The Great Gatsby: Key Quotes Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Key Quotes

Depictions of Setting:

“I spent my Saturday nights in New York because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter.”: This captures the nostalgic reminiscence of Nick, contrasting with the reality of Gatsby’s lonely death. It highlights the ephemeral nature of Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle.
“Gatsby’s house was still empty when I left — the grass on his lawn had grown as long as mine.”: The description of the unattended house acts as a stark symbol for Gatsby’s absence and underlines the transience of his grandeur.

Development of Characters:

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.”: This insight into Tom and Daisy’s character underlines their selfishness and irresponsibility, clarifying the moral critique of the novel.
“I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all — Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.”: Nick’s reflection enhances his character development, revealing his disillusionment with the Eastern, wealth-driven lifestyle.

Emerging Themes:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”: This final line accentuates the theme of the relentless struggle against the past and the impossibility of escaping it.
“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified.”: This quote encapsulates the novel’s exploration of morality versus legality, just as characters grapple with the tension between their actions and their justifications.

Employment of Symbolism:

“At the very last, when the flowers were hardly mourned at all on the top of the packing-boxes, they buried him.”: The flowers here symbolise respect and love, pointing to the lack of both for Gatsby at his funeral.
“This is an unfamiliar yet unmistakable silhouette of…the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money.”: The image of the city like “sugar lumps” symbolises the illusion of the American Dream, which appears sweet but is ultimately hollow and unfulfilling.