How Does Fitzgerald Tell the Story in Chapter 2 of the Great Gatsby?

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, similarities and differences arise between two fascinating characters, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. These main characters seem like two completely different characters but similarities are present. Daisy, “the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 120), is a key factor into what makes these men so similar. While discussing these similar traits, the reader may question why Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby. In the novel, the men’s love and wealth help the audience understand Daisy’s decision.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a novel that highlights the stark contrast between the rich elites of East Egg and the dirt-poor ashen people of the Valley of Ashes through the reckless power that the wealthy of this world can exert on the unfortunate. As concluded by Nick in the novel, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness [...] and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald, 179). By thoroughly examining the thoughtless actions of Daisy and Tom Buchanan and their consequences, Baz Luhrmann's rendition of The Great Gatsby portrays the carelessness of the elites more effectively than the novel. Through the inclusion of additional scenes and the omission of some, Baz Luhrmann conveys the utter disregard that Tom and Daisy posses towards other characters in the novel.

Chapter 7 mirrors chapter 1 in setting and structure, of the travelling to New York and the necessity to pass through ‘The Valley of the Ashes’ symbolic of the mythological River Styx and “The Waste Land” by T.S. Elliot. Also, the many separated sections in chapter 7 are reminiscent of the structure of chapter 1, used as a key way for Fitzgerald to effectively and emotively convey the story, by framing the two chapters together. The tragic events in chapter 7; the climactic revelation of Daisy and Gatsby’s affair and Myrtle’s death; come to light. The theme of mistaken identity is crucial in chapter 7, from the first half of the chapter where the prolonged

The Valley of Ashes represents the socially unaccepted. The characters in the Valley of Ashes represent poverty. “This is the Valley of Dry Bones, the Waste Land, The dusty replica of modern society, where ash-grey men are crumbling, like Eliot’s hollow men” (Bicknell 98). Myrtle and George Wilson both live in a run down garage in the Valley of Ashes. Myrtle Wilson tries desperately to improve her life and get out of the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes also represents doom and death. Myrtle is found as the victim of a hit and run caused by Daisy and Gatsby. The Valley of Ashes represents the death and dreams for Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson. These characters die in the novel due to misconception and anger.

The Valley of Ashes is a place of uninterrupted desolation, and is inhabited by poorer individuals like George and Myrtle Wilson. It is a miserable place that connects Long Island with Manhattan, and Fitzgerald uses it to denote the politics of that day. It lacks the stylish suburban allure of West and East Egg, and is a barren wasteland that symbolizes the moral decay of all classes in the capitalist society of 1920s America. Moreover, the Valley of Ashes is a reflection of the destruction of morals hidden by the facades of the Eggs, and Fitzgerald uses it to indicate that beneath the garish ornamentation of West Egg, and the mannered pretense of East Egg, lies the same ugliness that is in the valley.. He depicts it as a place plagued with such

Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, lives in a garage in the valley of ashes, with her husband, George Wilson. Described to be gray, the valley of ashes appears to be an area of poverty and moral decay. This could mean that Tom comes to the valley of ashes and because there are no morals, he acts freely with whomever he desires. Nick narrates that the

The author presents the Valley of Ashes in chapter two, in which readers also meet Myrtle, Tom’s mistress. Myrtle's physical appearance reveals the sensuous and the impureness of her character and foreshadows her future death. Fitzgerald introduces Myrtle

However through Myrtle, Tom exposes his life to all the death and despair that her habitation

She lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband who owns a crumbling garage. She is unhappy in her marriage, so she is having an affair with Tom Buchanan. Tom is her ideal man because he is wealthy and can afford to buy her expensive things whereas her husband can barely afford to keep his garage open. Initially, Myrtle is described as being "in the middle thirties, and faintly stout" and containing "no facet or gleam of beauty." Immediately after she leaves the Valley of ashes with Tom, her character is described completely different. She is described in elegant detail similar to that of the rich because now she is immersed in the rich lifestyle. Fitzgerald describes her as wearing "a brown figured muslin, which stretched tight over her rather wide hips." The way Fitzgerald describes her also makes her seem beautiful whereas before she was described as having no "facet of beauty." Nick is even comments on Myrtle's sudden change in personality when she is around Tom. He states, "with the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so markable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions, became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her." The reason Myrtle was described differently and changed so drastically was all due to class distinction. Myrtle

This chapter starts out with the description of another part of New York known as the “Valley of Ashes.” This is the poverty side of New York and is noticeably poor since it's referred to such a name. We are introduced to another character named George Wilson and his wife Myrtle. Tom takes Nick to George Wilson's garage, which is located in the Valley of Ashes. By this we know that George Wilson is a poor man.Tom is cheating on his wife for Wilson's wife which is pretty absurd.Tom takes a visit to a party with Catherine, and brings Daisy Nick and Myrtle along with him. (Catherine and Myrtle are sisters). The group starts gossiping about Gatsby, while getting drunk. Myrtle then begins to annoy Tom because she keeps talking about his wife Daisy. This non-stop talk about

She lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband George Wilson. The Valley of Ashes represents the desperation of the people of the lower class to fit in. It is a poor area in which many fantasize about an extravagant lifestyle and could live their life in lavishness. The individuals who live there are constantly burning like embers, struggling to last as long as they can in the world before being flushed out. Similar to many of the individuals in the Valley of Ashes, Myrtle despises living below everyone else and wants to have fortune similar to Gatsby’s. Jay Gatsby’s mansion contains a “high gothic library, paneled with carved English oak, probably transported complete from some ruin overseas” (45) while Myrtle’s minuscule apartment possesses “a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath” (29). She longs for a luxurious lifestyle and when she meets Tom Buchanan, an extremely wealthy man who lives in East Egg, she sees him as an opportunity to escape from the depths of her gray life. Nevertheless, her eagerness to break free from her social class ultimately leads to her demise. Later, when Wilson discovers that Myrtle is seeing Tom, he threatens to take her away to go West. Following the dispute, Myrtle rushes outside to a yellow car, thinking that it was Tom driving, but car did not stop and moments later, Myrtle

Fitzgerald portrays the valley of ashes as a grotesque place where no one would want to live and try's to symbolize it as what's beneath both of the wealthy eggs in Long Island, all though the Eggs are where the wealthy people live and are happy and live luxurious but on the inside they still aren't all happy and live immorally wrong by being corrupt, cheating and drinking their lives away which is how Fitzgerald considers them "ugly" like the valley of

Gatsby realizes that life of the high-class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby?s time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an enormously wealthy family, ?seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind.?(Lehan, pg.60) Nick describes Tom?s physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a ?hard mouth and a supercilious manner?arrogant eyes has established dominance over his face?always leaning aggressively forward?a cruel body?his speaking voice?added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed? (Lehan, p.61)

One of the ways in which Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 1 is through the characterisation aspect of narrative, using symbolism in order to better exenterate character features. One of the ways Fitzgerald uses characterisation is through description of character appearance, as seen with the description of Daisy whom wears a white dress.

Tom Buchanan is one of the many colourful, intriguing and enigmatic characters of the masterpiece “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is the antagonist of the novel and rightly so. He is racist, a hypocrite, an immoral cheater, a short-tempered brute and misogynistic. Tom is also part of an old and out dated sort of world that is being swamped all-round the edges by a new and better society. That is the reason why he is acting so tough and also why he hates Jay Gatsby so much, it is because he is afraid, afraid that the world that he knows and all the old-fashioned values of love, wealth and masculinity will come crashing down on him. He dislikes Gatsby because he is part of the new generation and he got rich by a different way