The Great Gatsby Chapter 2

1. The Great Gatsby: Chapter 2 (pg 23-38)

2. In Chapter 2,  Nick is traveling with Tom from West Egg to New York until suddenly Tom pulls Nick out of the train and leads him towards a "small block of yellow brick" where a man named George B. Wilson works at with his wife Myrtle Wilson. Nick learns that Myrtle is the woman with whom Tom is having his affair with  and goes along with Tom who instructs Myrtle to take the next train to New York and meet him at the news stand. Myrtle buys a dog on their way to the apartments and later calls Catherine, her sister, and the McKees from the floor below to their room for a party. The party is the second time Nick gets drunk, he learns that neither Tom nor Myrtle can stand their marriage, learns from Myrtle how she and Tom met, and witnesses the scene where Tom breaks Myrtle's nose because she kept saying Daisy's.

3. Character: George B. Wilson

"when the proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands on a piece of waste." (Gatsby 25)

Qualities:

"He was a blond, spiritless man, anemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes." (Gatsby 25)

"Oh, sure,' agreed Wilson hurriedly, and went toward the little office mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls." (Gatsby 26)

"Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive." (Gatsby 26)

"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." (Gatsby 34)

Role: George finds himself in the same situation as Daisy in their marriage. Both have someone in their marriage who cheats on them. In a way, George is similar to Daisy who earlier in Chapter 1 shows she knows about the affair but she just lets it go and continues to pretend she does not know while George in the same way does not know that his wife is cheating on him and believes she goes to New York only to meet her sister. He shown as a submissive husband to Myrtle who orders him around when she says," Get some chairs, why don't you, so somebody can sit down."(Gatsby 26) and George obeys by going into his office and retrieving the chairs.

4.  "This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air."(Gatsby 23)

When reading this quote, it gives the idea of a desolate wasteland for example when it relates wheat to ashes. This is the first description of a land that seemed devoid of color in contrast to the other descriptions so far in the book that have colorful descriptions. When the quote mentions," men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air," it gives the impression that these are people who work in large factories that give off the "powdery air" or people who just live near these building and live in poverty. The description of this land is different from the description of New York which portrays it as a exciting and thrilling place to be.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 1

The Great Gatsby: Chapter 1, pg 1-21

The chapter starts out with Nick Carraway talking about himself and how his father's words," 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,"(Gatsby 1) led to him reserving his judgements because they may be misguiding. He had been in the "Great War" and had decided to go into the bond business and settled in West Egg, east of New York. He drove to East Egg to have dinner with Daisy, second cousin once removed, and Tom whom he knew from Yale. Nick meets Miss Baker whom he later learns is the competitive golfer, Jordan Baker, and  that Tom may have an affair with another woman in New York. After dinner, Nick returns home in West Egg and sees Mr. Gatsby who is looking towards the ocean and Nick glances at the ocean to see a green light which he believes to be the end of a dock.


Tom Buchanan:
"but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game."(Gatsby 6)

Qualities-"He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body-he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage-a cruel body." (Gatsby 7)
"His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he like- and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts." (Gatsby 7)
"Well, these books are all scientific,' insisted Tom, glancing at her impatiently. 'This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things." (Gatsby 13)

Tom's role in this story is to portray the kind of rich society in that current time. Tom is seen as wealthy from the way he lives from the quote," he'd brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that." (Gatsby 6) He is seen as a racist with his white supremacist views and as a dishonest man because of his affair with another woman in New York.

Quote:
"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."(Gatsby 1)
The significance of this quote shows that there are those who can be labeled as the "haves" and others who are labeled as the "have-nots". Nick is shown here to be part of the "haves" but he should consider that others have not had the kind of opportunities that were afforded to them as they were for him. There are those who have it harder in life than he does.