At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway returns to the Midwest. He leaves the East after Gatsby’s death, the failed funeral, and his growing disgust with the region’s carelessness and moral emptiness.
Nick had moved east from the Midwest in 1922 to learn the bond business and rented a small house in West Egg. His position between West Egg and East Egg allowed him to observe Gatsby’s parties, Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s privilege, and the destructive consequences of their choices.
After Gatsby is killed, Nick discovers how few people truly cared about him. The wealthy guests who filled Gatsby’s mansion largely disappear, while Nick is left to arrange the funeral and confront the people connected to the tragedy. His return west is therefore both a literal move and a symbolic retreat from the East’s indifference.
The novel often contrasts East and West, though these are moral and cultural categories as much as geographic ones. Nick’s Midwest represents home and a more stable identity, not a claim that every Midwestern character is virtuous.