The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The morning of the funeral I went up to New York to see Meyer Wolfshiem; I couldn’t seem to reach him any other way. The door that I pushed open on the advice of an elevator boy was marked“The Swastika Holding Company” and at first there didn’t seem to be any one inside. But when I’d shouted “Hello” several times in vain an argument broke out behind a partition（隔墙）and presently a lovely Jewess（犹太女人）appeared at an interior door and scrutinized（仔细打量）me with black hostile（不友善的）eyes.

“Nobody’s in,” she said. “Mr. Wolfshiem’s gone to Chicago.”

The first part of this was obviously untrue for someone had begun to whistle “The Rosary（玫瑰经经文）,” tunelessly, inside.

“Please say that Mr. Carraway wants to see him.”

“I can’t get him back from Chicago, can I?”

At this moment a voice, unmistakably Wolfshiem’s called “Stella!” from the other side of the door.

“Leave your name on the desk,” she said quickly.“I’ll give it to him when he gets back.”

“But I know he’s there.”

She took a step toward me and began to slide her hands indignantly（愤怒地）up and down her hips.

“You young men think you can force your way in here any time,” she scolded. “We’re getting sickan-tired of it. When I say he’s in Chicago, he’s in ChiCAgo.”

I mentioned Gatsby.

“Oh—h!” She looked at me over again. “Will you just—what was your name?”

盖茨比的悲剧不仅仅在于他追求戴西的爱情失败，更体现在人走茶凉的冷漠人情上。当盖茨比举行奢华的宴会时，他家里宾客如潮，认识的、不认识的、受邀请的和未被邀请的，纷纷慕名而至。然而在盖茨比被人枪杀后，昔日的宾客、生意上的伙伴，甚至连戴西都拒绝参加他的葬礼，一幅树倒猢狲散的景象。只有盖茨比的老父亲听闻其死讯后从远方赶来参加儿子的葬礼。本文节选自《了不起的盖茨比》一书的第九章。

She vanished. In a moment Meyer Wolfshiem stood solemnly in the doorway, holding out both hands. He drew me into his office, remarking in a reverent（尊敬的）voice that it was a sad time for all of us, and offered me a cigar.

“My memory goes back to when I first met him,” he said. “A young major（陆军少校）just out of the army and covered over with medals he got in the war. He was so hard up（拮据的）he had to keep on wearing his uniform because he couldn’t buy some regular clothes. First time I saw him was when he come into Winebrenner’s poolroom（台球厅）at Forty-third Street and asked for a job. He hadn’t eat anything for a couple of days. ‘Come on have some lunch with me,’ I said. He ate more than four dollars’ worth of food in half an hour.”

“Did you start him in business?” I inquired.

“Start him! I made him.”

“Oh.”

“I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter（肮脏贫贱状态）. I saw right away he was a fine appearing, gentlemanly young man, and when he told me he was an Oggsford（应该是Oxford，说话者带犹太口音）I knew I could use him good. I got him to join up in the American Legion（军团）and he used to stand high there.Right off he did some work for a client of mine up to Albany（奥尔巴尼，美国纽约州一城市名）. We were so thick（亲密的）like that in everything—”

He held up two bulbous（球茎状的）fingers“—always together.”

I wondered if this partnership had included the World’s Series transaction in 19191. the World’s Series transaction in 1919: 1919年世界棒球联赛是由代表美国联盟的芝加哥白袜队与代表国家联盟的辛辛那提红人队之间所进行的系列战。八名白袜队的成员被指控与赌客共谋打假球，这就是恶名昭彰的黑袜事件（Black Sox Scandal），也是美国职棒史上最黑暗的一页，史称“黑袜事件”。作者猜想此犹太人和盖茨比的合作是否也包括操纵这次联赛的赌博交易。.

本书作者

“Now he’s dead,” I said after a moment. “You were his closest friend, so I know you’ll want to come to his funeral this afternoon.”

