The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby Chapter Two Questions

2. Describe the Valley of Ashes. Who lives there? • Located halfway between West Egg and New York; “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.” (23) • Dumping ground for the ash produced by coal-burning furnaces • Symbol for industrial society’s decay and the waste produced by the rich • George and Myrtle Wilson live above a car garage in the valley of ashes.

3. Describe the billboard located over the valley of ashes. Be specific. • “The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic – their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose.” (23-24) • Old advertisement for an oculist practice in Queens

4. How is Mr. Wilson described on page 25? • “He was a blond, spiritless man, anemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.”

5. How is Myrtle Wilson described on page 25? • “She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can.” • She had “an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering.”

6. Where do Tom, Nick, and Myrtle go and what do they do? • They head into New York City on the train. Once in the city, Tom buys Myrtle a dog to take to her apartment that he keeps up for her. (26-27) • There is a party at Myrtle’s apartment where Nick is drunk for the second time in his life. He meets Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, and some of Myrtle’s friends and neighbors. (29)

7. Describe some of the party guests at Myrtle’s apartment. (30) • Catherine, Myrtle’s sister, is a “slender, worldly girl of about thirty, with a sticky bob of red hair, and a complexion powdered milky white.” • Mr. McKee is a neighbor from the flat below, and also a photographer. He came to the party with his wife, Mrs. McKee

8. Describe the change in Myrtle’s personality (page 30) • “With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment…”

9. What’s a rumor in circulation about Gatsby? (page 32) • That he is the nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm (the former ruler of Germany) and that that is how he came to be so wealthy.

10. What does Catherine believe is the reason Tom will not leave Daisy for Myrtle? (page 33) • She thinks Daisy is Catholic and does not believe in divorce. Nick is “shocked at the elaborateness of the lie.”

11. Why does Myrtle say she married George? (pages 34-35) • She says she married him because she thought he was a gentleman, but found out that “he wasn’t fit to lick [my] shoe.” • She realized she made a mistake when he borrowed someone’s suit to be married in. • What does this say about Myrtle’s character?

12. Nick narrates, “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” (35) What does this say about his character? • He waffles between being amusement and disgust at the antics of the people around him. We already know that he reserves judgment in most cases, and it appears to be the case here. He is content to observe from the edges of the scene.

13. Where did Tom and Myrtle first meet? What phrase did she keep thinking over and over when she met him? • They met on the train to New York. He was pressed up against her and she feigned offense, saying she would call a policeman. She then got into a taxi with him. • “You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever.” (36)

14. What breaks up the party? • Myrtle irritates Tom by mentioning Daisy’s name. He hits her, breaking her nose, and the apartment to be thrown into confusion. (37) • Why do you think Tom doesn’t want Myrtle to mention Daisy’s name?