Daisy hits and kills Myrtle Wilson with Gatsby's car

Daisy Buchanan, driving Jay Gatsby's distinctive yellow car, fatally struck Myrtle Wilson on the road through the Valley of Ashes late on the afternoon of the hottest day of the summer. The accident occurred immediately after the explosive confrontation between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan at the Plaza Hotel, where Daisy had declared she loved Gatsby but then admitted she had once loved Tom as well. The collision was not a deliberate act but a catastrophic consequence of Daisy's emotional turmoil and reckless driving.

The Immediate Circumstances

After the argument at the Plaza Hotel, Tom Buchanan insisted that Daisy drive home with Gatsby in his yellow car. Daisy, described as "very nervous" by Gatsby, thought that driving would steady her. As they passed through the Valley of Ashes, Myrtle Wilson, who had been locked in her room by her husband George Wilson after he discovered her affair, rushed out into the road. She had seen the yellow car approaching and, believing Tom was inside, ran toward it, waving her hands and shouting. Gatsby later explained to Nick Carraway that Daisy first swerved away from Myrtle toward an oncoming car, then lost her nerve and swerved back. Gatsby's hand reached the wheel just as the car struck Myrtle, killing her instantly. The impact was so violent that it ripped open her body; her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and her mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners.

The Aftermath and Gatsby's Decision

Daisy did not stop the car. Gatsby told Nick that after the impact, "Daisy stepped on it. I tried to make her stop, but she couldn't, so I pulled on the emergency brake. Then she fell over into my lap and I drove on." Gatsby immediately decided to take the blame for the accident, telling Nick, "of course I'll say I was." He drove the yellow car to his garage in West Egg by a side road, hoping no one had seen them. That night, he stood vigil outside the Buchanan mansion, watching over Daisy, believing she had locked herself in her room and that Tom might try to harm her. He told Nick he would wait "all night, if necessary. Anyhow, till they all go to bed."

The Fatal Consequences

The accident set in motion a chain of events that led directly to Gatsby's death. George Wilson, Myrtle's husband, became convinced that the driver of the yellow car was Myrtle's lover and her murderer. He traced the car to Gatsby, and later that day, he shot and killed Gatsby in his swimming pool before turning the gun on himself. Tom Buchanan, who had been at the garage after the accident, later told Nick that he had directed Wilson to Gatsby, saying, "I told him the truth." The accident also marked the final dissolution of Gatsby's dream. Daisy, who had been on the verge of leaving Tom, retreated back into her marriage. She and Tom left East Egg early the next day, taking baggage with them, and never contacted Gatsby again. Nick Carraway, reflecting on the tragedy, saw it as the ultimate proof that Tom and Daisy were "careless people" who "smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness."

Thematic Significance

The accident crystallizes the novel's central themes of class, carelessness, and the destructive power of dreams. Daisy, the "golden girl" whose voice is "full of money," is shielded by her wealth and social position from the consequences of her actions. Gatsby, who had built his entire life around the dream of winning Daisy, is destroyed by his willingness to protect her. Myrtle Wilson, a woman from the lower classes who had tried to escape her circumstances through an affair with Tom, becomes the literal victim of the careless rich. The accident also serves as the novel's peripeteia, the tragic reversal that transforms Gatsby's hopeful pursuit of the past into a confrontation with death and loss.