The significance of the way F. Scott Fitzgerald ends his narrative in The Great Gatsby is important because it concludes the story and answers our questions, it also brings everything about Gatsby together. Fitzgerald writes in first person and this helps us to everything in Nick Carraway’s perspective.
In Chapter 9 a lot of events from Gatsby’s past are revealed, Nick holds a funeral for him but hardly anyone turns up. Gatsby was running away from his past and that is all he is at the end, his father who attends his funeral. Fitzgerald also ends his narrative with Moral corruption, Gatsby technically saves Daisy and pays the consequences for her actions by taking the blame for the murder she committed and she doesn’t even send her condolences at the funeral.
The green light at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. This is linked with chapter 1 when he reaches towards it in darkness and acts as a guiding light towards his goal. Gatsby’s desire to be with Daisy is associated with the American Dream. The light also represents hope for a better way of living for not only the characters in the novel but other individuals.
Fitzgerald writes using a Chiastic structure, the past and present meet in the end. Also on page 186 we get a feeling that Tom and Daisy accept no responsibility for their actions and “let other people clear up the mess they had made”.
Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, shown through its cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure, the recklessness epitomized in Gatsby’s parties corrupted the American dream. Tom and Daisy betray the belief that America is a land of opportunity when they don’t accept Gatsby. Nick explains in chapter 9 that the American Dream was about discovery, individualism and the pursuit of happiness