Chapter 9 Reader Response

Hi Mrs. Arnaboldi! Hi English Class!

Chapter 9 recapitulates Fitzgerald’s views with various tools: the image of the woman in the white dress being hauled away on a stretcher, Wolfsheim’s reaction to Gatsby’s death, Gatsby’s funeral, the physical condition of Gatsby’s house after his death, Tom and Daisy’s disappearance, and so much more. I believe that the concluding line of the novel, however, conveys Fitzgerald’s message more powerfully than all of Chapter 9’s symbols and characteristics combined. The final line of the book reads:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (180)

Here, Nick realizes that Gatsby’s desire, and his own desire, to progress and achieve higher socio-economic levels is a futile and endless chase. Fitzgerald compares life to a river, somewhat stating that life is driven by an inexorable backwardness, a natural inclination or flow towards previous states. Thus, any attempt to push against the river can only be scorned upon and labeled as superfluous ambition and selfishness.

The reader can elaborate further upon this quotation and transcend the context of the novel to discuss its bond with America as a nation. The founders of the United States came with visionary and honorable ideals such as progress, equality, and justice. However, the test of time has proven that these bold fantasies could not hold strong through the ages, and that America fell into the same condition which its founders tried to escape, conditions of imperialism, injustice, inequality, cruelty, and moral corruption.

Therefore, in Fitzgerald’s solemn view on the 1920s, Gatsby’s rise and fall mimics the decadence of America itself. As Nick stated at the inception of the novel, the past determines who a person is, and whether they are suited for a particular class or quality. Nick’s views are reiterated in Chapter 9 by the constant depiction of the West as the homeland and the East as a land of social climbing and perversion. Ultimately, attempting to break through any social or natural barriers, like attempting to move upstream, is a hubristic abuse of human willpower.

-Shervin Rezaei