The Great Gatsby: Chapter 9

It is said that Wilson was a mad man and went crazy.

The mysterious call tells us that Gatsby was involved with organized crime.

He wants to pick up a pair of tennis shoes. Nick is pretty revolted by him and hangs up the phone.

Nick tracks down Gatsby's father, Henry C. Gatz, a solemn old man left helpless and distraught by the death of his son. Gatz shows Nick a book in which the young Gatsby kept a self-improvement schedule; nearly every minute of his day was meticulously planned. His father is proud about how far his son had "made it" in life.

Months later, Nick runs into Tom Buchanan on New York's Fifth Avenue. Tom admits that it was he who sent Wilson to Gatsby's; he shows no remorse, however, and says that Gatsby deserved to die. Nick reflects that Tom and Daisy are capable only of cruelty and destruction; they are kept safe from the consequences of their actions by their fortress of wealth and privilege.

I think Nick means to contrast the decadence of the East with the real world of the West. Both he and Gatsby are midwesterners. They go to the East for different reasons but the East seems to corrupt and morally ravage all who enter. THe lifestyle of decadence and selfishness destroyed Gatsby and Nick is going to run back to the West, back to a place that is real.

Nick characterizes them as vapid and self-indulgent. There is no substance to them. Both characters have destroyed even the illusion of real love, caring, compassion and humanity. They make Nick sick to his stomach

Nick imagines the unspoiled lush greenery of the New York. He imagines the Dutch Sailors in an Eden-like setting where the possibilities were endless. We can contrast this with the Valley of the Ashes that lies between the two "Eggs". Both "Eggs" in their own ways become a symbol of greed, vapid desire and broken dreams. They are separated by the rotting grey Valley of Ashes. THere is no more hope in Long Island as the Dutch sailors might have once felt; now the lives of people on both sides are just as rotten as the valley.

At the end of the novel, the green light goes out. This green light, which had symbolized Gatsby's hopes and dreams in the beginning of the novel foreshadows his tragic end at the conclusion.