The Great Gatsby:
Chapter 9 Analysis
Chapter Summary
In this Chapter, Nick decides that Gatsby wouldn’t want to face his funeral by himself. So Nick
starts calling to let people know about his passing and asking if they will be coming to pay their
respects. Nick calls Mr. Wolfshiem and he tells NIck that he has a social engagement and will not
be able to make it. Nick answers a call from Mr. Klipspringer, who only wanted his pair of his
tennis shoes instead of calling in favor of attending Gatsby’s funeral. Nick hangs up on him for his
insolence and feels pity for Gatsby. Nick tries to get in touch with Tom and Daisy but they have left
and told no one where they are going. One man that does come to Gatsby’s funeral is his father
Henry C. Gatz who came all the way from Minnesota. Henry tells Nick of Gatsby’s younger years
and saves a picture of his house. Nick eventually sees Tom around town and initially refuses to
shake his hand, but eventually he does after a brief conversation. Fitzgerald writes that Nick thinks
Tom and Daisy are careless people who think that their money will get them out of any bad
situation. Nick ends up moving back to the Midwest and breaks things off with Jordan who is
engaged to a man. Nick, before he moves, does return to Gatsby’s house and cleans off something
that was written on his staircase then looks out onto the water and up at the stars.
Syntax
● Pg. 180 “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orastic future that year by
year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter--to-morrow we
will Run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning--- So we
beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
● Fitzgerald uses the dashes to show the fact that this sentence is
unfinished. He does this to emphasize how through all of Gatsby’s efforts
to get back to the way things were, that he and Americans never did
reach his dream and the American Dream. In short, there wasn't a “fine
morning” to come to.
Syntax
“Even when the East excited me most, even when I was most keenly aware
of its superiority to the bored, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio,
with their interminable inquisitions which spared only the children and the
very old-even then it had always for me a quality of distortion.” (pg.176)
Fitzgerald uses an anaphora at the beginning of this sentence. When using
this literary device for a sense of repetition, it shows the reader how Nick
really felt about the East - as if something was off or misleading (implied
by the word “distortion”). He was being more specific about how, despite
all of its positive qualities, his opinion about the East being deceptive or
warped remains the same.
Syntax
● Pg. 163 “After two years I remember the rest of that day, and that night
and the next day, only as an endless drill of police and photographers
and newspaper men in and out of Gatsby’s front door.”
● Fitzgerald uses repetition at the beginning of this chapter to show
how monotonous the day was surrounding Gatsby’s passing had
been. It really helps to drive the point home of how upsetting and
memorable Gatsby’s death was. Fitzgerald goes on to use
polysyndeton to emphasize all of the coming and going that
occurred that day.
Diction
“…a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque,
crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lusterless moon.”
(Page 176)
The use of words like “sullen,” “overhanging,” and
“lusterless” create a dark and uneasy feeling in the
situation. Fitzgerald uses this dark, negative diction
throughout the entire chapter. This diction ultimately
conveys a solemn, despairing theme of an empty
hopelessness.
Chapter Diction
In this 9th chapter, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays a lot of Nick's thoughts in the aftermath
of Gatsby's death through the usage of dark words and descriptions to establish the
melancholy, dreary, and defeated tone that the chapter embodies. Most words
appealed to imagery and were generally negative in connotations and denotations. He
often used dismal words, or words of inefficiency like, "sprawling" and "swollen".
Describing "a hundred houses...crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a
lustreless moon" (176) creates a dull and uneasy atmosphere. Fitzgerald also writes,
"...four solemn men walk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman..." on the
same page. Referring to the men as "solemn," whilst being with an unconscious
intoxicated woman also establishes the despondency of the East. Not to mention that
"no one knows the woman's name, and no one cares" - this creates a very pessimistic
demeanor. In conclusion, the several bleak, morose words and phrases are used that
express the chapter's pensive and melancholy tone.
Figurative
Language
“Most of those reports were a nightmare
- grotesque, circumstantial, eager, and
untrue.”
(Page 163)
The figurative language in this is the metaphor
used in comparing the newspaper reports to
something as terrible as a bad dream; the news
came across as something that brings about
horror, apprehension, shock, or devastation.
“There was a long silence on the other end of the wire,
followed by an exclamation . . .then a quick squawk as
the connection was broken.” (Page 167)
The literary device used in this was the onomatopoeia, which was
used to convey the person on the receiving end of the line
(“Slagle”, who called his wire & was unaware of Gatsby being
deceased until Nick informed him the paragraph prior) and their
surprise (or perhaps shocked grief) at Gatsby’s death before
abruptly hanging up.
"As we started through the gate into the cemetery I heard a car stop and then
the sound of someone splashing after us over the soggy ground.” (Page 174).
This is an example of both alliteration and
imagery,
asexample
the sentence
contains and
a continuous
This is an
of both alliteration
imagery,
beginning
sound
in the
part of “sound
of
as
the sentence
contains
a continuous
beginning
someone
Imagery
is used
in the
sound in thesplashing”.
part of “sound
of someone
splashing”.
"As we started through the gate into the cemetery I heard a car stop and then the
Imagery
is used
in the
descriptive
“splashing”
descriptive
words
“splashing”
andground.”
“soggy”
sound
of someone
splashing
after
us over the words
soggy
(Page -174).
and “soggy”
- words
sense of
words
that appeal
tothat
theappeal
sensetoofthe
hearing
and
hearing and add to the aspect of the scene.
add to the aspect of the scene.
"I spent my Saturday nights in New York, because
those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so
vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter,
faint, and incessant, from his garden..." (Page 179)
The usage of descriptive imagery in the paragraph gives
both a visual and an auditory appeal to the senses using
description of “gleaming”, dazzling parties, as well as the
far off mirth of party-goers at Gatsby’s. Nick recalls the
vivid memory with fondness.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past.” (Page 180)
This metaphor Nick states is addressing
Gatsby’s dilemma of trying to obtain
Daisy’s love that has already evaded his
grasp in the past (as she “chose” Tom),
yet how he persists in trying to have her
and those previous times back.
Specifically, it means that his attempts
weren't feasible due to the fact that the
past cannot be returned to, but Gatsby
tried to go “against the current” to get
back something that was no longer
attainable to him.