Myrtle: A Short Story

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

She has chosen to throw away her whole marriage for a glamorous wealthy life in East Egg. This can be seen when she first talks about the time she ever laid eyes on Tom. She remembers vividly what he was wearing. “It was on the two little seats facing each other that are always the last ones left on the train. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn’t keep my eyes off him…” (Fitzgerald ) This quote in the book represents the phrase, “Met her at a beauty salon, With a baby Louis Vuitton, Under her underarm, She said I can tell you rock, I can tell by your charm..” I chose this stanza of the song for a multitude of reasons. One being that it’s implying that this woman knows nothing about this man, but just by looking at him and what he is wearing she can supposedly tell that he is a good charming man. This is what Myrtle did to Tom. She saw the fancy suit and decided to commit adultery with a man because he was well dressed. Myrtle then and there decided to throw her marriage away for

Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering.” (page 25) “She had changed her dress to brown figured muslin, which stretched tight over her rather wide hips.” (page 27) Myrtle is constantly trying to show off herself, her appearances, maybe attempting to show off her sexuality more to Tom, or any guy in general. Either way as soon as we first come to meet her, she enjoys showing off her “fleshiness”.

“Terrible place, isn’t it,” said Tom, exchanging a frown with Doctor Eckleburg.Awful.” This shows that Tom thinks that New York is an awful place, but goes for Myrtle. They all went up to Myrtle apartment where they met new faces. Those among the new faces were Myrtle’s sister, and Mr. and Mrs. McKee. They all sit around , whenever Myrtle go to New york to see Tom she tells her husband that she is going to see her sister ,“Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive.”

Next, when Myrtle sees that she can live the more luxurious life she always wanted she has an affair with Tom. Myrtle is a woman living in the slums of the city, unhappy with her marriage, and feels her husband cannot provide the lifestyle she wants. When Myrtle is having guest over at her and Tom’s apartment, they discussion Myrtle's marriage, to which she states; “I thought he knew something about breeding, but he was not fit to lick my shoe...The only crazy I was was when I married him, I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in, and never even

Myrtle Wilson is obsessed with leaving her poor life behind her by being with Tom but unlike Gatsby, her attempts are fruitless. She attempts to make herself seem an upper class person like when she changed her dress before the party in chapter two. She believes her husband is beneath her and talks of all low statuses as if she isn’t one of them. "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." (42)

Then he meets Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle is a lower-class woman, who is the opposite of Daisy, she is not very bright or beautiful, and she is Tom Buchanan’s mistress. She is married to George Wilson a submissive and faithful man, the exact opposite of Tom. Myrtle is looking for a dominant and powerful man, who can help her get into the upper class. Tom likes Myrtle Wilson because he can control and impress her with everything he does, and even though Tom is abusing her Myrtle still loves him. She knows she is out of both Tom’s and the social circle he revolves in’s league, but she hopes desperately and pathetically to fit

Mrs. Wilson was a loving wife, and was planning to go West to pursue their own American Dream, one can only assume, with her husband, Mr. George Wilson. Mrs. Myrtle was an easy-going, high-energy

In chapter 2, before the party, she decides to change, “Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room. With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change” (Fitzgerald 34). By wearing cream, Myrtle is trying to show that she is wealthy, or similar to Daisy, who is wearing white the majority of the time. White is the symbol of wealth, nevertheless cream, being close to white, makes sense that it would represent a character that is trying to seem rich or upper class. What’s more, during this entire party at her apartment, Myrtle acts as if she has all the money in the world and tries to seem upper class to fit in with the crowd but also stand out.

She aches to be part of an elite class like Daisy, but instead, she is married to a man who is hard working and honest but does not have the passion that she craves. Wilson, Myrtle's dumb witted husband, owns a garage. Because Wilson is a passive aggressive character, he does not want to admit to himself that his wife would cheat on him, even though Tom makes it apparent that Myrtle is more his wife or "property" than she will ever be to Wilson. For example, when Tom visits Myrtle at the garage Myrtle orders Wilson to fetch some chairs while she gives her true lover a warm greeting.

Sister would always leave in the morning and I would never see her until the sun started going down. Before she would go to sleep, she would always make me food and give me a big hug saying “You're number one in my book Caleb!” It always made me feel better after the long, boring, empty day that shrouded all the happiness that I could feel if Maggie were there…

Myrtle desires wealth and luxuries, and as a result she has an affair with Tom, who gives her anything she yearns for. Myrtle despises her lifestyle with her husband, George Wilson, due to the lower-class living and dirty, physical labor. She explains how, “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman … I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (Fitzgerald, 34). Myrtle planned to marry a rich man, so in the future he could support her children and herself, and they would be members of

myrtle's husband is very slowly. she quite in love with me. how can she be not? I'm good looking, very muscular, and, wealthy. I have everything her husband doesn't offer. they have been living in that garage for eleven years. I gave her the money and happiness. the McKee trying to outsmart me but they are beneath. we had fun and drank everyone was trying to make me happy.

Myrtle Wilson is one of the characters who chases empty dreams. She has a strong desire to escape what she feels to be a lower class lifestyle and enter the ranks of the upper class. Furthermore, she is obsessed by appearances and unaware of realities, as is shown in her excessive concern of clothing. She attempts to impress the upper society while looking down upon the members of her class. "Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the stiflessness of the lower orders, “These people! You have to keep after them." (Fitzgerald 36)

It was hot and dry outside. Nature’s alarm clock, the rising sun, peered through the window of a little girl’s room, signaling to her that it was time to wake up. From the time she awoke until the moment she went to sleep, she was constantly preoccupied. She was only a young girl, just aged nine, but had many duties and responsibilities in her household. Every morning, as the youngest of nine children, she had to run across the village in makeshift shoes to get water for her family. She prepared scrumptious home cooked Ethiopian food for her older brothers. She helped her older sister fetch the eggs from the chicken so they can sell it at the market later that day, and of course took a break here and there to play with the finicky animals. From a young age, all this was expected out of her. It was not something that was a choice really but a way of life. She was trained, better yet conditioned, to live this way and twenty-one years later to this day, this mindset of following through with expectations that others have of her have not changed and remains true. This little girl is my aunt, and her name is Solane.