Ch. 9
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Nick says that there were lots of police, photographers, and newspaper men in and out of Gatsby’s house for the
next few days after Gatsby was killed. The police blocked off the main gate
o Wilson was referred to as a “mad man” by a detective and the nickname stuck.
Catherine swore that she had never seen Gatsby and that her sister was completely happy with Wilson
o Wilson was reduced to a man “deranged by grief”
Nick found himself on Gatsby’s side and alone
o He reported the incident to West Egg and all questions were referred to him
Nick called Daisy to tell her what happened (about a ½ hour after the incident), but she and Tom had left town
with their bags, leaving no address or when they would be back
Nick tried desperately to get someone who was close to Gatsby to come, but his parents (as far as Nick knew)
were dead, and so was Cody. Wolfshiem was unreachable at his office
o Nick wrote Wolfshiem a letter to which he replied that he was shocked but couldn’t come at the
moment because he was tied up. He did ask to be informed about the funeral and said he knew nothing
of Gatsby’s parents
Someone named Slagle called thinking he was talking to Gatsby  he babbled on about a deal gone bad and
then Nick told him Gatsby was dead. Slagle hung up.
On the third day, a telegram from a Henry C. Gatz arrived from Minnesota
o It said only that Gatz was leaving immediately and to postpone the funeral until he arrived
o It was Gatsby’s father
o When he arrived he was beside himself and flustered
Gatz says that he read about his son’s death in a Chicago newspaper  Nick tells him he didn’t know how to
reach him
o Gatz asks where they’ve got “Jimmy” and Nick takes him to the drawing room where Gatsby lay. Nick
leaves him alone with his son’s body
When Gatz comes out, he notices the grandeur of his son’s home for the first time
Nick asks if he wants to take the body West, but Gatz says no – Gatsby always liked the East better
Gatz talks about how Gatsby would have been a great man if he had lived
o He then falls asleep on a bed
Klipspringer called that evening – Nick tells him that Gatsby’s funeral is tomorrow at 3pm at Gatsby’s house
o Klipspringer says he’ll try to come but he is staying with a family in Greenwich that expects him to be at
a picnic tomorrow
o What he’s really calling about was a pair of shoes he left there  he wants to know if the butler will
send them to him
 As he was telling Nick the address, Nick hung up on him
Nick begins to feel shame for Gatsby
The morning of the funeral, Nick goes to see Wolfshiem
o When he gets there, he pushes open a door with a sign that reads “The Swastika Holding Company”
o A woman (Jewish) appears, saying that Wolfshiem has gone to Chicago
o Nick hears Wolfshiem’s voice and the woman tells Nick to leave his name on the desk and she’ll give it to
Wolfshiem when he gets back
 When Nick mentions Gatsby, she finally goes to get Wolfshiem
o Wolfshiem comes out, takes Nick into his office, and offers him a cigar
 Wolfshiem says that he not only started Gatsby in business, he made him
 He got Gatsby to join the American Legion
 He said they were very close (Nick wonders if the partnership included the World Series
transaction in 1919)
 Nick says he knows Wolfshiem will want to attend Gatsby’s funeral
 Wolfshiem’s eyes fill up with tears and he says he “can’t get mixed up in it”
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Wolfshiem asks Nick if he is a college man (Nick is worried that he’s going to offer him a
business connection) but he only says, “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is
alive and not after he is dead. After that my own rule is to let everything alone.” (pg. 180)
Nick goes home, changes his clothes, and goes back to Gatsby’s where he finds Gatz walking up and down the
halls with pride for his son.
Now Gatz had something to show Nick
o It was a picture “Jimmy” had sent him of his house  it was obvious that Gatz had shown it to many
people
Gatz said that Gatsby had come out to see him 2 years ago and bought him the house he lived in now. He said
that ever since Gatsby made his success, he was very generous to his father
He pulled out a book called “Hopalong Cassidy” – a book Gatsby had when he was a boy
o On the back cover, young Gatsby had written a schedule for himself
o Gatz says that it just shows you how ambitious Gatsby was, even from an early age
The Lutheran minister arrived around 3pm and Nick and Gatz start looking involuntarily out the windows for
other cars
o In a worried uncertain manner, Gatz spoke of the rain
o Nick asked the minister to wait a ½ hour, but it was no use. Nobody came.
