Henry+Gatz

===Tracing topic assignment: __Henry Gatz__ Although he is Jay Gastby's father, Henry Gatz doesn't actually appear directly until page 175, only 15 pages from the novel's end. However, what is arguably most interesting about Henry Gatz is how he is presented before his actual appearance, through all the questions and descriptions of Gatsby's past that occur throughout the novel. It is also surprisig how, after all the mystery about Gatsby's real background, Henry Gatz is so unlike his son, and is almost reverent of him as if he were not of this world. It is also importantfor the reader to ask themself to what extent Gatsby actually considered Henry Gatz to be his real father, and if not, what Henry Gatz's purpose was in the novel as a whole. ===  **How Henry Gatz is Presented before he Appears: ** Nick first expresses interest in Gatsby's background on page 53: "Who is he? (...) Where is he from?" From this point onwards, the reader is also curious as to how Gatsby made all his money, and basically where such a rich, magical person could have so easily sprung from. Although Nick reveals that Gatsby's real parents were poor, all the buildup and gossip about Gatsby's past still serves to build excitement, tension, and curiosity about Gatsby's background. **__ANTICIPATION IS KEY __** aft﻿er all the mystery  and buildup around <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18pt;">Gatsby's background <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">, the reader is anxious to get a  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">glimpse into <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18pt;">Gatsby's real past <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">, before  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">he was reborn as a <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18pt;">"﻿Son of God." <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> (p. 104) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">- Gatsby first speaks of his past to Nick by saying that he is“ <span style="color: #ff0000; font-size: 12pt; lineheight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; marginbottom: 0pt; marginleft: 0in; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in;">the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west–-all dead now <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">.” (p. 69) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">- Appears before Nick reveals Gatsby’s true past  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">- Shows that either Gatsby is lying to protect the story he has made up for himself, or that he doesn't consider Henry Gatz to be his true father after all:  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">- Possibility 1: Gatsby is lying because he is trying to convince everyone, even his friends, even himself, that he deserves his fortune and came to possess it through legitimate means: <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">(p.104)  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">- Shows how Gatsby, trapped in his cave (ie Plato's allegory), refuses to accept the reality of his past. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">-Goes on to say that James Gatz had had his alternate name ready for a long time; shows how Gatsby had always wanted something that his family couldn't provide. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; lineheight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; marginbottom: 10pt; marginleft: 0in; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in;">Possibility 2: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Gatsby considers DAN CODY to be his true father, not Henry Gatz <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">:  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Dan Cody (…) provided for such contingencies by reposing more and more trust in Gatsby.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> (p. 106) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">- Explains the relationship between Gatsby and Cody  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">-Shows how Cody was a mentor, friend, father figure rolled into one; treated Gatsby like a son; even left him an inheritance (although this was essentially stolen from Gatsby).  <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“I (…) looked hastily through the unlocked drawers of his desk—he’d never told me definitively that his parents were dead. But there was nothing—only the picture of Dan Cody.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">(p.173) - Reveals that Gatsby kept no reminders of his true family; Gatsby is either trying to hide his true past from others or from himself; or both. <span style="color: #000000; font-size: 12pt; lineheight: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; marginbottom: 10pt; marginleft: 0in; marginright: 0in; margintop: 0in;">﻿ -Undermines the importance of Henry Gatz in his son's destiny, while still building more mystery about him: what was James Gatz like before he met Dan Cody?

