"'Hello!' I interrupted breathlessly. 'Look here- this isn't Mr.s Gatsby. Mr. Gatsby's dead.'" (Fitzgerald 166). So it is as I suspected, the great Mr. Gatsby has been murdered, and Nick, who now feels he was the only real friend Gatsby ever had, finds himself trying to settle Jay's old affairs. Although Nick and Jay had a solid relationship, he wants to believe that there are others who once held a part in Gatsby's life who would now feel compelled to honor him at his funeral. He explains how he almost hears Gatsby's voice telling him, "Look here, old spot, you've got to get somebody for me. You've got to try hard. I can't go through this alone." (Fitzgerald 165). However, it now appears that most of the major characters of Nick's little group, Nick, Jordan, Daisy, were the closest thing he ever had as friends. I find this quite saddening because Gatsby always seemed like the kind of man who always had something going on and when not with Nick, was probably out having a grand time with other friends from some other distinct network. I mean for God's sake, I once compared him to the Most Interesting Man in the World and now this man is dead and hardly anyone gives it a thought.
To some extent, the lonely passing of Gatsby is somewhat lessened with the arrival of his father. For some reason or other, I found the line where Mr. Gatz asks Nick, "Where have they got Jimmy?", the most miserable and humbling quote so far (Fitzgerald 167). Its in this way that he addresses his son that hints to the foreign idea that, yes, Gatsby was once a wide-eyed innocent child, who was loved by his mother and father. The presence of Jay's father in some sense, makes Gatsby come across more tangible than before. Instead of being portrayed as a symbol or some mysterious apparition, he now feels more human than ever. While this does make Gatsby's death seem a little less peculiar, it still feels as depressing as before.
The funeral could not be anymore of a solemn occasion not due to the simple fact that it is a funeral, but because the fact that hardly anyone out of the hundreds who had once took advantage of his hospitality had shown up. In order to escape the problem and move on with their own lives as usual, Daisy and Tom undoubtedly do not show. Either because he does not want to be seen involved with a dead man with a criminal past or because of his warped principles of life and death, Mr. Wolfsheim also does not
show. And for the general reason that they liked the parties more than the man, most of the usual parasites who used Gatsby's hospitality, do not care and therefor do not show. Except for one man. As Nick likes to call him, "the man with owl-eyed glasses", for some reason probably involving the fact that he is not a shallow Easterner who find meaning in their life through aesthetic value, decides to come to Gatsby's funeral. The man is truly shocked upon seeing the paucity of attendants and rightfully says, "Why, my God! they used to go there by the hundreds... The poor son-of-a-bitch," (Fitzgerald 175). I believe that the biggest reason for this untimely and lonely end to Gatsby's life was that although he became a rich man with a gargantuan mansion filled with an abundance of guests, he never was truly attached to any of it, because the parties and the house were not part of his vision, they were only mere utilities to facilitate his quest of gaining back that one person, Daisy. He had assumed this position and lifestyle to impress that one person who gave him meaning; he had put out all his cards on the table for his one shot at a happy life and lost. I believe this man could have heard some wise words from the country singer great, Kenny Rogers...
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