Examples Of Dust In The Great Gatsby

Myrtle yearns to be with Tom and live in his wealth but is prevented from doing so by Tom and Daisy. For instance, when Daisy tries to leave Tom for Gatsby, Tom does not exactly dismiss Myrtle, “…but there is no question that she would eventually be discarded” (Donaldson). Myrtle is so infatuated with Tom, she forgot that he can just as well choose Daisy over her. He has the upper hand, as a rich man with control over women especially when it comes to his relationships. While to Tom, Myrtle’s gender has made her just one of his possessions, to Myrtle, Tom’s rich and high status as a man has made him her only path to a higher class. Due to her infatuation with Tom, she often becomes jealous and possessive when she finds a threat to their relationship. Myrtle is so overcome with desire for Tom that she cannot stand the thought of him with another women. Even when she sees Tom in the car with Jordan Baker, Myrtle’s, “… eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she too to be his wife” (Fitzgerald 125). Myrtle is so convinced that Tom is hers, when in reality, she is really Tom’s. Myrtle has almost forgotten the fact that as an inferior women, she has little control over the situation. The reality is that Tom was in control of the relationship and used Myrtle for his lustrous desires. Tom’s rejection of Myrtle causes her to become overrun with jealousy. In

Fitzgerald further complicates the story when he introduces us to Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, and her attempt to use him to climb the social ladder. Myrtle and her husband, Wilson, live in the valley of ashes, “a certain desolate area of land” (23). The valley of ashes is a particularly run down stretch of land between West Egg and New York City, mostly inhabited by people from the lower working class. Tom is good friends with Wilson, but is simultaneously having an affair with his wife. Fitzgerald shows us that Myrtle is unhappy with Wilson and seeks a better life when she cries, “The only crazy I was was when I married [Wilson]. I knew right away I made a mistake.

She lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband who owns a crumbling garage. She is unhappy in her marriage, so she is having an affair with Tom Buchanan. Tom is her ideal man because he is wealthy and can afford to buy her expensive things whereas her husband can barely afford to keep his garage open. Initially, Myrtle is described as being "in the middle thirties, and faintly stout" and containing "no facet or gleam of beauty." Immediately after she leaves the Valley of ashes with Tom, her character is described completely different. She is described in elegant detail similar to that of the rich because now she is immersed in the rich lifestyle. Fitzgerald describes her as wearing "a brown figured muslin, which stretched tight over her rather wide hips." The way Fitzgerald describes her also makes her seem beautiful whereas before she was described as having no "facet of beauty." Nick is even comments on Myrtle's sudden change in personality when she is around Tom. He states, "with the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so markable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions, became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her." The reason Myrtle was described differently and changed so drastically was all due to class distinction. Myrtle

This can be evidenced when Nick observes that “the only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick”(27). This observation is made by Nick on the day where he meets Myrtle and visits the Valley of Ashes for the first time. The building which he is describing is the building which houses George Wilson’s garage, which is also where George and Myrtle live. This quotation shows how Myrtle’s home in the Valley of Ashes is incredibly secluded, which forces her to be physically separated from others. Consequently, Myrtle’s extreme seclusion is a symbol used by Fitzgerald to both vilify women and the American Dream, as he uses her isolation to reiterate her poverty, in order to ridicule her dreams of becoming rich. Similarly, Daisy is also portrayed as emotionally isolated in her marriage to Tom. This can be evidenced in the quotation where she says “do you know why we left Chicago? I’m surprised that they didn’t treat you to the story of that little spree” (125). In this quotation, Daisy is speaking to Nick, referencing one of Tom’s affairs that he had in Chicago. She speaks this line during Tom and Gatsby’s fight in the hotel room, soon after Tom says that although he has had affairs, that he still loves

Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George, and the lover of Tom Buchanan, is brutally murdered toward the end of the novel. After an uncivilized afternoon in New York, Daisy and Gatsby head swiftly back to East Egg. Gatsby explains to Nick, “It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew” (Fitzgerald 109). Myrtle ran out toward the car looking for Tom but sadly for her it is not him. Many know about Tom’s affair, but not with whom he is having it, especially Daisy. Daisy never slows the car down, and she never realizes who she hits. This shows that Daisy is oblivious to Myrtles existence. Myrtle is sleeping with her husband, she ruins their marriage, and Daisy kills her. The irony exists in this because Daisy actually saves her marriage by killing

Myrtle, interestingly, is the name of a different flower. The contrast serves to show the two love interests of Tom Buchanan and weigh them against each other. Myrtle is a flower that often dies before it blooms, which fits with the plot of Myrtle’s untimely death.

