guarantees, hidden costs and obvious flaws.
Chapter Eight: Tom and Casy reach Uncle John's farm. They remark that
Muley's lonely and covert lifestyle has obviously driven him insane.
According to Tom, his Uncle John is equally crazy, and wasn't expected to
live long, yet is older than his father. Still, he is tougher and meaner
than even Grampa, hardened by losing his young wife years ago. They see Pa
Joad fixing the truck. When he sees Tom, he assumes that he broke out of
jail. They go in the house and see Ma Joad, a heavy woman thick with child-
bearing and work. Her face was controlled and kindly. She worries that Tom
went mad in prison. This chapter also introduces Grampa and Granma Joad.
She is as tough as he is, once shooting her husband while she was speaking
in tongues. Noah Joad, Tom's older brother, is a strange man, slow and
withdrawn, with little pride and few urges. He may have been brain damaged
at childbirth. The family has dinner, and Casy says grace. He talks about
how Jesus went off into the wilderness alone, and how he did the same. Yet
what Casy concluded was that mankind was holy. Pa tells Tom about Al, his
sixteen-year old brother, who is concerned with little more than girls and
cars. He hasn't been at home at night for a week. His sister Rosasharn has
married Connie Rivers, and is several months pregnant. They have two
hundred dollars for their journey.
Chapter Nine: This chapter describes the process of selling belongings. The
items pile up in the yard, selling for ridiculously low prices. Whatever is
not sold must be burned, even items of sentimental value that simply cannot
be taken on the journey for lack of space.
Chapter Ten: Ma Joad tells Tom that she is concerned about going to
California, worried that it won't turn out well, for the only information
they have is from flyers they read. Casy asks to accompany them to
California. He wants to work in the fields, where he can listen to people
rather than preach to them. Tom says that preaching is a tone of voice and
a style, being good to people when they don't respond to it. Pa and Uncle
John return with the truck, and prepare to leave. The two children, twelve-
year old Ruthie and ten-year old Winfield are there with their older
sister, Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) and her husband. They discuss how Tom
can't leave the state because of his parole. They have a family conference
that night and discuss a number of issues: they decide to allow Casy to go
with them, since it's the only right thing for them to do. They continue
with preparations, killing the pigs to have food to take with them. While
Casy helps out Ma Joad with food preparation, he remarks to Tom that she
looks tired, as if she is sick. Ma Joad looks through her belongings, going
through old letters and clippings she had saved. She has to place them in
the fire. Before they leave, Muley Graves stops to say goodbye. Noah tells
him that he's going to die out in the field if he stays, but Muley accepts
his fate. Grampa refuses to leave, so they decide to give him medicine that
will knock him out and take him with them.
Chapter Eleven: The houses were left vacant. Only the tractor sheds of
gleaming iron and silver were alive. Yet when the tractors are at rest the
life goes out of them. The work is easy and efficient, so easy that the
wonder goes out of the work and so efficient that the wonder goes out of
the land and the working of it. In the tractor man there grows the contempt
that comes to a stranger who has little understanding and no relation to
the land. The abandoned houses slowly fall apart.
Chapter Twelve: Highway 66 is the main migrant road stretching from the
Mississippi to Bakersfield, California. It is a road of flight for refugees
from the dust and shrinking land. The people streamed out on 66, possibly
breaking down in their undependable cars on the way. Yet the travelers face
obstacles. California is a big state, but not big enough to support all of
the workers who are coming. The border patrol can turn people back. The
high wages that are promised may be false.
Chapter Thirteen: The Joads continue on their travels. Al remarks that they
may have trouble getting over mountains in their car, which can barely
support its weight. Grampa Joad wakes up and insists that he's not going
with them. They stop at a gas station where the owner automatically assumes
they are broke, and tells them that people often stop, begging for gas. The
owner claims that fifty cars per day go west, but wonders what they expect
when they reach their destination. He tells how one family traded their
daughter's doll for some gas. Casy wonders what the nation is coming to, since people seem unable to make a decent living. Casy says that he used to
use his energy to fight against the devil, believing that the devil was the
enemy. However, now he believes that there's something worse. The Joad's
dog wanders from the car and is run over in the road. They continue on
their journey and begin to worry when they reach the state line. However,
Tom reassures them that he is only in danger if he commits a crime.
Otherwise, nobody will know that he has broken his parole by leaving the
state. On their next stop for the night, the Joads meet the Wilsons, a
family from Kansas that is going to California. Grampa complains of
illness, and weeps. The family thinks that he may suffer a stroke. Granma
tells Casy to pray for Grampa, even if he is no longer a preacher. Suddenly
Grampa starts twitching and slumps. He dies. The Joads face a choice: they
can pay fifty dollars for a proper burial for him or have him buried a
pauper. They decide to bury Grampa themselves and leave a note so that
people don't assume he was murdered. The Wilsons help them bury Grampa.
