Henry C. Gatz

Gatsby's father. He comes from Minnesota for the funeral, carrying a photograph of his son's house.

What they want

For people to know what his son would have become. He says the boy would have been a great man who helped build up the country, and he carries a daily timetable of self-improvement that Gatsby wrote in the back of a boyhood adventure book.

The book

Cover of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of love, money, and the Jazz Age — written mostly in France, and often called the great American novel.

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At a glance

In the book: Henry C. Gatz — Gatsby's father, up from a town in Minnesota
Knew his son as: James Gatz; he had not seen him in two years
Brings: A photograph of the house, and a boyhood copy of Hopalong Cassidy
How he heard: The Chicago newspaper — Nick had no way to reach him

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

A telegram signed Henry C. Gatz arrives from a town in Minnesota on the third day, saying only that the sender is leaving immediately and asking that the funeral be postponed. He read about it in the Chicago newspaper; Nick had no idea how to reach him.

He is a solemn old man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled into a long cheap ulster against the warm September day. He knew his son as James Gatz, has not seen him in two years, and has spent the interval being proud of him at a distance, on the evidence of one photograph.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

The arrivalHis eyes leak continuously with excitement, and he pulls so incessantly at his sparse grey beard that Nick has difficulty getting his coat off. He is on the point of collapse, will not eat, and spills the glass of milk out of his trembling hand. Of the killing he says only: “It was a madman. He must have been mad.”
The photographHe takes out his wallet with trembling fingers to show a photograph of the house, cracked in the corners and dirty with many hands, and points out every detail eagerly, seeking admiration. He has shown it so often that Nick thinks it is more real to him now than the house he is standing in.
The scheduleFrom his pocket, a ragged old copy of Hopalong Cassidy, opened at the back cover: the word schedule, the date September 12, 1906, and the hours under it. He reads each item aloud and looks up eagerly, reluctant to close the book — Nick thinks he rather expected the list to be copied down for his own use.
“Jimmy was bound to get ahead”His reading of the whole thing. His son always had some resolves like this, was always great for improving his mind, and once told his father he ate like a hog, for which his father beat him. They were broke up when he ran off from home, but he sees now there was a reason for it.

Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

He waits with Nick for other cars that do not come, blinking anxiously and speaking of the rain in a worried, uncertain way, until the Lutheran minister has been held for half an hour and it is plain nobody is coming. What he wants at the graveside is not an accounting but a son who was going to be somebody, and the flyleaf is his proof. Nick lets him have it, which is the kindest thing anyone does in the last chapter.

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