<span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">**How Henry Gatz actually appears:** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The arrival of Henry Gatz shows how Gatsby's past wasn't what he had claimed and wished that it was, as well as provokes sadness at the distance between Gatsby and his father. Despite the fact that Nick has revealed that Gatsby's actual parents were poor, the reader still feels let down when Henry Gatz shows up as a pitiful old man, because there was so much mystery about Gatsby's past that the reader expected at least something interesting in Henry Gatz's character. The first that is actually heard of Henry Gatz is a telegram requesting that his son’s funeral be postponed until his arrival. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Gatz shows up as a “ solemn old man very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster against the warm September day, ” (p. 175) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;">- Reader feels a sense of letdown at this pathetic little old man so distant from the world his son had managed to create <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;">- Gatz shelters himself from even warm days; he is weak. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - “ Excitement leaked from his eyes, ” (p. 175), <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;">- Illustrates both the frailty of Henry Gatz, and his physical isolation from his son’s magical life until that point. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Reveals Gatz's reverence for his son. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;"> "He'd of helped build up the country. ” (p. 176). <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;">- Tragically ironic statement; definitively shows how ignorant Gatz really was of his son’s life, and how although his son still kept in touch with him, there was great distance between them: <span style="color: red; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">Gatsby was so determined to keep his private life private from EVERYONE, that he did not even share the details of how he made his fortune with his father.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Henry Gatz's Purpose: <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Because Henry Gatz only appears at the end of the novel, and is so different from his son, his appearance brings up the question of why Fitzgerald includes him in the story at all. Therefore, the reader has to analyze Henry Gatz's purpose in the novel, and what he could symbolize, if anything. Based on the huge buildup around Gatsby's past, then the huge fall when Henry Gatz is actually presented, it is possible to conclude that Henry Gatz represents his own son's abandonment of his past, meteoric rise to fame and fortune, and then just as sudden downfall.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">"<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">It was a photograph of the house, cracked in the corners and dirty with many hands (...) He had shown it so often that I think it was more real to him now than the house itself ." (p. 180)﻿ <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Shows how Gatz desperately clung onto his proudness for his son, while his son never kept any reminders (at least that the reader knows of) of his own past. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Creates sharp contrast between the attitudes of Gatsby and Gatz: Gatz desperately kept that small photo of the mansion, while Gatsby didn't keep any pictures of his father that Nick could find: only photos of Dan Cody. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Represents, combined with the fact that Gatsby kept no photos of his real family, his absolute abandonment of his past, at least in terms of things that could prove he wasn't who he said he was such as photos or letters (Gatsby didn't keep material objects representing his poor background, but he did visit his father, for whom he bought a house: there was still somewhat of an emotional connection between them).

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">"<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was (...) educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition ." (p. 69) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> ﻿ - Shows the ambition and dignity of the past that Gatsby has created for himself. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Builds respect for Gatsby's family, seeing as Gatsby's true past hasn't been revealed yet. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Develops excitement and wonder about Gatsby's past. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">"<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mr. Gatz opened the door and came out, his mouth ajar, his face flushed slightly, his eyes leaking isolated and unpunctual tears." (p. 176) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Illustrates the true nature of Jay Gatsby's background: weak, sad, pathetic. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Provokes a reaction of disillusionment; after all the buildup, the revealing of Gatsby's true past parallels the sudden end to Gatsby's own life. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Represents the undeniable end to any hope that still might exist as to Gatsby's truthfulness and honor. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">-Shows how Nick, and the reader, can’t help but to feel a sense of disenchantment at the harsh reality of Gatsby's past; the persona that he had until that point kept so vividly alive suddenly comes crashing down, dragging along all its hope and dreams.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Conclusion: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">In The Great Gatsby, Henry Gatz, and Gatsby's past in general, is built up to legendary status, then deflated when Nick reveals that Gatsby's true parents were poor. However, after all this buildup, the reader still hopes against hope that there could be something interesting about Gatsby's parents. This illusion is broken with the appearance of Henry Gatz, who is desperately in awe of his son, despite the fact that his son kept no reminders of him. The appearance of Henry Gatz therefore serves to reveal to the reader how drastic Gatsby's change would have had to be in order to so completely abandon his past, and also represents the definitive end to Jay Gatsby, and the mystery and amazement that he inspired.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">Images From: <span style="background: white; display: block; line-height: 24pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;"> "2009 May « Laura and Friends." //Laura and Friends//. Web. 05 Sept. 2010. <span style="background: white; display: block; line-height: 24pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;"> []. <span style="background: white; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.5in;">Staal, Robin. "Pathetic Old Man - a Photo on Flickriver." //Flickriver - A New Way to View Flickr Photos and More...// Web. 03 Sept. 2010. [].

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