Summary: Although the majority of the action in the novel has already expired, Nick continues the novel with the story of Gatsby’s funeral and the events surrounding it. Writing from two years later, Nick retells how the lies and rumors that were spread after Gatsby’s death just continued to grow. However, few people show up for Gatsby’s funeral. While attending the funeral, Nick meets Gatsby’s father. Nick breaks off his relationship with Jordan and decides to move back to the Midwest, he has become tired of the east and what it represents. Before leaving, Nick encounter Tom on the streets of New York, and the two talk for awhile. Nick realizes that Tom and Daisy are shallow people who only care about themselves. The chapter, and the novel, ends with Nick making some reflections regarding
Chapter Quote: “I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all-Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly inadaptable to Eastern life.” With the quote selected here, one can reveal much about the entire nature of the novel. Although we may move, and attempt to escape the world and realities that we were born into, our histories will always follow us. Such was the case with Gatsby, and such was the case with all of the other characters within the novel. Also relevant within this story is the mention and discussion of the American Dream. By the 1920s, the ideals of America, and of the American dream were in steady decline, it had seemed as though the nation had lost its purity. Irony can also be found in that the West was traditionally seen as a land of opportunity and promise, and has instead become a launching pad for a society that would rather have money and wealth as opposed to the presence of opportunity and chance. Remember that Gatsby was viewed as an outcast because he had taken advantage of the opportunity for advancement (albeit illegally) within America. While it is no fault of his own, Gatsby became the victim of a society that does not want to provide opportunity and accept those who have recently made successes of themselves.
Character Role: The essential character to focus on here is doubtlessly Nick. Throughout the novel, Nick remains almost entirely neutral to the opposing forces around him, choosing, only at the very end of the novel, to support Gatsby and see him as a friend. In the introduction to the novel, Nick writes that he does not blame Gatsby for what happens, nor does he place that kind of hate on him that he places on the rest of the exclusive upper class. Nicks quote that, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us,” only enforces the belief that Gatsby was punished simply for trying to fulfill his dream. In fact, the novel makes several references to the fact that Gatsby is referred to as “Great” simply because he never gave up his dream. As much as Gatsby came to rely upon symbols and become represented by them, so to, in the end of the novel does Gatsby himself become a symbol. Even more so than a symbol of wealth or extravagance, Gatsby becomes a symbol of hope, of trying, and of never giving up that green light. Gatsby followed his life, he lived according to his hopes and dreams, and it is possible that he had few true regrets in life.
Nick’s role at the end of the novel is almost identical to his role in the beginning of the novel. He has cast off his possible relationship with Jordan and has returned to his home, under much the same circumstances as he left, having gained insight, and having lost a friend, as well as part of his own ideology, regarding hopes and dreams. While Nick was the narrator of the story, Gatsby was the focus, and, since Gatsby has invariably passed on, Nick’s function, in terms of a literary view, is now to return home. The reason for telling the story has passed.
Symbolism: Chapter Nine has few symbols that stand out, however, there is much talk as to the relation of symbols and what they represent and mean to many of the characters. More so than any other symbol, Gatsby can be looked to as a symbol of the American Dream and what it meant to the common people. If Gatsby was associated with the color green, the color of wealth, opportunity, life and energy, so to has the color green become a symbol of Gatsby himself. In the last stages of the novel, it becomes more and more apparent that Gatsby was more than the main character of the novel, he was also the primary theme of the book. He was a the lesson of the times, and he represented no less than the realization of the American Dream. Perhaps the entire novel can best be summed up with a quote by George Bernard Shaw, “”There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.”