They write a verse from scripture on the note on his grave. After burying
Grampa, they have Casy say a few words. The reactions to the death are
varied. Rose of Sharon comforts Granma, while Uncle John is curiously
unmoved by the turn of events. Casy admits that he knew Grampa was dying, but didn't say anything because he couldn't have helped. He blames the
separation from the land for Grampa's death. The Joads and the Sairy Wilson
decide to help each other on the journey by spreading out the load between
their two cars so that both families will make it to California.
Chapter Fourteen: The Western States are nervous about the impending
changes, including the widening government, growing labor unity, and
strikes. However, they do not realize that these are results of change and
not causes of it. The cause is the hunger of the multitude. The danger that
they face is that the people's problems have moved from "I" to "we."
Chapter Fifteen: This chapter begins with a description of the hamburger
stands and diners on Route 66. The typical diner is run by a usually
irritated woman who nevertheless becomes friendly when truck drivers
consistent customers who can always pay enter. The more wealthy travelers
drop names and buy vanity products. The owners of the diners complain about
the migrating workers, who can't pay and often steal. A family comes in, wanting to buy a loaf of bread. The one owner, Mae, tells them that they're
not a grocery store, but Al, the other, tells them to just sell the bread.
Mae sells the family candy for reduced prices. Mae and Al wonder what such
families will do once they reach California.
Chapter Sixteen: The Joads and the Wilsons continue on their travels. Rose
of Sharon discusses with her mother what they will do when they reach
California. She and Connie want to live in a town, where he can get a job
in a store or a factory. He wants to study at home, possibly taking a radio
correspondence course. There is a rattling in the Wilson's car, so Al is
forced to pull over. There are problems with the motor. Sairy Wilson tells
them that they should go on ahead without them, but Ma Joad refuses, telling them that they are like family now and they won't desert them. Tom
says that he and Casy will stay with the truck if everyone goes on ahead.
They'll fix the car and then move on. Only Ma objects. She refuses to go, for the only thing that they have left is each other and she will not break
up the family even momentarily. When everyone else objects to her, she even
picks up a jack handle and threatens them. Tom and Casy try to fix the car, and Casy remarks about how he has seen so many cars moving west, but no
cars going east. Casy predicts that all of the movement and collection of
people in California will change the country. The two of them stay with the
car while the family goes ahead. Before they leave, Al tells Tom that Ma is
worried that he will do something that might break his parole. Granma has
been going crazy, yelling and talking to herself.
Al asks Tom about what he felt when he killed a man. Tom admits that prison
has a tendency to drive a man insane. Tom and Al find a junkyard where they
find a part to replace the broken con-rod in the Wilson's car. The one-eyed
man working at the junkyard complains about his boss, and says that he
might kill him. Tom tells off the one-eyed man for blaming all of his
problems on his eye, and then criticizes Al for his constant worry that
people will blame him for the car breaking down. Tom, Casy and Al rejoin
the rest of the family at a campground not far away. To stay at the
campground, the three would have to pay an additional charge, for they
would be charged with vagrancy if they slept out in the open. Tom, Casy and
Uncle John eventually decide to go on ahead and meet up with everyone else
in the morning. A ragged man at the camp, when he hears that the Joads are
going to pick oranges in California, laughs. The man, who is returning from
California, tells how the handbills are a fraud. They ask for eight hundred
people, but get several thousand people who want to work. This drives down
wages. The proprietor of the campground suspects that the ragged man is
trying to stir up trouble for labor.
Chapter Seventeen: A strange thing happened for the migrant laborers.
During the day, as they traveled, the cars were separate and lonely, yet in
the evening a strange thing happened: at the campgrounds where they stayed
the twenty or so families became one. Their losses and their concerns
became communal. The families were at first timid, but they gradually built
small societies within the campgrounds, with codes of behavior and rights
that must be observed. For transgressions, there were only two punishments:
violence or ostracism. Leaders emerged, generally the wise elders. The
various families found connections to one another
Chapter Eighteen: When the Joads reach Arizona, a border guard stops them
and nearly turns them back, but does let them continue. They eventually
reach the desert of California. The terrain is barren and desolate. While
washing themselves during a stop, the Joads encounter migrant workers who
want to turn back. They tell them that the Californians hate the migrant
workers. A good deal of the land is owned by the Land and Cattle Company
that leaves the land largely untouched. Sheriffs push around migrant
workers, whom they derisively call "Okies." Noah tells Tom that he is going
to leave everyone, for they don't care about him. Although Tom protests,
Noah leaves them. Granma remains ill, suffering from delusions. She
believes that she sees Grampa. A Jehovite woman visits their tent to help
Granma, and tells Ma that she will die soon. The woman wants to organize a
prayer meeting, but Ma orders them not to do so. Nevertheless, soon she can
hear from a distance chanting and singing that eventually descends into
crying. Granma whines with the whining, then eventually falls asleep. Rose
of Sharon wonders where Connie is. Deputies come to the tent and tell Ma
that they cannot stay there and that they don't want any Okies around. Tom
returns to the tent after the policeman leaves, and is glad that he wasn't
there; he admits that he would have hit the cop. He tells Ma about Noah.
