2. FUNERAL
• No one that came to Gatsby’s parties is
there because they don’t care; they only
came because of his status and wealth.
• Just like in life, in death he is an element
of gossip with no true friends.
3. • Catherine tries to convince the onlookers and
authorities that Myrtle had never seen Gatsby
and that “her sister was completely happy
with her husband” and “up to no mischief ”.
• It is part true and part false; she tries to cover
up for her sister, making her seem more moral
than she was. She doesn’t want Myrtle’s
reputation to get ruined .
4. • Nick is Gatsby’s only true friend – the only
person that attempts to understand Gatsby’s
motivations.
• He thinks that Gatsby is looking to him to get
attendants at his funeral and keeps hearing
Gatsby’s voice in his head, protesting: “Look
here, old sport, you’ve got to get somebody
for me. You’ve got to try hard. I can’t go
through this alone” (165)
6. TOM AND DAISY
• They have left town and taken baggage –
restless, leave when things get tough.
• They cannot deal with their current
situation and escape it by changing
location.
• They avoid responsibility for their actions
and do not care about Gatsby’s fate.
7. WOLFSHEIM
• Wrote that Gatsby’s death was one of “the most terrible
shocks of [his] life” but refuses to attend because he
claims that he “cannot get mixed up in things now.”
• He is worried that he will be connected to Gatsby’s death
• He might be linked to Gatsby’s bootlegging business and
Wolfsheim is not willing to risk his money and reputation
to attend the funeral of a man he never truly considered a
friend.
• a selfish, his priority is self preservation - like Daisy and
Tom.
9. MR. GATZ
• “a solemn man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long
cheap ulster against the warm September day. His eyes leaked
continuously with excitement, and when I took the bag and umbrella
from his hands he began to pull so incessantly at his sparse gray
beard that I had difficulty in getting his coat off. He was on the point
of collapse.” (167)
• restless and uncomfortable in the presence of Gatsby’s
wealth, moving “ceaselessly” about the room.
• His grief was mixed with awe and pride once he noticed
the splendor of Gatsby’s house.
• He clearly thinks highly of his son and might be unaware
of Gatsby’s motivations and criminal activity.
10. MR. KLIPSPRINGER
• Klipspringer calls to have a pair of shoes that he left
at Gatsby’s house mailed to him.
• He had been a long term guest of Gatsby and doesn’t
even have the decency to attend the funeral.
• Gatsby had been generous, letting Klipspringer live
with him for an extended time; Nick feels shame for
Gatsby because it is clear that all of Gatsby’s friends
took advantage of him.
• He is discarded by his acquaintances once he is useless
to them. Klipspringer has other priorities – a picnic
with the people he is currently staying with.
11. “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after
he is dead” (172)
• Wolfsheim says this to Nick, meaning that he has made a wealthy
gentleman out of Gatsby; therefore, proving his friendship.
• Nick, however, has been a fair weather friend. He was not sincere in
his friendship with Gatsby all the time –he was at first attracted to
his wealth and only later to his charisma and personality.
• Nick has judged and disliked Gatsby and his behavior.
• Now that Gatsby is dead Nick’s guilt forces him to be more
forgiving of Gatsby.
• Wolfsheim is suggesting that Nick’s positive attitude and sympathy
toward Gatsby come to late to do Gatsby any good.
13. GATSBY’S SCHED.
• From a young age, Gatsby was interested in
improving his mind, body and his social status.
• Gatsby was always an organized and ambitious
man that sought self improvement.
• Maybe Nick doesn’t understand Gatsby as well
as he thinks he does.
14. THE MIDWEST
• a memory of coming back to the security of the
familiar; home is connected to identity.
• He calls the Midwest MY Middle West – a sense of
belonging.
• He also suggests that as a Westerner, he was perhaps
not suited to the life style in the East, just like Tom
and Daisy.
• The East is more exciting, but also more dangerous –
it makes people careless, reckless and selfish.
• The Mid West is calmer and comforting.
15. • The East has a “quality of distortion” – something
isn’t right there and people’s priorities are mixed up.
• After Gatsby’s death, the East became haunted for
Nick – distorted.
• The East is associated with a fast-paced lifestyle,
decadent parties, crumbling moral values, and the
pursuit of wealth, while the West and the Midwest are
associated with more traditional moral values.
• Nick cannot live in the East, just like Gatsby
couldn’t live in the past.
17. NICK’S DREAM
“Four men in dress suits are walking
along the sidewalk with a stretcher on
which lies a drunken woman in a white
evening dress. Gravely the men turn in
at a house – the wrong house. But no
one knows the woman’s name, and no
one cares.” (176-77)
18. ANALYSIS
• The woman’s white dress recalls Daisy and her inebriated state
emphasizes the danger and recklessness of the East – like the
automobiles accidents that involve alcohol.
• Also, the fact that the woman is brought to the wrong house
and that no one cares points to the fact that there are no
lasting relationships between the characters.
• The society does not value deep connections, only superficial
ones based on use and need.
• Like Gatsby, the woman has no real friends. The jewels are
cold, since money seems to only cause grief, it does not bring
happiness, warmth, or comfort.
19. THE DOG
“When I went to give up that flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits
sitting there on the sideboard, I sat down and cried like a baby.” (179)
• The dog reminds the readers of Myrtle
• Tom accuses Gatsby of running her over like a
dog
• the dog itself is forgotten, never mentioned
after its initial purchase; it is a living being that
is treated as property and discarded like the rest
of unwanted items
21. NICK ON TOM AND DAISY
• He cannot forgive them or like them anymore and he
makes his animosity known.
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they
smashed up things and creatures and then retreated
back into their money or their vast carelessness, or
whatever it was that kept them together, and let
other people clean up the mess they had made…”
(179)
22. THE FERRY-BOATS AND DUTCH
SETTLERS
• New York is the fresh island that represented
the new world for the Dutch explorers.
• The island was a beacon, full of green trees
and hope – reminiscent of Gatsby’s green light
and the hope that he harbored.
• The island of New York seems to represent
dreams: it is full of the sublime and wonder,
larger than a single human life, enchanting.
23. • Once, the island had lived up to the expectation of
the inhabitants; now the hopes and dreams are broken
on the rocks – the green light has been extinguished
and replaced by greed, money and selfishness – the
green monster.
• New York was once beautiful and full of potential,
now it is dangerous and overpopulated and ashen.
• Gatsby looked for his dreams in the wrong place – he
should have looked behind him, to the fields beyond
the city: the city and the lights are a distraction, nature
is soothing and helps gain perspective.
25. THE END
“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 run faster,
stretch out our arms farther…And one
fine morning – So we beat on, boats
against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past” (180).
26. • Nick returns to the theme of the significance
of the past to dreams of the future -
represented by the green light.
• He focuses on the struggle of human beings to
achieve their goals by both transcending and
re-creating the past.
• Yet humans prove themselves unable to move
beyond the past: the current draws them
backward as they row forward toward the green
light.
27. • The past functions as the source of ideas about the future
(epitomized by Gatsby’s desire to re-create 1917 in his affair
with Daisy) and they cannot escape it as they continue to
struggle to transform their dreams into reality.
• While they never lose their optimism (“tomorrow we will run
faster, stretch out our arms farther . . .”), they expend all of
their energy in pursuit of a goal that moves ever farther away.
• This apt metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle and the
American dream itself.
• Nick’s words register neither blind approval nor cynical
disillusionment but rather the respectful melancholy that he
ultimately brings to his study of Gatsby’s life.