At the end of The Great Gatsby, one of the saddest parts is that hardly anyone comes to Gatsby’s funeral. For a man who threw some of the biggest and flashiest parties in New York, you would think his funeral would be packed. But it is not. Only a few people show up, Nick, Gatsby’s father, a few servants, and Owl Eyes. That is it. Everyone else disappears.
This shows that most of Gatsby’s “friends” were not really his friends at all. They were only around for the parties, the drinks, and the fun. When he was alive and rich, people used him for his money and his house. But when he died, they had no reason to stick around. Even people like Meyer Wolfsheim, who helped Gatsby get rich, did not come to pay their respects. Wolfsheim said he did not want to get “mixed up in it.”
Even Daisy, the woman Gatsby loved and spent years chasing, did not come. After Gatsby died, Daisy and Tom left town. They did not send flowers. They did not call. Nothing. That says a lot about how much she really cared.
Nick tries to get people to come. He calls around. He sends messages. But it does not work. No one wants to be part of it now that Gatsby is gone. The funeral proves that Gatsby built his life on a dream, and most of it was fake. When the fun stopped, so did the people. All he really had was a dream and one real friend in the end.
