I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitiously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees. pg. 169 paragraph 2

This passage is the epiphany that Gatsby has of his illusive life. The reason why Gatsby no longer cared about Daisy returning his phone call, is because the dream of Daisy calling back was some kind of abstraction that would ultimately never come true. Gatsby also has the realization that he has been wasting his time with catching Daisy, and because he has wasted this time in an ilusive world, the reality of life is extremely frightening. Fitzgerald's description of the "unfamiliar sky" through the "frightening leaves" shows that the natural world is something terrifying to Gatsby. Fitzgerald describes the rose as "grotesque" as well. The reason why the rose is grotesque is because the rose is a symbol for the his love for Daisy, something that appeared beautful at first but in reality was something that led to disgust. The grass is a symbol for Gatsby, and the "raw sunlight" upon him represents Gatsby's utimate vulnerability to damage. This vulnerability to damage ultimately foreshadows George Wilson killing Gatsby very soon. Fitzgerald next describes people who are living in this illusive world as "poor ghosts" who breathe in dreams like air; people taking things in but eventually getting rid of it and going nowhere, much like the life of the "fantastic" figure coming toward him. George Wilson is the ashen figure approaching Gatsby and is the hero who ends the terribly abstracted lives of them both.

Once more it was pouring and my irregular lawn, well-shaved by Gatsby's gardener, abounded in small muddy swamps and prehistoric marshes. There was nothing to look at from under the tree except gatsby's enormous house so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour. A brewer had built it early in the "period" craze, a decade before, and there was a story the he'd agree to pay five years' taxes on all the neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatches with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family-he went into an immediate decline. His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door. Americans, while occasionally willng to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry. Pg. 93, paragraph 2.

This passage shows Nick's fascination with the American Dream through Gatsby's house and also foreshadows bad luck coming to Gatsby. Nick's property seems il-legitimate to Gatsby's because the lawn is irregular, muddy, and prehistoric. The only thing Nick is focused on is Gatsby's house. Nick has some desire to be part of Gatsby's life, the American Dream of the roaring 20's. The Allusion of Kant and the church steeple makes the reader feel as if he is analyzing the house, just as Kant would analyze church steeples. Attention to detail is important in accomplishing this American Dream, and analyzation is key, much like Ben Franklin's analyzation of his flaws. Next, the story of the brewer foreshadows what will happen to Gatsby. The single reason the brewer wanted the other houses to be thatched with straw, was so his house could stick out. Even though a person appears to be very succesful, their are alterior motives of selfishness to make oneself appear more prominent. Once the people refused, the heart was taken out of his plan to Found a Family and he went into an immediate decline, saying that because the brewer was not noticed, he did a poor job with his family relations, and eventually died. The black wreath was also still on the door, symbolizing bad luck to come to Gatsby. The last quote about Americans willing to be serfs and not peasants, solitifies this distorted American Dream because humans always want to have some superiority in the class system no matter how low they really are.