Chapter 2 Flashcards
But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic. . . . But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under the sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.
The beginning of Nick’s description of Doctor Eckleburg’s giant, disembodied eyes gives the impression that the eyes are all-seeing and cast judgment. However, Nick’s dismissal of the actual doctor as a “wag” who wanted to “fatten his practice” before letting the billboard decay suggests that the ad is just another example of the emptiness of American consumerism.
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat . . . where ashes take the forms of houses. . . .
Nick describes the land and structures as being built of ashes rather than simply covered in or obscured by them. This description tells readers that such a desolate place does not exist by mistake. Rather, it was created by the wealthy populations surrounding it who give no thought to populations without as much money.
‘Neither of them can stand the person they’re married to.’
‘Can’t they?’
‘Can’t stand them.’ She looked at Myrtle and then at Tom. ‘What I say is, why go on living with them if they can’t stand them? If I was them I’d get a divorce and get married to each other right away.’
Myrtle’s sister Catherine speaks to Nick about Myrtle and Tom’s affair. Catherine’s romanticising the affair likely reflects Myrtle’s own perspective on the relationship. We learn that Tom’s feelings for Myrtle are far less intense than he has led her to believe and that social pressure prevents him from ever leaving Daisy, who comes from a similar upper-class background.
‘It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce.’
Daisy was not a Catholic, and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie.
Myrtle believes the only reason Tom is still with Daisy is because of her Catholic when in actual fact this is a lie made up by Tom in order to stay with Daisy and keep Myrtle on the side. The reality is that Myrtle would never be able to be with Tom due to the social constraints on the both of them
I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the Park. . . . Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.
It shows Nick doesnt fit into the New York society and ponders about the rest of society and their dealings. He also wants to escape this party as he doesnt fit in with the mix of old rich and poor.
