Chapter nine is quite sad as it reveals that no matter how many people attended his parties, did business with him, and even simply knew him, no one really paid any attention to Jay Gatsby’s death or even cared to even attend his funeral, spare Nick Caraway and his father Henry C. Gatz. The days following Gatsby’s death were “an endless drill of police and photographers and newspaper men in and out of Gatsby’s front door” (p.163). The popularity and wealth that he had acquired throughout his lifetime caused his death to be a front page story, and caused much attraction as many people made an effort to visit his house to see what all the commotion was about, but none had the time or decency to attend his funeral. Nick felt it was his responsibility to find someone to come and pay him the respect he was due: “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 had some vague right at the end” (p.164). Nick had developed such a personal relationship with Gatsby, so personal that at times one would question the sexuality of their relationship, that he felt comfortable enough and trusted Nick so much to tell him the secrets of his past and what it was that made him the great and elusive Jay Gatsby. The only other person to come out of concern of the news of the recently deceased was Jay’s father, a solemn old man who, though he had an excitement in his eye, “reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise” (p.168). With age, death is something one encounters more often, and though his son that died, Mr. Gatz is able to reminisce with awe for how his son was able to make so much success in his life despite his disparity at an early age, quite similar to the American Dream as Gatsby was a poor boy from the west who overcame his adversity and, quite literally,was able to make a name for himself through hard,though not always legal, work and dedication.
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