Chapter 9

     Nick describes Gatsby's funeral two years after Gatsby's death. After the murder, reporters and journalists came to the mansion. Wild stories, more exaggerated then the rumors about Gatsby at his parties went around about Gatsby's relationship to Myrtle and Wilson. Nick has a large funeral for Gatsby thinking that that is what he would have wanted, but all his friends disappeared like Tom and Daisy who moved away, or like Meyer Wolfshiem and Klipspringer, the pianist. The only people who attended the funeral were Nick, Owl Eyes, a few servants, and Gatsby's father, Henry C. Gatz, who came all the way from Minnesota. Henry Gatz is very proud of his son and takes a picture of the mansion. Also, he fills Nick in on Gatsby's early life by showing him a book in which young Gatsby wrote a schedule for self-improvement. 
     Nick decides to move back to the Midwest because he was sick of the East and its empty values. He breaks up with Jordan who suddenly has become engaged to another man. Just before he leaves, Nick comes across Tom in New York City. At first Nick refuses to shake Tom's hand, but eventually accepts. Tom tells Nick that he was the one who informed Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle, and describes how much he suffered when he had to give up his apartment he kept in the city for his affair. He says that Gatsby deserved to die. Nick comes to the conclusion that Tom and Daisy are careless people and that they destroy people and things, knowing that their money will protect them from any negative consequences. Nick believes that all of the events occurred because Jordan, Tom, Daisy, and himself were all from the West and the East's fast and lurid lifestyle shaped everything that happened. Nick thinks that the East is distorted in comparison to the West. 
     On the last night in the  East, Nick goes over to Gatsby's abandoned mansion and erases an obscene word off the steps. Nick then lays on the beach and looks up. As the moon rises, Nick pictures the island without any houses and thinks about what it looked like to explorers who discovered the New World. He compares Daisy to America and says that America was once a goal for dreamers; just as Daisy was for Gatsby. Gatsby's wealth and success was so close to the American dream, but he failed to realize that his dream had ended and his goals became hollow and empty. Nick believes that people everywhere are motivated by the same dreams as Gatsby was. Nick pictures this struggle as boats going against a strong current that unwillingly brings them back into the past.