The Wilsons decide to remain even if they face arrest, since Sairy is too
sick to leave without any rest. Sairy asks Casy to say a prayer for her.
The Joads move on, and at a stop a boy remarks how hard-looking Okies are
and how they are less than human. Uncle John speaks with Casy, worried that
he brings bad luck to people. Connie and Rose of Sharon need privacy. Yet
again the Joads are pulled over for inspection, but Ma Joad insists that
they must continue because Granma needs medical attention. The next morning
when they reach the orange groves, Ma tells them that Granma is dead. She
died before they were pulled over for inspection.
Chapter Nineteen: California once belonged to Mexico and its land to the
Mexicans. But a horde of tattered feverish American poured in, with such
great hunger for the land that they took it. Farming became an industry as
the Americans took over. They imported Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and
Filipino workers who became essentially slaves. The owners of the farms
ceased to be farmers and became businessmen. They hated the Okies who came
because they could not profft from them. Other laborers hated the Okies
because they pushed down wages. While the Californians had aspirations of
social success and luxury, the barbarous Okies only wanted land and food.
Hoovervilles arose at the edge of every town. The Okies were forced to
secretly plant gardens in the evenings. The deputies overreacted to the
Okies, spurred by stories that an eleven year old Okie shot a deputy. The
great owners realized that when property accumulates in too few hands it is
taken away and that when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they
will take by force what they need.
Chapter Twenty: The Joads take Granma to the Bakersfield coroner's office.
They can't afford a funeral for her. They go to a camp to stay and ask
about work. They ask a bearded man if he owns the camp and whether they can
stay, and he replies with the same question to them. A younger man tells
them that the crazy old man is called the Mayor. According to the man, the
Mayor has likely been pushed by the police around so much that he's been
made bull-simple (crazy). The police don't want them to settle down, for
then they could draw relief, organize and vote. The younger man tells them
about the handbill fraud, and Tom suggests that everybody organize so that
they could guarantee higher wages. The man warns Tom about the blacklist.
If he is labeled an agitator he will be prevented from getting from
anybody. Tom talks to Casy, who has recently been relatively quiet. Casy
says that the people unorganized are like an army without a harness. Casy
says that he isn't helping out the family and should go off by himself. Tom
tries to convince him to stay at least until the next day, and he relents.
Connie regrets his decision to come with the Joads. He says that if he had
stayed in Oklahoma he could have worked as a tractor driver. When Ma is
fixing dinner, groups of small children approach, asking for food. The
children tell the Joads about Weedpatch, a government camp that is nearby
where no cops can push people around and there is good drinking water. Al
goes around looking for girls, and brags about how Tom killed a man. Al
meets a man named Floyd Knowles, who tells them that there was no steady
work. A woman reprimands Ma Joad for giving her children stew. Al brings
Floyd back to the family, where he says that there will be work up north
around Santa Clara Valley. He tells them to leave quietly, because everyone
else will follow after the work. Al wants to go with Floyd no matter what.
A man arrives in a Chevrolet coupe, wearing a business suit. He tells them
about work picking fruit around Tulare County. Floyd tells the man to show
his license -this is one of the tricks that the contractor uses. Floyd
points out some of the dirty tactics that the contractor is using, such as
bringing along a cop. The cop forces Floyd into the car and says that the
Board of Health might want to shut down their camp. Floyd punched the cop
and ran off. As the deputy chased after him, Tom tripped him. The deputy
raised his gun to shoot Floyd and fires indiscriminately, shooting a woman
in the hand. Suddenly Casy kicked the deputy in the back of the neck, knocking him unconscious. Casy tells Tom to hide, for the contractor saw
him trip the deputy. More officers come to the scene, and they take away
Casy, who has a faint smile and a look of pride. Rose of Sharon wonders
where Connie has gone. She has not seen him recently. Uncle John admits
that he had five dollars. He kept it to get drunk. Uncle John gives them
the five in exchange for two, which is enough for him. Al tells Rose of
Sharon that he saw Connie, who was leaving. Pa claims that Connie was too
big for his overalls, but Ma scolds him, telling him to act respectfully, as if Connie were dead. Because the cops are going to burn the camp
tonight, they have to leave. Tom goes to find Uncle John, who has gone off
to get drunk. Tom finds him by the river, singing morosely. He claims that
he wants to die. Tom has to hit him to make him come. Rose of Sharon wants
to wait for Connie to return. They leave the camp, heading north toward the
government camp.
Chapter Twenty-One: The hostility that the migrant workers faced changed
them. They were united as targets of hostility, and this unity made the
little towns of Hoovervilles defend themselves. There was panic when the
migrants multiplied on the highways. The California residents feared them, thinking them dirty, ignorant degenerates and sexual maniacs. The number of
migrant workers caused the wages to go down. The owners invented a new
method: the great owners bought canneries, where they kept the price of
fruit down to force smaller farmers out. The owners did not know that the
line between hunger and anger is a thin one.
