THE GREAT GATSBY

CHAPTER 2 NOTES

Plot/Structure Ch. 2
The chapter starts with an expository description of an area
between the Eggs and New York City that Nick refers to as the
Valley of Ashes
a space that Long Islanders passed every day on the train on
their way into the City.
This description starts off the chapter before the narrative even
begins.
Its at the forefront of the events of this chapter, thus signifying
significance to this setting.

Blog Post
In what way is the description in the opening
paragraphs of Chapter 2 appropriate to the total
atmosphere of this chapter?
What is symbolic about the valley of ashes, and the
eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg?

Setting
The Valley of Ashes

The "Valley of Ashes" represents the people left behind in the Roaring Twenties.
The dust recalls Nick's reference to the "foul dust" that corrupted Gatsby (pg.2)
The valley of ashes was located in Flushing, Queens. It was a site for the
disposal of ashes from domestic heating.
The description of the Valley of Ashes recalls the bleak spiritual landscape of
T.S. Eliots poem The Waste Land. That poem responds to the horrific violence
of the First World War but also to the spread of materialistic, consumerist values
in modern society.

Symbolism Dr. Eckleburgs Eyes

Fitzgerald is crucially concerned with the possibilities and limits of vision and
with point of view
The assumption that the eyes are all seeing, but these eyes are actually blind
Implying later on that the world is godless and there is no caring being who
oversees our actions and ensures that justice is done
Represents a world of partial knowledge, of blinkered vision limited by point of
view
Nick Carraway is telling Gatsbys story as he saw it, but he knows that there are other
versions which might be told from other points of view.

The waste or remnants of the past that linger, constant reminders of the past

Symbolism Dr. Eckleburgs Eyes

Doctor Eckleburgs advertisement is a realistic detail from the
consumer culture of the 20s.
On a practical level, a visual advertisement of this kind had the
additional merit of being comprehensible to newly arrived
immigrants with little or no grasp of English.
On another level, the eyes provide a striking focal point for the
books thematic concern with vision.
What do we really see and what do we turn a blind eye to?

Symbolism Dr. Eckleburgs Eyes

The advertisement assumes potent significance at the end of the
novel, when George Wilson mistakes the eyes for those of an
omniscient God.
Fitzgerald seems to suggest that consumerism and materialism
have taken the place of spiritual values in modern America and
have become pervasive.
Is this idea explored anywhere else in this chapter?

The Wilsons
The Wilsons live at their place of work.
This indicates that they have lower social standing that
Nick Carraway, who works in the city but lives in the
suburb, a distance from work.
Fitzgerald emphasizes that America, despite claims to
democratic equality, is a society divided into a number
of social classes based on wealth and property.

The Wilsons
Wilson owns the garage/gas bar in the Valley of
Ashes. He lives with his wife Myrtle.
Wilson is good- looking, but beaten-down and
lifeless and has ashes in his hair
Myrtle strikes Nick as vibrant and oddly sensuous

The Wilsons
Wilson and Myrtle have different reactions to the
world that has left them behind.
Wilson is left weak and defeated, with vague
dreams he can't fulfill.
Myrtle wants desperately to be a part of the
world she sees but can't touch, and so takes up
with Tom.

The Wilsons
We see Myrtle buying various items, but should
recognize that in turn, she is being bought by
Tom.
He buys her material things, but Tom views his
relationship with Myrtle in material terms, as a
physical affair rather than an emotional
commitment.

Who is Gatsby?!
Catherine says she's afraid of Gatsby because she's heard that
he's a relative of the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm, and
everyone agrees that Gatsby is involved in some sort of shifty
business.
Rumors swirl around Gatsby
He has become so rich and is so mysterious he seems almost
hollowall surface and no substance.