Chapter Nine

The Funeral  It is fitting that barely anyone attends the funeral. Why? Think about the concept of isolation  It is not until this chapter that the reader truly feels the profound loss of Gatsby, a character who is simultaneously both noble and corrupt. How does Gatsby represent someone who is noble and corrupt?

The Funeral-Irony  Organized by Nick Carraway Why is this Ironic?  “Look here, old sport, you’ve got to get someone for me. You've got to try hard. I can’t go through this alone.”  Owl Eyes attends the funeral as well Why is it ironic that this is the only partygoer that shows up?  Funeral displays Nick’s lack of judgement of Gatsby Gatsby has faults but he admires and respects his capacity for hope.

Gatsby’s Father  Mr. Gatz is the complete opposite of his son. How? Examples?  Think about WHY Fitzgerald makes them so different from each other.

Gatsby’s Father-Similarity “He had shown it so often that I think it was more real to him now than the house itself.”  In this way, the house is reminiscent of the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock How does this show a connection between father and son?

Gatsby’s List  In pairs/threes, look at Gatsby’s list and discuss the implications of it. What does this tell us about the young James Gatz and his pursuit of the dream? Look closely at the items on the list and try to relate this to the main themes of the novel.

Weather  The weather at the funeral “The procession… stopped in a thick drizzle beside the gate… horribly black and wet.”  Nick hears someone murmur “Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on.” What kind of things do you think the rain represents here?

Daisy, Wolfshiem and Klipspringer  What are each of their excuses for not coming? How does that make you feel, if anything at all?

The Return to the West “That’s my Middle West — not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family’s name. 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 unadaptable to Eastern life” (176)  What is Nick saying when he says they are all “unadaptable to Eastern life”?

Nick and Jordan  Describe the last time we see her. “You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride.” “I’m thirty,” I said. “I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor.”

Nick and Tom Buchanan  Nick refuses to shake his hand  What is revealed here about Wilson?  Why does Nick eventually shake his hand? “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).

Nick looks out across the Sound  Nick compares the early Dutch settlers with Gatsby The Dutch would have marvelled at the natural beauty “As I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I though of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come along way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (180).

Why Does Gatsby’s Dream Fail? Think about:  Identify what Gatsby’s dream was  The value and worth of his dream  Was his dream ever possible?  Was Gatsby dream about the future?

The Illusion of the American Dream The American Dream became corrupt the moment it was realized. The pure, untouched beauty of that original vision disappeared and made way for consumerism, industrial development, power struggles and class systems. The original dream was destroyed by its future.

Gatsby “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).  What does this mean to you?  Can it still be applied today? How?