Myrtle Wilson, also married, hides her love affair from her husband, George Wilson. She is extremely unhappy with her husband claiming when they met, "[she] thought he knew something…but he was not fit to [even] lick [her] shoe" (39). It is evident how important class and wealth is to Myrtle. Once she found out her husband was not rich she became utterly dissapointed. But when she first met Tom, "he had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and [she] couldn 't keep [her] eyes off him" (40). She is immediately attracted to Tom’s obvious wealth. Myrtle claims Tom Buchanan is the love of her life, that being said she uses Tom to escape the “Valley of Ashes.” She longs to live the American Dream amongst the wealthy, but struggles to keep up with the

Tom pursues Myrtle Wilson, a poor woman living in the industrialized ‘Valley of Ashes’ with her struggling mechanic husband. Myrtle, dissatisfied with her position in society, gladly spends Tom’s money and follows him wherever he goes. Following an attempt by Myrtle to rebel by saying Daisy’s name, Tom punches her in the face to prove that he has control. Myrtle is resigned to accept this abuse in order to get what she wants out of the relationship because she knows that anyone could easily take her place. In addition, Daisy begins seeing her former flame Jay Gatsby once she rediscovers his existence in West Egg. Gatsby, absolutely enamored with Daisy, claims to have earned all of his money and risen to the top just for her. Despite Daisy’s renewed interest in Gatsby, she dislikes his extravagant parties and West Egg, disgusted by ‘the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing’ (114). Daisy’s distaste for the ‘new money’ crowd sends Gatsby into a panic, and he immediately attempts to rectify his ‘mistake’ by eliminating the parties entirely, proving that Daisy is able to control him by her pretentious whims

Analysis: Fitzgerald also uses ashes, dust and fire speak to moral rot. The character's quest for riches and joy were destroyed on the grounds that the were falling toward a way of opulence. Myrtle utilizes Tom to escape from her life full of poverty in the Valley of Ashes . She loses her morals and cheats on her husband with no guilt just to have a life full of wealth and riches . Myrtles says George “ wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” she says this to influence herself to feel pride in herself.

Fitzgerald uses the murder of Myrtle Wilson to symbolize the death of the American Dream. Myrtle is a character who lives in the valley of ashes, a place between West Egg and New York City covered in “gray land” and “spasms of bleak dust” (23). The valley of ashes is where all of the city’s waste ends up and the people that live there are poor and low class. Myrtle was not content with her life in the valley and her socioeconomic status. Her husband was a car repair man and Myrtle was embarrassed by his lack of wealth. The day after their wedding she “lay down and cried” after figuring out that George had borrowed someone’s suit for the wedding, and she knew then she had “made a mistake” marrying him (35). Myrtle wanted to escape this life of poverty and social inferiority, and she imagined she could do so by having an affair with one of the richest men in New York, Tom Buchanan. This, however, did not get her very far because she was later run over and killed by Daisy, who was driving Gatsby’s car when Myrtle “rushed out” of the garage “waving her hands and shouting” (137), thinking it was Tom driving the car coming back for her. George had Myrtle physically trapped in the house, symbolizing how she was trapped in her class and social status. When she saw that expensive, fancy car, she saw it as an opportunity to run off with Tom, representing how she thought she could escape her life of poverty. Myrtle’s death symbolizes the death of the American Dream because she is someone who tried to achieve it and move up in life but was ultimately killed because of it.

Myrtle’s apartment is the opposite to the valley of ashes as it is garish and loud. Myrtle is cheap and from the working class, and so has no taste. This is reinforced through Scott Fitzgerald’s description of the apartment bought for her by Tom Buchanan, so that he can conduct his affair with her. Fitzgerald describes everything as small, ‘a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom’. As it’s only intended for two people, Myrtle and Tom, it should only be small, but this is also a hint from Fitzgerald that Tom doesn’t think very much of Myrtle as he don’t spend his money on her, which he was freely spending in Yale, but on himself. Nick says (through Fitzgerald) that the apartment ‘was crowded to the doors’ in the living room, with ‘a set of tapestried furniture, entirely too large for it’. This suggests that Myrtle wants to put on an act of being rich and wealthy, and so copies their styles but with no taste and so ruins the effect. She is trying to hide her social class, and her apartment is used by Fitzgerald to highlight an

Fitzgerald foreshadows the end of Gatsby's hopes in the very beginning of the novel also by talking about dust. "It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams

Myrtle tries to satisfy her desires by seeking wealth and status in attempts of achieving her American Dream. Myrtle’s husband, George, owns a car dealership and repair shop in the industrial wasteland of the Valley of Ashes, which depict his lower class. In describing George's shop, Fitzgerald notes “The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner” (Fitzgerald 27). Although George is loyal and hardworking, Myrtle is unsatisfied with her relationship; she envies the East Eggers for living her version of the American Dream while she is stuck in the Valley of Ashes, married to a low class man. Myrtle directly disrespects her husband as she goes after Tom, a high class, wealthy, and married man, living in the East Egg.

Through dressing rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths. The dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold. P.96-97" Tom and Daisy also live in a mansion which is Georgian Colonial, which establishes their status as "old money" characters. The people living in the "valley of the ashes" depict a third class. The "valley of ashes is described as " a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat in ridges…where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys". Myrtle and George Wilson are the inhabitants in the "valley of ashes", which is depicted as a wasteland. They live in a car garage which, shows that they live a common or impoverished existence in the desolate wasteland of the "valley of ashes". The Wilson's financial and physical environment instructs their distance from characters like Tom Buchanan and Nick Carraway in every way, including their lack of education and class. In this way, Fitzgerald emphasizes major monetary differences through materialistic as well as solidifying the premise for ideological differences.

The characters go through the Valley of Ashes to get to New York City. New York City represents glitz and immorality. While in New York City Tom Buchanan has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle Wilson doesn’t care about anyone except those who will direct her on the correct path to improve her life. This is one of the reasons why she has an affair with Tom. Tom Buchanan has no moral doubts about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle but when it comes to other people such as Daisy and Gatsby he becomes outraged and forces a