Plot Development

Chapter 9

Nick is remembering the events that followed Gatsby's death. Reporters and journalists wanted to find out the facts about his death and more rumours were going around. Nick tried to organise a funeral for Gatsby but none of his "Friends" want to attend. Tom and Daisy moved away and left no new address and Meyer Wolshiem doesn't want to get into Gatsby's business. Sadly, the only people who attend the funeral are Nick, a few servants, owl eyes, and Gatsby's dad, Henry C Gatz, who came from Minnesota. Henry is very proud of his son and he tells Nick how Gatsby was intelligent and was always looking for an opportunity to better his knowledge.
At the end of the summer Nick decides to move back home to Minnesota because he is tired of living around the drama in New York City. On one of his last few days, Nick encounters Tom while walking around N.Y.C. Tom admits to Nick that he told George that the yellow car was Gatsby's but he does not feel bad that he is died. Tom says he misses his affair with Myrtle and tells Nick that Gatsby had it coming for him and that he deserved to die. Nick reflects on Tom's statements and concludes that Tom and Daisy are self-centred and that their actions hurt others but their money protects them from any consequences. On Nick's last night in N.Y.C he walks over to Gatsby's empty house and goes to the beach behind it. He looks out across the water and pictures the N.Y.C empty with no houses and just with trees, how the early explorers must have seen it. Nick connects this exploration with Gatsby's exploration of Daisy. The green land of America seen by the explorers was like the green light Gatsby watched at the end of Daisy's dock.
Nick concludes that Gatsby,who spent all his time trying to obtain the American Dream, failed to see that his dream ended a long time ago, and that his dreams just became empty and unobtainable hopes. Nick feels that everyone is motivated by their dreams to fulfil our futures, but we struggle to paddle our boats against the water's current that drags us back into the past.