The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby Chapter Two

2. Chapter 2 • Describe the "valley of ashes." What does it look like and what does it represent? • Describe Mr. Wilson and Myrtle. Do they seem to fit into the setting? • What more have you learned about Nick in this chapter? Is he similar or different to the people he spends his time with? • Describe the violent act Tom committed against Myrtle. What does this reveal about him?

3. Chapter Summary • 3rd setting – The Valley of Ashes. Represents darker side to the American Dream - when you work hard but don’t achieve what you want. • George and Myrtle Wilson - the only poor characters in the novel - live in the V of A. • Myrtle has aspirations. Sees Tom as her ticket out and won’t accept there is no chance of a permanent relationship between them. Notice her shopping list. Tom rents an apartment for them in Manhattan. • Tom, Nick, Myrtle and other people throw a small party and we see a darker side to Tom as he punches Myrtle when she mentions Daisy.

4. The Valley of the Ashes • The Valley of Ashes lies between West Egg and New York - a stretch of land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. • Symbolises the shame of American capitalism. Men are devoid of colour, working to maintain the status quo of those like the Buchanans who don’t work at all. • Symbolises the plight of the poor: George Wilson, who lives among the dirty ashes and has no vitality as a result. They move ‘dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air; far from the splendour and indulgence of the Eggs. • “A line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track… immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.” This perhaps represents the idea that this section of society is deliberately hidden from view (notice how the train curls away from the Valley, as if it ‘shrinks away’ from having to confront it.)

5. Myrtle & George Wilson Myrtle and George Wilson • George is one of the ash-grey men, and his only source of joy is, ironically, the wife who is cheating on him: A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in his vicinity – except his wife, who moved close to Tom. • Myrtle displays a robust sexuality and the reader can see why Tom is attracted to her – she is the opposite from the pure, delicate and insubstantial Daisy. • Myrtle represents the idea of escape in the novel, but like other characters, her dream is false and filled with illusion. Both she and her ghost-like husband are locked to the Valley of the Ashes by the very nature of their impoverishment. The yellowness of their home could suggest decay and atrophy.

6. Myrtle • Myrtle changes her clothes 3 times in the chapter and with that, her personality. This emphasises her desire to be accepted into Tom’s world. She believes in illusion and in looking the part, yet this is a façade. • The change of dress is symbolic of the nature of falsity and pretence that pervades the novel. Her movement from her real self (represented by the full-blooded blue of her previous dress) to her ‘desired’ self (seen in the pastel cream dress - which might be worn by Daisy) is indicative of her inability to face the truth about her life. She is pretending to be the one person in the world who she cannot hope to emulate – her lover's wife. Note: Myrtle’s dress is cream; Daisy’s is white – Myrtle is trying, but failing to emulate Daisy.

7. Daisy and Myrtle • Clear contrast between Daisy and Myrtle. Whereas Daisy is presented as faintly ephemeral, dressed in pale pastels with her ‘low, thrilling voice’, Myrtle is full of sensual energy. When she comes down the stairs, Nick notes her ‘immediate perceptible vitality… as if her nerves were continually smouldering’. • Unlike Daisy, she wears bold colours to reveal her hot-blooded temperament and her robust femininity. She is straightforward, commanding and overtly sexual, licking her lips at Tom as she approaches him. It is only when she changed her dress that her character alters as Nick observes through a drunken surreal haze.

8. Theme: Artifice and Reality • Lie told by Myrtle about the reason Tom cannot divorce Daisy. • The abundance of alcohol serves as a reminder of the characters need to fill their leisure time with artificial stimulants. • Myrtle’s discussion of her own marriage reveals her own superficiality: the fact that she was appalled by George borrowing a suit for the ceremony really only tells us that she is the one who cannot see beyond surface reality. • Her husband ‘dumbly’ adores her, but his status in society is the only thing that matters in her materialistic, greedy world.

9. Reality • The characters are forced out of their drunken stupor and back to harsh reality with the sound of Myrtle’s nose being broken by Tom. This first sign of violence is an open admission of the aggressive behaviour he has displayed throughout the novel so far. With one blow, he signals the permanence of his marriage – the symbol, after all, of his wealth and connection in society. The one thing in Tom's life that is ‘real’ is this marriage bond. Despite his lack of fondness or love for Daisy, it is the one unbreakable chain in his life. This is the harshness of the reality that Myrtle - and, in time - Gatsby will have to face.