Alone

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
chap IX, pgs 163-172

Gatsby's sudden death and proceeding funeral, to me, highlight his personal relationships.  When Gatsby was alive, hundreds of people would flock to his house for his fabulous parties.  But now, only curious children and nosy reporters lingered around the house.  Nick called Gatsby's acquaintances- Meyer Wolfsheim, Klipspringer the boarder, and Daisy, but none of them would come to the funeral.  Daisy didn't even respond.  "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 every one has some vague right at the end" (Fitzgerald, 164).  So many people talked about or knew Gatsby, but none had the decency to come to his funeral.  On the fateful day, three cars went to the cemetery- the hearse, the limo with Nick, Gatsby's father, and the owl-eyed man, and a car with a few servants.  To see a man's rich life be reduced to such a pitiful spectacle was very upsetting.  Nick has no one, Gatsby and both Wilsons are dead, and Daisy and Tom are probably off somewhere trying to restart their life and forget the past.  It seems like such a tragic end.  No one seems to come out happy.  Just like in The House of Mirth, there is death right at the end; things are left unsaid; people are left alone.

Gatsby seems very alone in death