The Great Gatsby
Prompt #10 · The Great Gatsby
Prompt Type: Scene Analysis
When Nick tries to organize Gatsby's funeral but almost no one attends except Gatsby's father and Owl Eyes, Fitzgerald concludes with a devastating commentary on Gatsby's life. Analyze how Fitzgerald uses this scene to reinforce the novel's critique of the American Dream. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
"I couldn't get to the house," he remarked. "Neither could anybody else." "Go on!" He started. "Why, my God! they used to go there by the hundreds." He took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in. "The poor son-of-a-bitch," he said.
Chapter 9
Argument
This quote highlights the irony of Gatsby's funeral attendance, contrasting the hundreds who once flocked to his parties with the emptiness of his final farewell, exposing the hollowness of the social connections built on wealth and spectacle.
Quote 2
“From the moment I telephoned news of the catastrophe to West Egg village, every surmise about him, and every practical question, was referred to me. At first I was surprised and confused; then, as he lay in his house and didn't move or breathe or speak, hour upon hour, it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested—interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which everyone has some vague right at the end.”
Chapter 9
Argument
This quote underscores Nick's isolation in organizing Gatsby's funeral, revealing how Gatsby's death exposes the indifference of the elite society that once celebrated him, reinforcing the novel's critique of the American Dream's moral bankruptcy.
Quote 3
“And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
Chapter 9
Argument
This quote juxtaposes Gatsby's failed dream with the original promise of the American Dream (symbolized by the 'fresh, green breast'), emphasizing how Gatsby's pursuit corrupted the ideal into something transient and unattainable.
Quote 4
“And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.”
Chapter 9
Argument
This quote reflects Gatsby's tragic delusion in the final pages, where the green light—symbolizing his idealized American Dream—is revealed as an unattainable illusion, mirroring the funeral scene's emptiness and the novel's broader disillusionment.