Careless People in the Great American Novel

The Great Gatsby ends on a sad note. The book's namesake, Gatsby, lies dead in a pool. He experiences a second death when his funeral is sparsely attended. The house that was so full when he was alive lies empty in his death. George Wilson and his wife Myrtle also lie dead, the latter after being run over by Daisy, and the former after taking his own life following his murder of Gatsby. 

The narrator, Nick, surveys the ruin. Like the audience, he is heartbroken and confused at the scene. Nothing has turned out well, but rather than the horror of a victorious villain, an apathetic malaise covers the scene which is somehow worse. After talking with Tom and learning that he had told Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that had killed his late wife, Nick shares the following:

In this paragraph, Fitzgerald reveals both an incredible insight about the world and a masterful analogy in his book. 

First, the insight — in the prior conversation, Nick learns that Tom killed Gatsby by placing Wilson on his trail. However, Nick does not jump to the conclusion of malice; instead he attributes the act to Tom's dangerous apathy. Tom and Daisy are careless people, careless people wreaking havoc on those around them, and sometimes those they love. The world is full of careless people. The threat of careless people is their quiet destruction. Carelessness kills not with a bang but with a whimper. The specter of malicious intent inspires action against it. It marks itself as an enemy. Carelessness, on the other hand, does not inspire such action even if it causes equal levels of destruction; rather, it inspires at best a benign apathy and at worst it begets more carelessness. This disease can be seen in Nick's response to Tom. Had Tom shared that he killed Gatsby or even that he intentionally pointed Wilson to Gatsby in the hope that he would be murdered, Nick would likely have reacted quite differently. Perhaps he would have attacked Tom or gotten law enforcement involved. At the very least, he would have been livid at Tom and his conniving. Instead, Nick is apathetic. While he may not have forgiven Tom, he also understands that Tom thinks he is justified and becomes placated by that. Careless people reap destruction and spread apathy. 

Second, this scene is the climax of a wonderful analogy in Fitzgerald's book. Gatsby, the personification of the Roaring Twenties where the party never stops, lies dead in a pool, the victim of careless people. Claiming this lucid scene as proof that Fitzgerald believes the twenties were killed by careless people would be reading very far into this scene. However, this scene does conclude the central meta-cultural narrative of The Great Gatsby, namely Fitzgerald's commentary on America's degeneracy even in its opulent wealth. Through all parts of The Great Gatsby, the sense of vain American materialism haunts the reader. In this final scene, the ghost no longer lurks quietly in the shadows. It is revealed in its entirety, and it is a horrific sight.  Nick’s defeated reflection on careless people reveals a difficult truth about the world outside of the story and concludes the commentary within the story itself. Fitzgerald leaves the reader with a pensive contrast between opulence and thoughtless destruction, between excitement and melancholy, and a picture of careless people in the great American novel.