The second chapter begins with vivid imagery, describing an ash-ridden Queens, New York,
“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 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. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.”
This city of ashes represents the morbidity which blankets over everything. Ashes, usually associated with death and consumption, cover the houses, the cars, the streets, the plants, and the air, showing that the area is now dead— all used up. These people, covered in ash are being consumed, in a way, to mine and build bigger and better things for the rich. Carraway even describes it as a farm, which places the workers in the context of being barnyard animals to be consumed. Things that commonly represent hope and life, the plants —the wheat— are completely shrouded in ash, making it clear that there is now hope for these people. Instead of the plants growing, it is the ashes growing into “grotesque gardens.”
The way Carraway narrates the scene can be analyzed as innuendo, because of the yonic symbol of the desolate valley of ashes and the phallic symbol of the line of gray cars crawling along the invisible track. Such use of onomatopoeia describing the relationship between the cars and the track they drive on: “—gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud...” can be seen as sensual, and shouldn't be overlooked when analyzing Fitzgerald’s theme of false perception.
We are introduced to Tom Buchanan’s mistress, Mrs. Wilson (completely unaffected by the ash— a symbol for her emergence into the “upper class”), a woman who is both curvaceous and a lower class than Tom, and Nick (juxtaposing Daisy completely). Because of her being poorer, she is easily impressed when Tom purchases her cheap perfume and a puppy from a hobo. She even demands for the puppy in a polite way— the way a mistress (who feels as if she is the main woman) would ask her sugar-daddy of anything, “I want to get one of those dogs, I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to have — a dog” (Fitzgerald). Due to her bringing up the apartment as a reason for getting the dog, she obviously feels as if there is some future for her and Tom. Moreover, she is very contempt to live in the apartment Tom provides her—an apartment Carraway describes as having “—a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath.” Due to her only experiencing the hardship of dust ridden Queens, Myrtle Wilson feels a sense of lavishness and luxury when it comes to middle-class living. She shows off her hostmanship in a slightly pathetic way,
“‘I told that boy about the ice.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. ‘These people! You have to keep after them all the time.’ She looked at me and laughed pointlessly. Then she flounced over to the dog, kissed it with ecstasy, and swept into the kitchen, implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders there.”
There is an insistence in her to be upper class, as there is in Gatsby.
Of course, Mr. McKee is immediately, favorably noticed by Carraway, as he noticed the proprietor earlier,
Carraway’s description of the proprietor: “He was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.”
Carraway’s description of Mr. McKee: “Mr. McKee was a pale, feminine man from the flat below. He had just shaved, for there was a white spot of lather on his cheekbone, and he was most respectful in his greeting to every one in the room.”
Although at least two women are described throughout the chapter, the word feminine only used once—to describe Mr. McKee, whom he debatably has a gay affair with the following night. Proof suggests Carraway is either a sexual explorer, or a homosexual man in hiding.
“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 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. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.”
This city of ashes represents the morbidity which blankets over everything. Ashes, usually associated with death and consumption, cover the houses, the cars, the streets, the plants, and the air, showing that the area is now dead— all used up. These people, covered in ash are being consumed, in a way, to mine and build bigger and better things for the rich. Carraway even describes it as a farm, which places the workers in the context of being barnyard animals to be consumed. Things that commonly represent hope and life, the plants —the wheat— are completely shrouded in ash, making it clear that there is now hope for these people. Instead of the plants growing, it is the ashes growing into “grotesque gardens.”
The way Carraway narrates the scene can be analyzed as innuendo, because of the yonic symbol of the desolate valley of ashes and the phallic symbol of the line of gray cars crawling along the invisible track. Such use of onomatopoeia describing the relationship between the cars and the track they drive on: “—gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud...” can be seen as sensual, and shouldn't be overlooked when analyzing Fitzgerald’s theme of false perception.
We are introduced to Tom Buchanan’s mistress, Mrs. Wilson (completely unaffected by the ash— a symbol for her emergence into the “upper class”), a woman who is both curvaceous and a lower class than Tom, and Nick (juxtaposing Daisy completely). Because of her being poorer, she is easily impressed when Tom purchases her cheap perfume and a puppy from a hobo. She even demands for the puppy in a polite way— the way a mistress (who feels as if she is the main woman) would ask her sugar-daddy of anything, “I want to get one of those dogs, I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to have — a dog” (Fitzgerald). Due to her bringing up the apartment as a reason for getting the dog, she obviously feels as if there is some future for her and Tom. Moreover, she is very contempt to live in the apartment Tom provides her—an apartment Carraway describes as having “—a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath.” Due to her only experiencing the hardship of dust ridden Queens, Myrtle Wilson feels a sense of lavishness and luxury when it comes to middle-class living. She shows off her hostmanship in a slightly pathetic way,
“‘I told that boy about the ice.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. ‘These people! You have to keep after them all the time.’ She looked at me and laughed pointlessly. Then she flounced over to the dog, kissed it with ecstasy, and swept into the kitchen, implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders there.”
There is an insistence in her to be upper class, as there is in Gatsby.
Of course, Mr. McKee is immediately, favorably noticed by Carraway, as he noticed the proprietor earlier,
Carraway’s description of the proprietor: “He was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.”
Carraway’s description of Mr. McKee: “Mr. McKee was a pale, feminine man from the flat below. He had just shaved, for there was a white spot of lather on his cheekbone, and he was most respectful in his greeting to every one in the room.”
Although at least two women are described throughout the chapter, the word feminine only used once—to describe Mr. McKee, whom he debatably has a gay affair with the following night. Proof suggests Carraway is either a sexual explorer, or a homosexual man in hiding.