The Great Gatsby Commentary on Chapter 9

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The Great Gatsby Commentary on Chapter 9

In The Great Gatsby, Chapter 9, the last chapter of the novel, is used by Fitzgerald to create a sense of finality for the reader suggesting “the party was over”. Fitzgerald repeats the word “last” to do this, which relates to Nick’s, the narrator, end to his experience with Gatsby.

Nick is writing two years after the events with Gatsby, showing that a substantial amount of his life has passed, with Gatsby still fresh in his mind. However, as Nick is a self conscious narrator, writing a time after the event, the information presented to the reader could be biased, as shown by Nick who thinks of him self as “one of the few honest people that I have ever known”. Therefore, the reader does not receive a clear picture of the events that occur in Long Island, which Fitzgerald uses to create the theme of disillusion throughout the novel.

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On the other hand, Nick as a writer can be seen as isolated, just as Gatsby was throughout his life, due to the extravagant parties with non-invited strangers and a friendless funeral. Fitzgerald therefore emphasizes Gatsby’s hopeful obsession of meeting Daisy ever again, by hoping she would attend his materialistic parties, however by his death, he was only described as a “poor son-of-a-bitch”. The reader feels that Gatsby was indeed this as he had dedicated part of his life in trying to reignite his love with Daisy showing he only ever became successful due to his materialistic desires, turning Daisy ...

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