“I’d like to come.”“Well, come then.”

The hair in his nostrils（鼻孔）quivered（颤抖）slightly and as he shook his head his eyes filled with tears.

“I can’t do it—I can’t get mixed up in it,” he said.

“There’s nothing to get mixed up in. It’s all over now.”

“When a man gets killed I never like to get mixed up in it in any way. I keep out. When I was a young man it was different—if a friend of mine died, no matter how, I stuck with them to the end.You may think that’s sentimental（伤感的）but I mean it—to the bitter end.”

I saw that for some reason of his own he was determined not to come, so I stood up.

“Are you a college man?” he inquired suddenly.For a moment I thought he was going to suggest a “gonnegtion” (connection）but he only nodded and shook my hand.

“Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead,”he suggested. “After that my own rule is to let everything alone.”

When I left his office the sky had turned dark and I got back to West Egg in a drizzle（细雨）.After changing my clothes I went next door and found Mr. Gatz walking up and down excitedly in the hall. His pride in his son and in his son’s possessions was continually increasing and now he had something to show me.

“Jimmy sent me this picture.” He took out his wallet with trembling fingers. “Look there.”

It was a photograph of the house, cracked（破裂的）in the corners and dirty with many hands. He pointed out every detail to me eagerly. “Look there!”and then sought admiration from my eyes. He had shown it so often that I think it was more real to him now than the house itself.

“Jimmy sent it to me. I think it’s a very pretty picture. It shows up well.”

“Very well. Had you seen him lately?”

“He come out to see me two years ago and bought me the house I live in now. Of course we was broke up when he run off from home but I see now there was a reason for it. He knew he had a big future in front of him. And ever since he made a success he was very generous with me.”

He seemed reluctant to put away the picture,held it for another minute, lingeringly（恋恋不舍地）, before my eyes. Then he returned the wallet and pulled from his pocket a ragged（破烂的）old copy of a book called Hopalong Cassidy.

“Look here, this is a book he had when he was a boy. It just shows you.”

He opened it at the back cover and turned it around for me to see. On the last fly-leaf（扉页纸）was printed the word SCHEDULE, and the date September 12th, 1906. And underneath:

Rise from bed … … … … … 6.00 A.M.

Dumbbell（哑铃）exercise and wall-scaling（刮墙） … … 6.15-6.30 A.M.

Study electricity, etc … … … … 7.15-8.15 A.M.

Work … … … … … … … 8.30-4.30 P.M.

Baseball and sports … … … … 4.30-5.00 P.M.

Practice elocution （演说术）, poise（平衡）and how to attain it 5.00-6.00 P.M.

Study needed inventions … … …… 7.00-9.00 P.M.

GENERAL RESOLVES（决心）

No wasting time at Shafters or [a name,indecipherable（辨认不出的）]

No more smokeing or chewing（咀嚼）

Bath every other day

Read one improving book or magazine per week

Save $5.00 [crossed out] $3.00 per week

Be better to parents

“I come across this book by accident,” said the old man. “It just shows you, don’t it?”

“It just shows you.”

“Jimmy was bound to get ahead.He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind? He was always great for that. He told me I eat like a hog（猪）once and I beat him for it.”

He was reluctant to close the book, reading each item aloud and then looking eagerly at me. I think he rather expected me to copy down the list for my own use.

A little before three the Lutheran（路德教会的）minister arrived from Flushing2. Flushing: 法拉盛，是美国纽约皇后区内的一个区域，近年来逐渐成为亚洲裔移民聚居的地方，并发展出具有浓厚东亚风味的商圈。and I began to look involuntarily（不由自主地）out the windows for other cars. So did Gatsby’s father. And as the time passed and the servants came in and stood waiting in the hall, his eyes began to blink anxiously and he spoke of the rain in a worried uncertain way. The minister glanced several times at his watch so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use.Nobody came.