Chapter 9

Nick takes on funeral out of respect for Gatsby and disdain for those responsible for his death. He is unlike the Buchanans and others who came to Gatsby only when he had something to give.

Carelessness of East pushes Nick to long for the more traditional and ordered society of Midwest. Nick’s need for order dictates he must break-up with Jordan (settle it before he leaves)

Gatsby was neither “made for Wolfsheim” (as he says) nor was he the all-American hero his dad believes him to be. Instead, he sprang from his own conception of himself. For both Nick and Gatsby the very spirit of America seems to encourage their youthful ambition and optimism.

Gatsby’s dream becomes corrupted; it is the very idealism that has failed him. The corruption of Gatsby’s dream is paralleled by the destruction of the early idealism of America by the materialistic concerns of the later settlers and also represents all men whose idealistic dreams have been betrayed in the materialistic wasteland that America has become.