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Joads reach the government camp, where they are
surprised to find that there are toilets and showers and running water. The
watchman at the camp explains some of the other features of the camp: there
is a central committee elected by the camp residents that keeps order and
makes rules, and the camp even holds dance nights. The next morning, two
camp residents (Timothy and Wilkie Wallace) give Tom breakfast and tell him
about work. When they reach the fields where they are to work, Mr. Thomas, the contractor, tells them that he is reducing wages from thirty to twenty-
five cents per hour. It is not his choice, but rather orders from the
Farmers' Association, which is owned by the Bank of the West. Thomas also
shows them a newspaper, which has a story about a band of citizens who burn
a squatters' camp, infuriated by presumed communist agitation, and warns
them about the dance at the government camp on Saturday night. There will
be a fight in the camp so that the deputies can go in. The Farmers'
Association dislikes the government camps because the people in the camps
become used to being treated humanely and are thus harder to handle. Tom
and the Wallaces vow to make sure that there won't be a fight.
While they work, Wilkie tells Tom that the complaints about agitators are
false. According to the rich owners, any person who wants thirty cents an
hour instead of twenty-five is a red. Back at the camp, Ruthie and Winfield
explore the camp, and are fascinated by the toilets they are frightened by
the flushing sound. Ma Joad makes the rest of the family clean themselves
up before the Ladies Committee comes to visit her. Jim Rawley, the camp
manager, introduces himself to the Joads and tells them some of the
features of the camp. Rose of Sharon goes to take a bath, and learns that a
nurse visits the camp every week and can help her deliver the baby when it
is time. Ma remarks that she no longer feels ashamed, as she had when they
were constantly harassed by the police. Lisbeth Sandry, a religious zealot, speaks with Rose of Sharon about the alleged sin that goes on during the
dances, and complains about people putting on stage plays, which she calls
Њsin and delusion and devil stuff.' The woman even blames playacting for a
mother dropping her child. Rose of Sharon becomes frightened upon hearing
this, fearing that she will drop her child. Jessie Bullitt, the head of the
Ladies Committee, gives Ma Joad a tour of the camp and explains some of the
problems. Jessie bickers with Ella Summers, the previous committee head.
The children play and bicker. Pa comforts Uncle John, who still wants to
leave, thinking that he will bring the family punishment. Ma Joad confronts
Lisbeth Sandry for frightening Rose and for preaching that every action is
sinful. Ma becomes depressed about all of the losses Granma and Grampa,
John and Connie because she now has leisure time to think about such
things.
Chapter Twenty-Three: The migrant workers looked for amusement wherever
they could find it, whether in jokes or stories for amusement. They told
stories of heroism in taming the land against the Indians, or about a rich
man who pretended to be poor and fell in love with a rich woman who was
also pretending to be poor. The workers took small pleasures in playing the
harmonica or a more precious guitar or fiddle, or even in getting drunk.
Chapter Twenty-Four: The rumors that the police were going to break up the
dance reached the camp. According to Ezra Huston, the chairman of the
Central Committee, this is a frequent tactic that the police use. Huston
tells Willie Eaton, the head of the entertainment committee, that if he
must hit a deputy, do so where they won't bleed. The camp members say that
the Californians hate them because the migrants might draw relief without
paying income tax, but they refute this, claiming that they pay sales tax
and tobacco tax. At the dance, Willie Eaton approaches Tom and tells him
where to watch for intruders. Ma comforts Rose of Sharon, who is depressed
about Connie. Tom finds the intruders at the dance, but the intruders begin
a fight and immediately the police enter the camp. Huston confronts the
police about the intruders, asking who paid them. They only admit that they
have to make money somehow. Once the problem is defused, the dance goes on
without any problems.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Spring is beautiful in California, for behind the
fruitfulness of the trees in the orchards are men of understanding who
experiment with the seeds and crops to defend them against insects and
disease. Yet the fruits become rotten and soft. The rotten grapes are still
used for wine, even if contaminated with mildew and formic acid. The
rationale is that it is good enough for the poor to get drunk. The decay of
the fruit spreads over the state. The men who have created the new fruits
cannot create a system whereby the fruits may be eaten. There is a crime
here that goes beyond denunciation, a sorrow that weeping cannot symbolize.
Children must die from pellagra because the profft cannot be taken from an
orange.
