The City

Valley of Ashes

Green Light

Dr. TJ Eckleburg

Nick Carraway

Tom Buchanan

Daisy Buchanan

Myrtle Wilson

George Wilson

Dinner Party at the Buchanan's House

Violence in the Apartment

Myrtle Wilson is married to Mr. Wilson but is also having a love affair with Tom Buchanan.

"I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe." (page 34)

Mrs. Wilson settled for Mr. Wilson because he treated her well but she wanted something more. She wanted money and a lavish lifestyle and she doesn't think she has that with Mr. Wilson but she does see that in Tom Buchanan. At the end of Chapter 2, Mrs. Wilson is hit by Tom Buchanan. This shows what kind of relationship Myrtle and Tom have with each other.

""Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-----" 

Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. " (pg 37 )

This scene shows the reader the aggressive side of Tom and indicates that his relationship with Myrtle isn't real to him. He's second guessing and guilty for their relationship. This scene reveals that Myrtle is more into the relationship than Tom is and regrets her marriage to George because she wants to be with someone more high class.

Themes:

Loss of Innocence

New Moral Codes

¨This is valley of ashes-- a fanatic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesqur garden; where shes take the form of houses and chimmeys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move more dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.¨"pg. 23

Is a place of poverty between West and New York. While the places on either side represent wealth and prosperity. Here it is absolute poverty. It is very industrial place with a hazy coal pollution. This represents how most people lived in america in the 1920s. It is were all the trash is dumped from the two places is dumped. A place with 3 buildings in it. Everything is ash gray. No new money flowing through the area.

"The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and, when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour. There is always a halt there of at least a minute, and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan's mistress." pg. 24

To get to the city from West and East Egg, you have to travel through the valley of ashes. You would think of the city as a rich and happy place, but it is where Tom goes to see his mistress, Myrtle. The city is for secrets and people who want to hide things. This is also where Nick learns a lot about Tom and his life with Daisy vs. Myrtle.

-Nick's second cousin

-Wife to Tom Buchanan

-Beautiful and charming

- From Louisville, Kentucky

In the first chapters Daisy is very kind and innocent.Her voice, from Nick's perspective, has a singing like quality. Fitzgerald described Daisy as dressed in all white which could possibly symbolize a sense of purity

"I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." Pg 17

East Egg and West Egg are two unusual formations of land twenty miles from the city that are identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay. East Egg is the more fashionable of the two, making West Egg look less fashionable.

"I lived at West Egg, the- well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them." (Nick, p.5)

"All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And i hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.' pg.17

Analysis:

Daisy acts like a fool for her husband, even though he has a mistress she stays with him. The reason she stays has to do with the grand lifestyle, big mansion, expensive horses, and many other luxuries. The Buchanan's act like they are wealthy and as if their life was perfect and portray this perfect life to those around them.

The dinner highlights the behind the scenes of Daisy and Tom's marriage and private life. The house they live in is grand and luxurious wit big french windows and a "lawn that started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile"(pg.6)

George Wilson lives and works on the Valley of Ashes. He was handsome yet dull. His wife is having an affair with Tom but he doesn't know. Tom thinks he is an idiot. 

"Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive."

"The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-- their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face,but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose."(pg.23) This symbolizes the haziness of the story and what he sees from looking down on the Valley. It's like he's watching over the Valley and the people in it.

The green light represents Gatsby's hopes and dreams for the future. "Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light." (Fitzgerald, 21) It first appears when Gatsby stares across the bay towards a green light at the end of a dock.

Tom is the husband of Daisy and he is a very masculine man that has this aggressive tone and also has aggressive actions. He is very wealthy and he lives on the East egg of the island. Tom also is having an affair with Mrs. Wilson. Daisy knows about the affair but doesnt know his actual mistress.

"Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven —a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax." page 6.

Nick is the narrator. He makes himself out to be very trustworthy. He seems to be a person to come to and tell your secrets too. Nick is liked by pretty much everyone and makes friends easily. He lives in West Egg, beside Gatsby. He moved from the West to the East for the bond business. He seems to notice things about people easily.

Nicks tone towards Tom is disapproving. He is brought in the middle of Tom and his affair, but doesn't want to be because Daisy is his cousin. Tom to Nick is aggressive and bulky. Nick doesn't see Tom as a nice guy, just mostly as a cheater and a jerk (:

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments..." (pg. 1)