At 5pm, the procession of 3 cars reached the cemetery (hearse, limo  minister, Gatz, Nick, station wagon  4
or 5 servants and the postman)
o Owl Eyes comes to the burial
Nick thinks about the fact that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower
Nick hears someone say “Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on”
Owl Eyes tells Nick that he couldn’t get to the house and that he’s surprised because people used to go there by
the hundreds
o He calls Gatsby a “poor son-of-a-bitch”
Nick says one of his most vivid memories is of coming back West from prep school and later from college at
Christmas time
o He talks about seeing old friends at the train station
o He talks about how this was really a story of the West
 “I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all – Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan
and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made
us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life” (pg. 184)
Nick says for him the East always had a quality of distortion  reminds him of an El Greco painting
o After Gatsby’s death, the East was haunted for Nick (distorted beyond his eyes’ power of correction)
o He decided to go home in the fall
Nick had to do one awkward thing before he left
o He talked to Jordan about what happened
o She told him without comment that she was engaged to another man
 Nick doubts this but pretends to be surprised
o Nick gets up to say goodbye and she tells him that being “thrown over” was a new experience for her
and that she felt a little dizzy for a while. She says she doesn’t give a damn about him now.
o She tells him that she thought he was a rather honest, straight-forward person (his secret pride)
 He says that he’s 30 and that’s 5 years too old to lie to himself and call it honor
o Nick was angry, ½ in love with her, and tremendously sorry, but he left.
One afternoon in late October, Nick saw Tom Buchanan walking ahead of him on Fifth Avenue
o Tom sees him and wants to shake his hand, but Nick refuses and says, “You know what I think of you”
o Nick asks Tom what he said to Wilson that afternoon (when Wilson was searching for the person who
owned the yellow car)
 Nick starts to turn away, but Tom grabs his arm. Tom says that he told him the truth
 Wilson went over to the Buchanans’ while they were getting ready to leave, forced his
way upstairs, and threatened to use the revolver in his pocket if Tom didn’t tell him who
owned the car
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Tom says that Gatsby had it coming to him – “He threw dust in your eyes just like he did
in Daisy’s, but he was a tough one. He ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog and
never even stopped his car”
o Nick says that it’s not true
 Tom says he had his share of suffering too  he went to give up the apartment he and
Myrtle had together, saw the box of dog biscuits, and sat down and cried like a baby
 Nick says he couldn’t forgive or like Tom but he saw that Tom thought his actions were
completely justified
 Nick says that Tom and Daisy are careless people – they smashed things and creatures
up and then retreated back into their money and let other people clean up their mess
Nick shakes hands with Tom – it seemed silly not to because now it felt as if he were talking to a child. Tom went
into the jewelry store
Gatsby’s house was empty when Nick left.
o Nick spent his Saturday nights in New York City because he could hear the parties happening at Gatsby’s
(from the past)
o One night Nick hears a real car come and stop in front of Gatsby’s house, but he didn’t investigate
o On Nick’s last night, he went over and looked at Gatsby’s house one more time
 He sees an obscene word scribbled by some boy on Gatsby’s white steps. Nick erased it with his
shoe
 He goes down to the beach and lay on the sand. He muses about what the eggs must have
looked like for the explorers who first discovered them
 Nick thinks about how Gatsby must have felt when he first picked out Daisy’s green light
 Gatsby believed in the green light
 “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (pg. 189)
Ch. 9 Study Questions
 On the third day after Gatsby’s death, who arrives and what mental state is he in?
 Describe Nick’s conversation with Wolfshiem the morning of the funeral. What is Wolfshiem’s reason for not
planning to attend the funeral?
 Who attends Gatsby’s funeral and who is Nick particularly surprised to see?
 Why does Nick say that this has been a story of the West? How does he feel about the East looking back?
 Describe the conversation between Nick and Tom when they see each other on Fifth Avenue in New York. By the
end of the conversation, how does Nick think of Tom?