After Myrtle’s death, Nick is plainly shaken and as a man of moral conscience, he has look at his life and those around him. When Tom, Jordan, and Nick return home after the accident, Tom invites Nick in. This is where Nick shows what he’s really made of. Rather than accept Tom’s invitation, as expected, he tells the reader “I’d be damned if I’d go in; I’d had enough of all of them for one day.” Gone is the fellow who walked the line between the working class and the upper class. Gone is the fellow who withheld judgment because not everyone “had the advantages that [he’s] had.” Finally, Nick has grown up enough to take a clear moral stand. His opinion of the Buchannans becomes clear and continues to ripen until he finally can stand it no longer and heads back to the Midwest at the end of the book (again, Fitzgerald is showing the Midwest as a Utopia).
The final image in the chapter is perhaps the most pathetic in the whole book. For some readers it will tug on their heartstrings, for others it will be a defining moment, showing the true Jay Gatsby. After Jay and Daisy return to East Egg, Gatsby waits outside her house, calling to Nick as he passes. He makes a strikingly odd figure with his pink suit glowing luminously in the moonlight. When Nick inquires as to what he’s doing, Gatsby, ever the dreamer, replies he is keeping watch, in case Daisy should need his help. Although Gatsby has assumed the guise of a knight-errant before, nowhere does he seem so clearly on a quest (and a quest doomed to failure) than right here, willing to sacrifice his own life for Daisy’s. (Besides, what good is a dream that has been destroyed? What’s worth living for?) What escapes Gatsby, but is perfectly clear to Nick, is that his surveillance is unnecessary; there is no chance of Daisy having trouble with Tom. Both Tom and Daisy’s actions at the hotel have shown just how alike they are and in a time of crisis, there is no question they will join together. Daisy is likely unaware (or at least unconcerned) with Gatsby’s feelings; Tom, while perhaps sad about Myrtle’s death, likely sees her as he sees everyone who isn’t of his social class — an expendable object. And so Gatsby, utterly lost now that his dream has died, holds on to the last piece of all he’s ever known as an adult by standing guard at Daisy’s. Unfortunately for him, it will be a long night.