Chapter Twenty-Six: One evening, Ma Joad watches Winfield as he sleeps; he
writhes as he sleeps, and he seems discolored. In the month that the Joads
have been in Weedpatch, Tom has had only five days of work, and the rest of
the men have had none. Ma worries because Rose of Sharon is close to
delivering her baby. Ma reprimands them for becoming discouraged. She tells
them that in such circumstances they don't have the right. Pa fears that
they will have to leave Weedpatch. When Tom mentions work in Marysville, Ma
decides that they will go there, for despite the accommodations at
Weedpatch, they have no opportunity to make money. They plan to go north, where the cotton will soon be ready for harvest. Regarding Ma Joad's
forceful control of the family, Pa remarks that women seem to be in
control, and it may be time to get out a stick. Ma hears this, and tells
him that she is doing her job as wife, but he certainly isn't doing his job
as husband. Rose of Sharon complains that if Connie hadn't left they would
have had a house by now. Ma pierces Rose of Sharon's ears so that she can
wear small gold earrings. Al parts ways with a blonde girl that he has been
seeing; she rejects his promises that they will eventually get married. He
promises her that he'll return soon, but she does not believe him. Pa
remarks that he only notices that he stinks now that he takes regular
baths. Before they leave, Willie remarks that the deputies don't bother the
residents of Weedpatch because they are united, and that their solution may
be a union.
The car starts to break down as the Joads leave Al has let the battery run
down but he fixes the problem and they continue on their way. Al is
irritable as they leave. He says that he's going out on his own soon to
start a family. On the road, they get a flat tire. While Tom fixes the
tire, a businessman stops in his car and offers them a job picking peaches
forty miles north. They reach the ranch at Pixley where they are to pick
oranges for five cents a box. Even the women and children can do the job.
Ruthie and Winfield worry about settling down in the area and going to
school in California. They assume that everyone will call them Okies. At
the nearby grocery store owned by Hooper Ranch, Ma finds that the prices
are much higher than they would be at the store in town. The sales clerk
lends Ma ten cents for sugar. She tells him that it is only poor people who
will help out. That night, Tom goes for a walk, but a deputy tells him to
walk back to the cabin at the ranch. The deputy claims that if Tom is
alone, the reds will get to him.
While continuing on his walk, Tom finds Casy, who has been released from
jail. He is with a group of men that are on strike. Casy claims that people
who strive for justice always face opposition, citing Lincoln and
Washington, as well as the martyrs of the French Revolution. Casy, Tom and
the rest of the strikers are confronted by the police. A short, heavy man
with a white pick handle swings it at Casy, hitting him in the head. Tom
fights with the man, and eventually wrenches the club from him and strikes
him with it, killing him. Tom immediately fled the scene, crawling through
a stream to get back to the cabin. He cannot sleep that night, and in the
morning tells Ma that he has to hide. He tells her that he was spotted, and
warns his family that they are breaking the strike they are getting five
cents a box only because of this, and today may only get half that amount.
When Tom tells Ma that he is going to leave that night, she tells him that
they aren't a family anymore: Al cares about nothing more than girls, Uncle
John is only dragging along, Pa has lost his place as the head of the
family, and the children are becoming unruly. Rose of Sharon screams at Tom
for murdering the man she thinks that his sin will doom her baby. After a
day of work, Winfield becomes extremely sick from eating peaches. Uncle
John tells Tom that when the police catch him, there will be a lynching.
Tom insists that he must leave, but Ma insists that they leave as a family.
They hide Tom as they leave, taking the back roads to avoid police.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Those who want to pick cotton must first purchase a
bag before they can make money. The men who weigh the cotton fix the scales
to cheat the workers. The introduction of a cotton-picking machine seems
inevitable.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Joads now stay in a boxcar that stood beside the
stream, a small home that proved better than anything except for the
government camp. They were now picking cotton. Winfield tells Ma that
Ruthie told about Tom she got into an argument with some other kids, and
told them that her brother was on the run for committing murder. Ruthie
returns to Ma, crying that the kids stole her Cracker Jack the reason that
she threatened them by telling about Tom but Ma tells her that it was her
own fault for showing off her candy to others. That night, in the pitch
black, Ma Joad goes out into the woods and finds Tom, who has been hiding
out there. She crawls close to him and wants to touch him to remember what
he looked like. She wants to give him seven dollars to take the bus and get
away. He tells her that he has been thinking about Casy, and remembered how
Casy said that he went out into the woods searching for his soul, but only
found that he had no individual soul, but rather part of a larger one. Tom
has been wondering why people can't work together for their living, and
vows to do what Casy had done. He leaves, but promises to return to the
family when everything has blown over. As she left, Ma Joad did not cry, but rain began to fall. When she returned to the boxcar, she meets Mr. and
Mrs. Wainwright, who have come to talk to the Joads about their daughter,
Aggie, who has been spending time with Al. They're worried that the two
families will part and then find out that Aggie is pregnant. Ma tells them
that she found Tom and that he is gone. Pa laments leaving Oklahoma, while
Ma says that women can deal with change better than a man, because women
have their lives in their arms, and men have it in their heads. For women, change is more acceptable because it seems inevitable. Al and Aggie return
to the boxcar, and they announce that they are getting married. They go out
before dawn to pick cotton before everyone else can get the rest, and Rose
of Sharon vows to go with them, even though she can barely move. When they
get to the place where the cotton is being picked, there are already a
number of families. While picking cotton, it suddenly starts to rain, causing Rose of Sharon to fall ill. Everybody assumes that she is about to
deliver, but she instead suffers from a chill. They take her back to the
boxcar and start a fire to get her warm.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: The migrant families wondered how long the rain would
last. The rain damaged cars and penetrated tents. During the rain storms
some people went to relief offices, but there were rules: one had to live
in California a year before he could collect relief. The greatest terror
had arrived no work would be available for three months. Hungry men
crowded the alleys to beg for bread; a number of people died. Anger
festered, causing sheriffs to swear in new deputies. There would be no work
and no food.
