Chapter 9 Pages 171-189

Summary: Reporters are everywhere, and Nick tries to call Daisy only to find that Daisy and Tom are gone. Wolfshiem refuses to get himself involved with murders, and Gatsby’s dad, Henry Gatz, shows up. Henry is very proud of his son and shows off a picture of the house and a book he used to keep. Nick helps set up a funeral for Gatsby that nobody comes to except for his dad, a few servants, and owl eyes. Nick hears that Jordan is engaged and talks to Tom one last time before he leaves West Egg.

Character: Henry Gatz

            “…a solemn old 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 increasingly at his sparse grey beard that I had difficulty getting off his coat” (Fitzgerald 175).

            Henry Gatz is extremely proud of his son. He looks past everything that has happened and sees his son as a successful man. He shows everyone the picture of Gatsby’s house and is very excited to see the house in person. Henry loves the materialism that his son was able to acquire. Also he is friendly towards Nick and tries to make the most out of his visit.

            Henry was put into this chapter to show the other side of Gatsby. Henry and Nick are the only other people in the novel that know of him as Jay Gatz. Jay was a simple young man who followed his heart, but everyone saw Gatsby as a rich man who threw great parties and made good business deals. Henry was able to show who Gatsby really was. Gatsby hasn’t changed on the inside, but he has become richer making people think he is a different person. Also there is finally someone in Gatsby’s life besides his servants and party friends. Gatsby doesn’t have any strong relationships in this novel except for the illumined one with Daisy. Henry is one of the few relationships Gatsby had.

Quote: “I couldn’t forgive him or like him but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. 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” (Fitzgerald 188). Myrtle and Gatsby’s death are both Daisy and Tom’s fault. Daisy killed Myrtle because she was angry that Tom was cheating on her with him, and Tom told George that Gatsby was the one that murdered his wife. If Daisy and Tom weren’t in this novel then neither Gatsby nor Myrtle would’ve died. They are both careless people who only look out for themselves. Neither of them care who is hurt or left behind because of their relationship. It is a very dysfunctional relationship, but both of them seem to care less about each other so in a weird way it works out.