Gatsby’s funeral is probably the most mournful part of the novel. After he has hosted thousands to his parties those who have drunk his booze, gossiped about his past, and benefited from his hospitality there are few mourners. The man who lived to construct a life of fantasies dies without a crowd, except for Nick, Gatsby’s father, and some servants. This moment strips away the illusions that Gatsby struggled to maintain. He never was accepted by the society that he struggled to accept, regardless of how much money and how enigmatic he was. Daisy, the object of his death, doesn’t send or appear with flowers. Tom and Daisy vanish, retreating into their wealth and luxury, unharmed by what they did. Fitzgerald uses the funeral to expose the deep moral emptiness of this society. Those who so willingly accepted Gatsby’s generosity have nothing to offer in return. They came for the show, not the man. Even Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby’s partner, does not attend the funeral, stating that he “didn’t want to get into trouble”. Nick, the loyal observer, is serving as the sole observer who seems to care. His disappointment peaks at this point, and the funeral is a time of quiet balancing. Gatsby, with all his fantasizing, was chasing shadows. His world was an arena, and when the curtain fell, no one was left behind. The funeral scene reminds us of the novel’s underlying truth: in a society obsessed with surface, depth will go unnoticed until it’s too late.