Chapter 9 Pages 163-180

Chapter 9 Pages 163-180

Nick tells the rest of the story from two years later, and he explains that after Gatsby's death many rumors about him surged and they were worse than the rumors about him when he was alive.  Nick also explains that Tom and Daisy had left the day Gatsby died and went to an unknown city.  He also explains that Meyer Wolfsheim will not answer his calls and won't come to the funeral.  Gatsby's father, James Gatz eventually comes and Nick goes to NYC the day of the funeral to talk to Wolfsheim, but Wolfsheim says he will not attend because he doesn't like getting mixed up in those things.  At the funeral, only Nick, Mr. Gatz and Owl-eyes are present.  Nick decides to leave the East because it was haunted for him and before he does he and Jordan have a talk, in which they fight, and he sees Tom one more time.  Nick almost doesn't shake Tom's hand, but in their conversation Tom explains that he told Wilson that Gatsby killed Myrtle.  The book ends with Nick moving away from the East and explaining how Gatsby's dream died.

Mr. Gatz

"When he looked around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms, his grief began to be mixed with an awe pride." (P. 168)

Mr. Gatz is solemn, weak, and proud of Gatsby.

Mr. Gatz is in the novel to provide background on Gatsby and to give us a new view of how intense Gatsby's rise to riches was.  When he looks around Gatsby's house he is astonished and proud.

"And his dream must have been so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.  He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city." (P. 180)  This quote illustrates that Gatsby's quest was doomed from the start and that his efforts to relive the past were in vain.  It is important because Fitzgerald is warning us that we can not live in the past and escape what is reality through elaborate dreams.