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Henry Gatz is Gatsby’s real father, who is so disconnected from his son’s current life that Nick doesn’t even know how to contact him after Gatsby’s death. Gatsby admits that he felt that he was born to the incorrect parents. Despite the facts of his upbringing, he sees himself as innately suited to a life of wealth and success, and he begins from a young age to work tirelessly toward this vision. His lower to middle-class Midwestern parents do not fit with the affluent, educated character Gatsby attempts to embody, so he doesn’t truly consider them his parents. Instead, Gatsby looks to wealthy figures who are more suited to his vision, like Dan Cody, to take the place of his birth parents. This backstory casts Henry Gatz into a pitiable and pathetic light. When he travels to New York for Gatsby’s funeral, his conversations with Nick imply that he has little idea of how ashamed Gatsby was of his family or the extent to which Gatsby has erased his real parents from the fantastical narrative he created about his life and origins.
Henry Gatz shows the stark contrast between the reality of Gatsby’s class station and the illusion he has built for himself. Gatsby has created a fantasy life, in which his true parents barely existed and figures like Dan Cody take on a more prominent, parental role in his youth. However, the sad reality becomes apparent when Nick meets Henry Gatz after Gatsby’s death, and finds him to be a loving father who, despite not having seen his son for two years, is incredibly proud of his son’s achievements. There is also something deeply tragic in Gatsby’s treatment of his parents. While he pushes them out of his current life, never mentioning their true identities to anyone due to their connection with his lower-class upbringing, he secretly takes care of them, buying them a house in the Midwest and sending photos of his lavish life in New York. His father is so separated from the reality of his son’s life on the east coast that he is shocked both by the enormity of Gatsby’s wealth as well as the distressing fact of his loneliness.
