Literature and Society - 2024 Chapter Two PDF

# Literature and Society ## The Program of English Interdisciplinary Studies - 2024 ### Chapter Two Chapter Two depicts Nick's foray into the city with Tom and his mistress and the drunken shenanigans that ensue. The first few paragraphs introduce readers to two of the most enduring symbols in *...

# Literature and Society ## The Program of English Interdisciplinary Studies - 2024 ### Chapter Two Chapter Two depicts Nick's foray into the city with Tom and his mistress and the drunken shenanigans that ensue. The first few paragraphs introduce readers to two of the most enduring symbols in *The Great Gatsby*: the valley of the ashes and the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The valley of ashes is “that solemn dumping ground," the industrial stretch between East and West Egg and Manhattan, where everything is gray. Nick says the ash forms "grotesque gardens", taking shape as "houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-gray men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." It is a stylized depiction of the neighborhoods and blocks where working people – those who are not of Daisy and Tom's "distinguished secret society," or even of Nick's own class – live. The bleakness and despondency of their lives and fates, as perceived by Nick and others, are the realities from which Gatsby himself had fled. The ordinary is thus conceived of as horrific, crumbling, hopeless - quotidian with fatal verve. Queens is, then, neither the ribald bustle of Manhattan nor the moneyed enclave of the Eggs. It is drudgery, where fire's only evidence is the ash left after consumption. If there is any question as to the importance of the symbol to the novel, consider that one of Fitzgerald's several working titles for the novel was *Among Ash Heaps and Millionaires.* The valley of ashes powders under the watchful eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Long ago erected by "some wild wag of an oculist" to "fatten his practice in the boroughs of Queens," the eyes of the doctor "brood" like those of a despondent god. George Wilson later sees them almost literally as the eyes of God. They are also ever seeing, overseeing, never blinking, and take the role of conscience, witness, and judge. Because a "small foul river" borders the valley, the train into the city is often delayed at the drawbridge, making passengers "stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour." That delay, Nick tells the reader, resulted in his meeting Tom Buchanan's mistress. The two had been heading into New York when they hit the delay and, rather than waiting, Tom suddenly says, “I want you to meet my girl." He “literally forced" Nick off the train and the two walk along “under Doctor Eckleburg's persistent stare." The stare comes after Tom's brazen admission to a mistress, and watches Nick's (however reluctant) complicity in going to meet the woman. They end up at George Wilson's garage, described as "unprosperous and bare," in stark contrast to the sumptuous animation of the Buchanan home. It is a "shadow of a garage," another contrast to the light constantly surrounding Daisy and Tom. George Wilson himself wipes his hand on "a piece of waste," is a "spiritless man, anæmic," and when he sees the two, "a damp gleam of hope sprang" into his eyes. Myrtle Wilson's presence contrasts forcefully with Daisy Buchanan's. She literally "blocks out the light," carries "surplus flesh sensuously," and her face "contained no facet or gleam of beauty." But where Daisy is charm and illusion, lightness and façade, Myrtle Wilson has “an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering." The reasons for Tom's attraction are underscored by Fitzgerald's use of fire imagery in the initial description of both characters. For Tom, it was the burning gardens. With Myrtle, it is her smoldering of vitality. She walks through "her husband as if he were a ghost" and orders him around, clearly dominating him. As George moves to get chairs, Nick notes the "white ashen dust" covering his shoulders, linking the dust, perhaps, to the Buchanans and their ilk. The valley of ashes is covered in the ash drifting down from on high, from the fiery consumption of the elite. It veils everything, Nick notes. Nick and Tom leave after Tom tells Myrtle to get on a train, to meet him in the city. The use of color and characterization continues in the scene which follows, wherein Tom and Myrtle meet in New York. Myrtle wears a brown dress, picks up a copy of *Town Tattler*, a rough equivalent to today's *Star magazine*, or *Us Weekly*, a tabloid that, in its day, followed the exploits of Broadway and the fledgling movie industry, then still centered in New York. She chatters about getting a dog for the apartment. In all aspects, she reveals her station as below that of the Buchanans. In Tom and Myrtle's apartment Nick notices a single picture, “an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock.” As he looks at it, readers learn it resembles a famous optical illusion—resonating with the illusory quality of Myrtle's aspirations to culture. That the illusion is really Myrtle's mother is yet another layer of revelation. The McKees arrive as well. He is a photographer, the one who took the photo of Myrtle's mother, and is, like George, dominated by his carping wife. As the conversation progresses, Catherine asks Nick if he knows Gatsby. She tells him that people think Gatsby is a descendant of Kaiser Wilhelm, the ruler of Germany before and during World War I. It is the first of many rumors Nick will hear about his neighbour. Many critics have written about how Fitzgerald's decision to delay the truth about Gatsby's past contributes to the novel's tension and makes Gatsby the memorable character he becomes. As Catherine tells Nick about how neither Myrtle nor Tom could stand their spouses, Myrtle overhears and soon launches into a tirade about how George fooled her into marrying her. ### Chapter Three The chapter begins with one of the famous passages of the book: the first description of Gatsby's Friday night parties. In it, Fitzgerald summarizes a list of delights and actions that go into the making of a Gatsby event, the particulars meant to lure Daisy Buchanan to his home. In this case, the list serves to highlight the magical quality of the parties and how they first impressed Nick and the many other partygoers. The sentences mix numerous poetic images: “In his blue gardens men and