The ways Fitzgerald tells the story in chapter 2 of 'The Great Gatsby'.
1) Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in chapter2.
Chapter 2 of ‘The Great Gatsby’ sees Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan travel to ‘the valley of ashes’ to visit Tom’s mistress Myrtle. As the chapter continues the characters find themselves at a party at Myrtle’s sister’s apartment in New York.
Chapter 2 follows a chronological structure, the events of that day in the summer of 1922 are recalled in the order that they occurred, creating the effect of a very realistic story being told to the reader. This section of the book uses juxtaposition to create a contrast of the lives of the two men attempting to win the affection of Myrtle; George Wilson, her husband, leads a simplistic and bleak life in ‘the valley of ashes’ and the life lead by Tom Buchanan in East Egg and his adventures to the luxurious city of New York is the epitome of old money and wealth- qualities Myrtle desires.
The main narrator of this chapter is Nick Carraway subsequently, all detail expressed comes from the point of view of him- as a reader we see what he sees. As the party in New York continues and ‘Tom brought out a bottle of whiskey’ we see our narrator become intoxicated; his memory of an event that happened two years ago whilst drunk becomes increasingly unreliable. The elision and ellipsis used at the end of the chapter (‘…Brook’n Bridge…’) creates the sense of the slurring of an intoxicated mind.
Dialogue is also used in the chapter, for example Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, says that she heard Gatsby is a ‘nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s; Gatsby is always attached to gossip creating an air of mystery about a character we are yet to meet at this point in the novel. Dialogue also allows the reader to hear a point of view other than Carraway’s, in this instance we get to know what others think of Gatsby rather than Carraway’s opinion of him being ‘gorgeous’.
The chapter starts with the use of pathetic fallacy describing the valley of ashes as a place
Chapter 2 of ‘The Great Gatsby’ sees Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan travel to ‘the valley of ashes’ to visit Tom’s mistress Myrtle. As the chapter continues the characters find themselves at a party at Myrtle’s sister’s apartment in New York.
Chapter 2 follows a chronological structure, the events of that day in the summer of 1922 are recalled in the order that they occurred, creating the effect of a very realistic story being told to the reader. This section of the book uses juxtaposition to create a contrast of the lives of the two men attempting to win the affection of Myrtle; George Wilson, her husband, leads a simplistic and bleak life in ‘the valley of ashes’ and the life lead by Tom Buchanan in East Egg and his adventures to the luxurious city of New York is the epitome of old money and wealth- qualities Myrtle desires.
The main narrator of this chapter is Nick Carraway subsequently, all detail expressed comes from the point of view of him- as a reader we see what he sees. As the party in New York continues and ‘Tom brought out a bottle of whiskey’ we see our narrator become intoxicated; his memory of an event that happened two years ago whilst drunk becomes increasingly unreliable. The elision and ellipsis used at the end of the chapter (‘…Brook’n Bridge…’) creates the sense of the slurring of an intoxicated mind.
Dialogue is also used in the chapter, for example Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, says that she heard Gatsby is a ‘nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s; Gatsby is always attached to gossip creating an air of mystery about a character we are yet to meet at this point in the novel. Dialogue also allows the reader to hear a point of view other than Carraway’s, in this instance we get to know what others think of Gatsby rather than Carraway’s opinion of him being ‘gorgeous’.
The chapter starts with the use of pathetic fallacy describing the valley of ashes as a place