Saddest Chapter I’ve Ever Read.
When I first started reading The Great Gatsby, I never would have guessed that anything like this would happen. I never would have guessed that the one who lent the novel its name would end up being shot, and as I got more into the story I did not expect that I would dislike Daisy as much as I do. When I read on Page 164, “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him, called her instinctively and without hesitation. But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them,” I got furious. I just could not believe that after all Gatsby had went through for years (yes, he put himself through that but still) and then getting his hopes up during the time they had together, that she would leave the man who she once loved/loved her/is willing to go to jail for her without a word. She probably could have even guessed while she was packing when Wilson came with the gun that he would go to Gatsby’s house next, but she still left without word or leaving contact information. What a female dog.
“The minister glanced several times at his watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’s any use. Nobody came.” [Page 174]
The quote above is what made this one of the saddest chapters in a novel for me. Gatsby had had hundreds of people over at his house at a time on many occassions, but they were just using him to fulfill their responsibilities of having a good time. Many of the guests did not even know Gatsby, but there definitely were those who did. Perhaps Gatsby was such an artificial character that his death did not come across as being real. I honestly don’t know, but either way it broke my heart that all he did was try to make people happy through his parties, but none of them could even send flowers to his funeral. Nick’s description of Daisy and Tom after running into Tom one day certainly describes these people well:
“They were careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” [P.179]
The irony of this is that Gatsby had always been the one to clean up their messes.
