The Great Gatsby culminates in death; one accidental death, one murder, and one suicide.

Death takes all forms in Gatsby, including the metaphorical. By creating a new name and life for himself, Gatsby kills his old self. When his love fails to live up to his standards, so dies his idealized conception of her. Our narrator is constantly addressing the idea of mortality as he feels himself getting older and older while the text progresses. The various characters obsession with the past, as well as Nicks belief that life draws people back to the past, is also an indication of the nearly universal fear of death.

1. Why does no one come to Gatsbys funeral? 2. Whose fault is it that Gatsby died? His own? Toms? Daisys? Wilsons? 3. The characters in The Great Gatsby never explicitly discuss death or life after death. Why do you suppose they neglect these topics? What does it say about them? 4. What is the effect of Nick realizing he has turned thirty in the midst of Gatsby and Toms fight over Daisy? 5. Speaking of, check out those times when Nick refers to his age. He later refers to his being thirty with the jaded tone that he is "too old to lie" to himself. What is it about aging that bothers Nick so much? 6. Before Myrtles death, Nick says that they "drove on toward death through the cooling twilight." Literally, this means they are driving towards the scene of Myrtles death. But in what other ways are they driving toward death? Might they also be driving to Gatsbys impending death? Or (gasp) to their own? 7. How did the death of Dan Cody interact with the birth of Jay Gatsby, and the death of James Gatz? 8. Did the real man behind the mask die when Jay Gatsby died, or when James Gatz died?
The police later find out by tracing Wilson's steps that he had stopped at several places on the way to West Egg, asking directions to Gatsby's house because he had apparently found out from an unknown source that it had been Gatsby's flashy yellow car that had hit Myrtle. Gatsby had been swimming in his pool at about two o'clock in the afternoon, and his chauffeur had heard shots fired in the backyard, but he said that he hadn't thought much about them. Nick had been notified by the police that Wilson had escaped Michaelis' supervision, and he had headed straight for Gatsby's house. When Nick, the chauffeur, gardener, and butler rush to the backyard, they discover that Gatsby has been murdered - and that the killer, George Wilson, then turned the gun on himself. The climax of the novel, the accident that kills Myrtle, is foreshadowed by the conversation between Nick and Jordan about how bad driving can cause explosive violence. The end of the novel, of course, consists of violence against Gatsby. The choice of handgun as a weapon suggests Gatsby's shady past, but it is symbolic that it is his love affair, not his business life, that kills Gatsby in the end. Gatsby's death takes place on the first day of autumn, when a chill has begun to creep into the air. His decision to use his pool is in defiance of the change of seasons, and represents yet another instance of Gatsby's unwillingness to accept the passage of time. The summer is, for him, equivalent to his reunion with Daisy; the end of the summer heralds the end of their romance.