The Great Gatsby- Chapter 9

Location

- Gatsby's house

- The West in Nick's memories

- New York

Themes

In this chapter there is themes of time and the idea of a superficial society.

         -Throughout the whole book, time is non-chronological which means that the reader is kept guessing because they don't know the full story til the end. The metaphor at the end is important to the whole book because it talks about the past which is a poignant reminder of what the book is about. The metaphor of the boat is basically saying that however much you try to move on into the future, the past will always be trailing slowly behind to drag you back. This sad conclusion means that the reader finally feels pity for Gatsby because he wasted his whole life looking for the ideal that would never happen.

         - Gatsby surrounded himself around people in hope that he would meet Daisy again but even when he was around lots of people, he always seemed to be alone. This is backed up when at Gatsby's funeral, there weren't many people there. This explains the superficial society because people loved him when he held them parties but as soon as he's finished his service, he serves no purpose and so they don't come to his funeral and this explains how in the end, he was still just as lonely.

Characters

- Daisy doesn't go to Gatsby's funeral and so it raises the question of if she ever really loved him. As a reader, I feel no sympathy for Daisy in the end because Gatsby gave her everything he had and she gave him nothing. Even after he gave up the ultimate sacrifice for her, his life, she didn't even send a card. This makes her come across and quite cold and calculating and we wonder even when she gave Gatsby hope, whether she really ever intended to leave Tom for Gatsby. I don't think that she ever did because she seemed upset and surprised when Gatsby told Tom because she thought that she could have the best of both worlds. She told Gatsby that she still loved him but instead of leaving Tom for him, she wanted a safe life rather than being involved with someone who got his money illegally. I think that this in the end was what stopped her from leaving Tom because Gatsby was a unstable character.

- Gatsby gained his wealth illegally and so this meant that he was never really apart of the upper class that he so wished to join and so therefore he was always an outsider just like Nick was. He's shown to never be good enough for anyone, least of all himself and this was his major downfall. He always thought that he was better than his poor roots and so left his family in the hope for a better life. When he finally thought that he was one of the upper class, he thought that he was fit for Daisy and yet, even when she knew how wealthy he was, he still wasn't good enough for her because he had got it through illegal means. It's shown again and again throughout the book that Daisy means more to him than he does to her and this is clarified when he literally gives his life for her. This leaves the reader feeling sympathy for his character because even through he was a gangster, he did it because he loved Daisy and this makes you feel sorry for him.

- Nick is shown to be the only character that has stood by Gatsby's side. Even when he knew everything about Gatsby, he still thought that he was of higher value than any of the other wealthy people that were supposedly meant to be better than him. After the incidence of Gatsby's murder, he hates Daisy and Tom and all the people like them more than ever and it links back to the beginning when he tells us his fathers advice about how to never to criticise anyone because they probably haven't had the same advantages as him and this sums up the whole book because I think that he almost looks up to Gatsby because even though he's earned everything illegally which was quite common in those days because it was in the prohibition, he earned it all himself and did it for a good cause. Even though stereotypically he's meant to be more like Tom and Daisy, he ends up being more like Gatsby.

Narrative Elements

Imagery

- The imagery uses colours such as 'blue lawn' and 'green light' to not only describe the places but perhaps to describe the moods.

Narrative within a narrative

- Tom explains to Nick that he told Wilson that it was Gatsby driving which led to the death of Myrtle which finally leads to the death of Gatsby.

Fallacy

- The pathetic fallacy of rain is used at Gatsby's funeral to create the mood.