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Summary
Chapter 2
Nick begins the chapter by describing the valley of ashes – an area between
West Egg and New York that completely lacks color and is simply distinguished
by grey, bleak dust. In what is perhaps Fitzgerald’s most fatalistic, graphic
description in the book, each building, car, and person, seems to be covered
with an uneraseable layer of ash. And above the valley of ashes are the
eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, who plays the God figure in this book, a
detached, disinterested deity who simply watches over the immoral actions
of these fast-paced, reckless young people (Fitzgerald’s inclusion of the
valley of ashes was inspired by a poem by T.S. Eliot entitled “The Wasteland”).
While he is in the valley of ashes, Nick meets Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson,
who is married to George Wilson, the owner of the gas station/car dealership
that Tom goes to. Nick notices from the start that George is a lifeless,
spineless man who has no hope of bettering himself – he depends completely
on his wife for stability and for happiness. Myrtle, a plump, stout woman,
nonetheless possesses a vibrant sexuality that exudes from her personality
and charms Tom away from remaining faithful to Daisy. After she tells George
to leave the room to get them some chairs, Tom tells her to meet him and
Nick on the next train, and after George gets back, Tom abruptly says good-bye
to them and takes Nick with him to meet Myrtle.
Nick, Tom, and Myrtle spend the afternoon together in New York. Tom generously
buys some puppies that Myrtle was cooing over, and then they all travel
to the love nest that Tom has purchased for himself and Myrtle. The three
proceed to get drunk in the apartment, and Nick remembers meeting Myrtle’s
friends, the McKees, who live downstairs from them, and her sister, Catherine.
Catherine tells Nick that even though neither Tom nor Myrtle can stand the
person that they’re married to, they can’t run away together because Daisy
is a Catholic and doesn’t believe in divorce – which shocks Nick because
he knows that that is a lie. Even though he is drunk, Nick remembers seeing
Tom and Myrtle arguing because Myrtle defies Tom by saying Daisy’s name
to him over and over again, reminding him of her presence. Tom, in a burst
of anger, breaks her nose with his fist, and Nick’s memory of what happens
after that moment fades away in a drunken blur.
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