The Great Gatsby: Chapter VII (pages 113-125)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald continues on with more exciting twists and turns in this chapter. The first section of this chapter involves a great deal of tension between Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy due to a great heat wave. Tom makes several comments that pertain to his research on science, and of course none of his information is true. When talking about how hot the day is, Tom states, "'I read somewhere that the sun's getting hotter every year... It seems that pretty soon the earth's going to fall into the sun -- or wait a minute -- it's just the opposite -- the sun's getting colder every year'" (Fitzgerald, 118). This quote is an example of dramatic irony because I know that none of these facts are accurate. First, the sun is not getting colder, nor will it. Second, due to gravity, the Earth will stay at a constant orbit around the sun, so there is no way the "earth's going to fall into the sun." Lastly, the sun may be getting hotter every year, but it is not that extreme to where the tempurature is that noticable. The sun has its own "life" and as it gets "older" it burns hotter. Tom's facts are rediculous and unreliable that he has to correct his own information because he knows it is ludacris.