Chapter Thirty: After three days of rain, the Wainwrights decide that they
have to keep on going. They fear that the creek will flood. Rose of Sharon
goes into labor, and the Joads cannot leave. Pa Joad and the rest of the
man at the camp build up the embankment to prevent flooding, but the water
breaks through. Pa, Al and Uncle John rush toward the car, but it cannot
start. They reach the boxcar and find that Rose of Sharon delivered a
stillborn baby. They realize that the car will eventually flood, and Mr.
Wainwright blames Pa Joad for asking them to stay and help, but Mrs.
Wainwright offers them help. She tells Ma Joad that it once was the case
that family came first. Now they have greater concerns. Uncle John places
the dead baby in an apple box and floats it down the flooded stream as Al
and build a platform on the top of the car. As the flood waters rise, the
family remains on the platform. The family finds a barn for refuge until
the rain stops. In the corner of the barn there are a starving man and a
boy. Ma and Rose of Sharon realize what she must do. Ma makes everybody
leave the barn, while Rose of Sharon gives the dying man her breast milk.
The Great Gatsby
Summary
Chapter One: The novel begins with a personal note by the narrator, Nick
Carraway. He relates that he has a tendency to reserve all judgments
against people and that he has been conditioned to be understanding toward
those who haven't had his advantages. Carraway came from a prominent family
from the Midwest, graduated from Yale and fought in the Great War. After
the war and a period of restlessness, he decided to go East to learn the
bond business. At the book's beginning, Carraway has just arrived in New
York, living in West Egg village. He was going to have dinner with Tom
Buchanan and his wife Daisy. Tom was an enormously wealthy man and a noted
football player at Yale, and Daisy was Carraway's second cousin. Jordan
mentions that, since Carraway lives in West Egg, he must know Gatsby.
Another woman, Jordan Baker, is also there. She tells Nick that Tom is
having an affair with some woman in New York. Tom discusses the book "The
Rise of the Colored Empires," which claims that the colored races will
submerge the white race eventually. Daisy talks to Carraway alone, and
claims that she has become terribly cynical and sophisticated. After
visiting with the Buchanans, Carraway goes home to West Egg, where he sees
Gatsby come from his mansion alone, looking at the sea. He stretches out
his arms toward the water, looking at a faraway green light.
Chapter Two: Fitzgerald begins this second chapter with the description of
a road running between West Egg and New York City. A large, decaying
billboard showing two eyes (advertising an optometrist's practice)
overlooks the desolate area. It is here, at a gas station, where Tom
Buchanan introduces Nick Carraway to Myrtle Wilson, the woman with whom he
is having an affair. Myrtle herself is married to George B. Wilson, an auto
mechanic. Tom has Myrtle meet them in the city, where Tom buys her a dog.
They go to visit Myrtle's sister and also visit her neighbors, Catherine
McKee and her husband, who is an artist. They gossip about Gatsby, and
Myrtle discusses her husband, claiming that she was crazy to marry him, and
how she met Tom. Later, Myrtle and Tom argue about whether or not she has a
right to say Daisy's name, and he breaks Myrtle's nose.
Chapter Three: Nick Carraway describes the customs of Gatsby's weekly
parties: the arrival of crates of oranges and lemons, a corps of caterers
and a large orchestra. On the first night that Carraway visits Gatsby's
house, he was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. When he
arrives, he sees Jordan Baker, who had recently lost a golf tournament.
They hear more gossip about Jay Gatsby he supposedly killed a man, or was
a German spy. Jordan and Nick look through Gatsby's library, where she
thinks that his books are not real. Later in the party, a man who
recognized Nick from the war talks to him Nick does not know that it is
Gatsby. Suddenly, after he identifies himself, Gatsby gets a phone call
from Chicago. Afterwards, Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan Baker alone. When
she finishes talking to Gatsby, she tells Nick that she heard the most
amazing thing and says that she wishes to see him. Guests leaving the party
have a car wreck in Gatsby's driveway. This was merely one event in a
crowded summer. Carraway, who spent most of his time working, began to like
New York. For a while he lost sight of Jordan Baker. He was not in love
with her, but had some curiosity toward her.
Chapter Four: At a Sunday morning party at Gatsby's, young women gossip
about Gatsby (he's a bootlegger who killed a man who found out that he was
a nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil). One morning
Gatsby comes to take Nick for lunch. He shows off his car: it had a rich
cream color and was filled with boxes from Gatsby's purchases. Gatsby asks
Nick what his opinion of him is, and Nick is evasive. Gatsby gives his
story: he is the son of wealthy people in the Middle West, brought up in
America and educated at Oxford. Carraway does not believe him, for he
chokes on his words. Gatsby continues: he lived in the capitals of Europe, then enlisted in the war effort, where he was promoted to major and given a
number of declarations (from every Allied government, even Montenegro).
