The Great Gatsby Chapter 9
Gatsby’s funeral shows how futile Fitzgerald thinks the American dream is. For all of Gatsby’s supposed popularity very few people show up. Fitzgerald here shows his belief on how fleeting the materialistic American dream is.
Once Gatsby is dead we see how he is truely viewed. Now that he is dead and no one can get anything out of him any longer no one cares about him. As we realize that few people truely care about Gatsby we realize what a shallow and trivial person he truely was.
Nick once again uses the green light at the end of the dock to represent the American dream. It is something that we try for and fall but none-the-less we pick ourselves back up and try again harder next time. Something that we cannot escape striving for because we want it so bad. As Nick says “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” No matter how many times the boat flips over we beat on endlessly….
