Chapter+2+of+TGG

__**Summary-**__

In this chapter the Valley of Ashes is introduced and is sort of that times interpretation of the ghetto. Doctor T. J. Eckleburg is the man who watches over everything and if anything happens in the valley he knows about it. As Tom and Nick are riding the train Tom forces Nick to get out in the valley and they go to meet Myrtle and George. They end up staying and Nick gets to see a different kind of party then he is used to in George and Myrtle’s house. They really just have a party as an excuse to get drunk and when things get out of hand and Myrtle starts mentioning Tom’s wife Daisy, Tom loses it and breaks Myrtle’s nose. This stops the party and later Mr. Mckee and Nick leave and Nick takes the early morning train home.

__**Setting-**__ The setting starts off on the train ride into the city with Tom and Nick and then Tom takes Nick to his mistress Myrtle and her husband George. They end up having a party, not to which Nick is used to because he got used to the flamboyant parties of Gatsby. Nick feels out of place being surrounded by his mistress and her "true" lover.

__**Valley of Ashes**__ (page 23)
 * halfway between West Egg and New York
 * desolate, dismal and bleak
 * ashes = very indistural area, heavily polluted
 * similar to "The Waste Land" by T.S. Elliot - modern world filled with material and mechanical wealth but void of morals, spitiualiy and dectached from God
 * __Dr. T.J. Eckleburg__** (page 23/24)
 * blue, gigantic spectable-rimmed eyes upon a billboard watching down over the valley of ashes
 * eyes are "dimmed", faded - could possibly represent the detachment of God in society
 * also could reresent the detachment of society from God
 * also expresses the aspect of God looking down on the flaws of society (nothing is done to stop it because of his abscense)
 * "all seeing eyes"

__**Thematic Elements-**__ The Valley of Ashes is one of the most significant settings of the story and represents poverty and depression in the city. The fact that the party and the affair takes place here is significant to the story because it is sort of the underbelly of the city and the exciting place in the story. It also foreshadows the mood of the story to come.