Gatsby admits that he usually finds himself among strangers because he
drifts from here to there, and that something happened to him that Jordan
Baker will tell Nick at lunch. They drive out past the valley of ashes and
Nick even glimpses Myrtle Wilson. When Gatsby is stopped for speeding, he
flashes a card to the policeman, who then does not give him a ticket.
At lunch, Gatsby introduces Carraway to Meyer Wolfsheim, a small, flat-
nosed Jew. He talks of the days at the Metropole when they shot Rosy
Rosenthal, and proudly mentions his cufflinks, which are made from human
molars. Wolfsheim is a gambler, the man who fixed the 1919 World Series.
Tom Buchanan is also there, and Nick introduces him to Gatsby, who appears
quite uncomfortable and then suddenly disappears. Jordan Baker tells the
story about Gatsby: Back in 1917, Daisy was eighteen and Jordan sixteen.
They were volunteering with the Red Cross, making bandages, and Daisy asked
Jordan to cover for her that day. She was meeting with Jay Gatsby, and
there were wild rumors that she was going to run off to New York with him.
On Daisy's wedding day to Tom, she nearly changes her mind, and goes into
hysterics. According to Jordan, Gatsby bought his house just to be across
the bay from Daisy. Nick becomes more drawn to Jordan, with her scornful
and cynical manner. Jordan tells Nick that he is supposed to arrange a
meeting between Gatsby and Daisy.
Chapter Five: Nick speaks with Gatsby about arranging a meeting with Daisy, and tries to make it as convenient for Nick as possible. Gatsby even offers
him a job, a "confidential sort of thing," although he assures Nick that he
would not have to work with Wolfsheim. On the day that Gatsby and Daisy are
to meet, Gatsby has arranged everything to perfection. They start at Nick's
home, where the conversation between the three (Nick, Gatsby, Daisy) is
stilted and awkward. They are all embarrassed, and Nick tells Gatsby that
he's behaving like a little boy. They go over to Gatsby's house, where
Gatsby gives a tour. Nick asks Gatsby more questions about his business, and he snaps back "that's my affair," before giving a half-hearted
explanation. Gatsby shows Daisy newspaper clippings about his exploits, and
has Ewing Klipspringer, a boarder, play the piano for them. One of the
notable mementos that Gatsby shows Daisy is a photograph of him with Dan
Cody, his closest friend, on a yacht. As they leave, Carraway realizes that
there must have been moments when Daisy disappointed Gatsby during the
afternoon, for his dreams and illusions had been built up to such grandiose
levels.
Chapter Six: On a vague hunch, a reporter comes to Gatsby's home asking him
if he had a statement to give out. The actual story of Gatsby is revealed:
he was born James Gatz in North Dakota. He had his named legally changed at
the age of seventeen. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm
people, and the young man was consumed by fancies of what he might achieve.
His life changed when he rowed out to Dan Cody's yacht on Lake Superior.
Cody was then fifty, a product of the Nevada silver fields and of the Yukon
gold rush. Cody took Gatsby in and brought him to the West Indies and the
Barbary Coast as a personal assistant. When Cody died, Gatsby inherited
$25,000, but didn't get it because Cody's mistress, Ella Kaye, claimed all
of it. Gatsby told Nick this much later.
Nick had not seen Gatsby for several weeks when he went over to his house.
Tom Buchanan arrived there. He had been horseback riding with a woman and a
Mr. Sloane. Gatsby invites the group to supper, but the lady counters with
an offer of supper at her home. Mr. Sloane seems quite opposed to the idea, so Nick turns down the offer, but Gatsby accepts. Tom complains about the
crazy people that Daisy meets, presumably meaning Gatsby. On the following
Saturday Tom accompanies Daisy to Gatsby's party. Tom is unpleasant and
rude during the evening. Tom suspects that Gatsby is a bootlegger, since he
is one of the new rich. After the Buchanans leave, Gatsby is disappointed, thinking that Daisy surely did not enjoy herself. Nick realizes that Gatsby
wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should tell Tom that she never
loved him. Nick tells Gatsby that he can't ask too much of Daisy, and that
"you can't repeat the past," to which Gatsby replies: "Of course you can!"
