A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water.
Chapter 8 · Narrator
Context
Continuing the description of Gatsby's body floating on the pool mattress, Nick notes how natural forces—wind, leaves—move the mattress and trace a circle of blood in the water. The falling autumn leaves are the very reason the gardener had wanted to drain the pool that morning.
Analysis
The repetition of 'accidental' strips Gatsby's death of all grandeur and meaning—reducing it from romantic tragedy to mere contingency, a body acted upon by random forces no different from wind or falling leaves. The 'thin red circle' traced by the leaves functions as a grim ironic symbol: the surveyor's instrument ('leg of transit') that measures and maps territory here inscribes only death's circumference, suggesting that Gatsby's final property measurement encompasses nothing more than the space of his own bleeding body—the ultimate reduction of his territorial ambitions.
How to Use in Essay
Excellent for essays on how the novel denies Gatsby a meaningful death, reducing his romantic grandeur to physical accident, or for analyzing how the imagery of autumn leaves connects to the chapter's insistence that Gatsby's time—like summer itself—has simply run out.