The Great Gatsby Ch 9 pg 171-189

The chapter begins with photographers and police at Gatsby’s house to investigate the murder. Nick feels responsible to find someone for Gatsby but there’s no one. Daisy and Tom ran away, Wolfshiem’s gone. Nick gets a telegram from Henry C. Gatz, Gatsby’s father. He’s very proud of what he son had accomplished. Klipspringer calls and he’s more concerned with the shoes he left at Gatsby’s rather than Gatsby’s death. Nick went to see Wolfshiem and Wolfshiem tells of how he “made” Gatsby, but he says that he can’t go to the funeral. No one came to Gatsby’s funeral, but owl eyes shows up at the cemetery. Nick decides to go home because the East haunts him after Gatsby’s death. Before he leaves, he talks to Jordan and she tells him she’s engaged to another man. Nick sees Tom and Tom told Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle to save himself. Nick ends the book by talking about Gatsby’s dream.

Henry C. Gatz

“He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked around him no 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 awed pride.” (176)

Henry C. Gatz is a solemn old man, with a thin gray beard. His eyes are filled with excitement and he trembles.

Henry C. Gatz is Gatsby’s father. He represents the one thing in Gatsby’s life that is completely real. He knows who Gatsby really was. He is the only person, besides Nick, who went to Gatsby’s funeral. Out of all of the people who attended Gatsby’s regular Saturday parties, two people showed up. They were the only two people who knew who the real Gatsby was.

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will fun faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning------ So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (189)

This quote was the last paragraph in the book. It stood out to me because it involves the reader. It talks about how all of us will still reach for our goals and dreams, even though we may have failed in the past. It’s human nature for us to chase our dreams, however farfetched they may be. No matter what happens in the past, we will still beat on into the future, ready to take on new challenges and chase even farther fetched dreams.