Great Gatsby: Chapter 2

Great Gatsby: Chapter 2

1. SETTING

   • The Valley of Ashes
     • Desolate area between West Egg & NYC
     • Looked over by T.J Eckleburg- options advertising board
       • Realistic detail of consumer culture in the 1920's
       • Comprehensible to new immigrants who didn't know the language
       • Eyes symbolise a striking focal point for novels thematic concern with vision.
       • Significant at the end of the novel when George mistakes the eyes for an omniscient God figure
         • Symbolises Fitzgerald opinion that consumerism &materialism have taken the place of spiritual values in modern USA.
     • Reference to 'TheWaste Land's' bleak spiritual landscape by T.S Elliot
   • Tom & Myrtle's city flat
     • Drinking party sceane

2. CHARACTER

   • Myrtle
     • Married to George Wilson
     • Tom Buchanan's mistress
       • Myrtle buys many different items but really Tom is buying her
         • He views there relationship as a materialism
         • A physical l affair rather than an emotional commitment
     • Lives with her husband at their place of work
       • suggest they have lower social standing than the other character in the novel.
         • Suggest USA is a country split into social classes based on wealth & property despite it claiming to have democratic equality