Nick's plans to have a big funeral for Gatsby go badly. When he phones Daisy, he discovers that she has "gone away" somewhere with Tom. Klipspringer says that he probably won't be able to attend the funeral because "there's a sort of picnic or something" that he's expected to attend in Greenwich. Meyer Wolfsheim says that he can't attend the funeral because he "can't get mixed up in it," meaning that he doesn't want his name in any way associated with a murder.
On the day of the funeral, Nick, and also Gatsby's father, look "involuntarily out of the windows for other cars," but none come. The minister agrees to postpone the service by half an hour, in case the rain has postponed anyone, but still nobody else arrives.
After all of Nick's efforts, the funeral is attended only by Nick, Gatsby's father, the minister, Owl-Eyes, "four or five servants and the postman." Daisy, who once loved Gatsby, doesn't even send "a message or a flower." The fact that so few people attend Gatsby's funeral is all the more sad and all the more tragic when we remember, as Owl-Eyes does, that people used to attend Gatsby's parties "by the hundreds." Unfortunately, it seems that Gatsby's friendships while he was alive were just as superficial as everything else in his life. His funeral is an anti-climactic, pitiful occasion.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
How does Nick's plan for a big funeral go?
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