Chapter Seven: It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that
he failed to give a Saturday night party. Nick goes over to see if Gatsby
is sick, and learns that Gatsby had dismissed every servant in his house
and replaced them with a half dozen others who would not gossip, for Daisy
had been visiting in the afternoons. Daisy invites Gatsby, Nick and Jordan
to lunch. At the lunch, Tom is supposedly on the telephone with Myrtle
Wilson. Daisy shows of her daughter, who is dressed in white, to her
guests. Tom claims that he read that the sun is getting hotter and soon the
earth will fall into it or rather that the sun is getting colder. Daisy
makes an offhand remark that she loves Gatsby, which Tom overhears. When
Tom goes inside to get a drink, Nick remarks that Daisy has an indiscreet
voice. Gatsby says that her voice is "full of money." They all go to town:
Nick and Jordan in Tom's car, Daisy in Gatsby's. On the way, Tom tells Nick
that he has investigated Gatsby, who is certainly no Oxford man, as is
rumored. They stop to get gas at Wilson's garage. Mr. Wilson wants to buy
Tom's car, for he has financial troubles and he and Myrtle want to go west.
Wilson tells Tom that he "just got wised up" to something recently, the
reason why he and Myrtle want to get away.
While leaving the garage, they see Myrtle peering down at the car from her
window. Her expression was one of jealous terror toward Jordan Baker, whom
she took to be his wife.
Feeling that both his wife and mistress are slipping away from him, Tom
feels panicked and impatient. To escape from the summer heat, they go to a
suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom begins to confront Gatsby, irritated at his
constant use of the term "old sport." Tom attempts to expose Gatsby as a
liar concerning Gatsby's experience at Oxford. Tom rambles on about the
decline of civilization, and how there may even be intermarriage between
races. Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy doesn't love him, and never loved him
the only reason why she married him was because Gatsby was poor and Daisy
was tired of waiting. Daisy hints that there has been trouble in her and
Tom's past, and then tells Tom that she never loved him. However, she does
concede that she did love Tom once. Gatsby tells Tom that he is not going
to take care of Daisy anymore and that Daisy is leaving him. Tom calls
Gatsby a "common swindler" and a bootlegger involved with Meyer Wolfsheim.
Nick realizes that today is his thirtieth birthday.
The young Greek, Michaelis, who ran the coffee joint next to Wilson's
garage was the principal witness at the inquest. While Wilson and his wife
were fighting, she ran out in the road and was hit by a light green car.
She was killed. Tom and Nick learn this when they drive past on their way
back from the city. Tom realizes that it was Gatsby who hit Myrtle. When
Nick returns home, he sees Gatsby, who explains what happened. Daisy was
driving the car when they hit Myrtle.
Chapter Eight: Nick cannot sleep that night. Toward dawn he hears a taxi go
up Gatsby's drive, and he immediately feels that he has something to warn
Gatsby about. Gatsby is still there, watching Daisy's mansion across the
bay. Nick warns him to get away for a week, since his car will inevitably
be traced, but he refuses to consider it. He cannot leave Daisy until he
knew what she would do. It was then when Gatsby told his entire history to
Nick. Gatsby still refuses to believe that Daisy ever loved Tom. After the
war Gatsby searched for Daisy, only to find that she had married Tom. Nick
leaves reluctantly, having to go to work that morning. Before he leaves,
Nick tells Gatsby that he's "worth the whole damn bunch put together." At
work, Nick gets a call from Jordan, and they have a tense conversation.
That day Michaelis goes to comfort Wilson, who is convinced that his wife
was murdered. He had found the dog collar that Tom had bought Myrtle hidden
the day before, which prompted their sudden decision to move west. Wilson
looks out at the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg and tells Michaelis that "God sees
everything." Wilson left, "acting crazy" (according to witnesses), and
found his way to Gatsby's house. Gatsby had gone out to the pool for one
last swim before draining it for the fall. Wilson shot him, and then shot
himself.
Chapter Nine: Most of the reports of the murder were grotesque and untrue.
Nick finds himself alone on Gatsby's side. Tom and Daisy suddenly left
town. Meyer Wolfsheim is difficult to contact, and offers assistance, but
cannot become too involved because of current entanglements. Nick tracks
down Gatsby's father, Henry C. Gatz, a solemn old man, helpless and
dismayed by news of the murder. Gatz says that his son would have "helped
build up the country." Klipspringer, the boarder, leaves suddenly and only
returns to get his tennis shoes. Nick goes to see Wolfsheim, who claims
that he made Gatsby. He tells Nick "let he learn to show our friendship for
a man when he is alive and not after he is dead," and politely refuses to
attend the funeral. Gatz shows Nick his son's daily schedule, in which he
has practically every minute of his day planned. He had a continual
interest in self-improvement. At the funeral, one of the few attendees is
the Owl-Eyed man from Gatsby's first party. Nick thinks about the
differences between the west and the east, and realizes that he, the
Buchanans, Gatsby and Jordan are all Westerners who came east, perhaps
possessing some deficiency which made them unadaptable to Eastern life.
After Gatsby's death the East was haunted and distorted. He meets with
Jordan Baker, who recalls their conversation about how bad drivers are
dangerous only when two of them meet. She tells Nick that the two of them
are both 'bad drivers.' Months later Nick saw Tom Buchanan, and Nick scorns
him, knowing that he pointed Wilson toward Gatsby. Nick realizes that all
of Tom's actions were, to him, justified. Nick leaves New York to return
West.
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