The Great Gatsby
Henry C. Gatz
Gatsby’s father
The elderly father of Jay Gatsby, who travels to Long Island for the funeral and is proud of his son.
Henry C. Gatz is a frail old man with a lined, kind face, watery proud blue eyes and trembling hands. He is simple and sorrowful, and he is deeply proud of his son. To him Gatsby is still Jimmy, the boy who wanted to get ahead.
He comes from the poor farm country that James Gatz left behind, and he is the person who shows the reader where Gatsby came from.
“Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Henry Gatz arrives days after Gatsby’s death and turns to Nick for help with the arrangements. He tells Nick that Jimmy was bound to get ahead, and he shows him a book in which the boy wrote down his own resolutions. Nick tells him that Gatsby had a great future ahead of him.
Mr. Gatz stands with Nick and Owl Eyes at the funeral in the rain. His quiet pride is the last glimpse the story gives of who Gatsby was before he became Gatsby.
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