"He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked around him now for thefirst time and saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms, his grief began to be mixed with awed pride. " (168) Our perceptions of people after they die tend to be skewed in many directions. Some people end up hating people more after they die, but many people tend to focus on how great the person was, even if they were...well...terrible. Gatsby's dad, now granted he was his dad so that changes the perspective even more, was in complete awe of what Gatsby had made with his life. He always knew that his son would reach great heights, because that's what parents do. They think of the best possible situations for their children and when disaster strikes, it's the other person's fault or the other person is "a madman." Parents are really good at that though, no matter how mean or rude their children were to them. Gatsby completely cut ties with his parents, yet his dad was so proud of him for everything he became. He also didn't question how Gatsby became so rich, so he ignored that fact that there were possibilities of illegalities in the way his son got his money. He also ignored that there were no people at his funeral even though he was apparently so well liked and so popular with his parties. Death skews everything and throws it out of proportion, especially with our relationships and views on others.
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