Death In The Great Gatsby

Literary deaths always have a meaning, and the abrupt demise of various characters in The Great Gatsby is no exception. As tensions build and secret loves are proclaimed, characters begin to meet untimely deaths. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby and Wilson's deaths, along with Gatsby's funeral, to symbolize the death of the American dream. Both men simply want to be successful and happy, and neither of them achieve their ultimate dreams. The American dream has been a fixture in American lives for decades. In The Great Gatsby, Jay pines after Daisy because she is his American dream. Obtaining her love and lifelong companionship will give him everything he could ever need. The American dream is the idea of financial success and happiness. Without

When he is killed and it comes time for his funeral, no one can be bothered to attend. His partygoers are always friendly towards him, but it becomes apparent that they never truly cared about him. Nick is his only true friend, and this further shows us that Gatsby's American dream has always been impossible, even though he was rich, It has always been said that money cannot buy happiness, and Gatsby is the perfect example of this. When Nick is planning the funeral, he calls Gatsby's supposed best friend, Meyer Wolfsheim. Even Wolfsheim, who Gatsby has known and worked with for years, decides that he cannot attend the funeral, simply because he does not like to bother with the funerals of friends. When contacting Klipspringer, a man who had boarded in Gatsby's house, he asks for his tennis shoes and denies Nick's request of his presence at the funeral. Gatsby gave everything he had to these various partygoers and friends, but still they are not reciprocating. "'We were so thick like that in everything'-he held up two bulbous fingers-'always together'"(171). Wolfsheim admits he and Gatsby were close, but still he does not attend. All Gatsby had was a dream and finances, and the story shows the slow death of his American dream. Gatsby ends up alone, dead, and with only one true friend, and the American dream he had so long ago is finally dead. The deaths of both Wilson and Gatsby show that dreams are not always obtainable. The beginning of The Great Gatsby is filled with high hopes and dreams of a better future, but as the story progresses those dreams die and so do the dreamers. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby and Wilson's death, along with Gatsby's funeral, to symbolize the death of the American dream. Fitzgerald utilizes these deaths to reveal the meaning of the work, and the meaning is clearly reflected through the loss of Gatsby and