The Great Gatsby

Chapter 2

How can we analyze the values and themes

suggested by the Valley of Ashes in Chapter 2?

Step 1

Take out your

homework.

• 6 Word Memoir

Step 2

Welcome Work• Write two ways SETTING can be

important in a story.

“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...”

The Valley of Ashes: “where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising

smoke and...of men who move dimly and

already crumbling through the powdery air.”

What is ash? What is implied by it taking the shape of things?

What is suggested by the colors of the

opening scene in chapter 2?

• Wheat field – symbolizing prosperity,

fullness, “bread of life”

• Oculist: A person who specializes in the

medical treatment of diseases or defects

of the eye

The eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg overlooking the Valley of

Ashes are mentioned several times.

What could the eyes symbolize?

What is suggested by the colors of the

opening scene in chapter 2?

“This is the 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 ash grey men, who

move dimly and already crumbling through the

powdery air.”

•Notice the contrasts between ashes and wheat/gardens.

What effect is created by combing the images?

•How long is the sentence? What is the effect of the long

sentence? How many times does the word “and” appear?

What effect does this create?

•Transcendent = beyond usual limits. What is a “transcendent

effort”? What does “already crumbling” imply?

Diction = word choice Syntax = sentence structure

“’Oh, sure,’ agreed Wilson hurriedly, and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity—except his wife, who moved close to Tom.” (p. 30)

Since the ashes take the form of houses

and men, what is Fitzgerald suggesting

that the ash heap represents?

– Wasted, burned-out lives?

– “Whose lives?”

It was President Wilson who took

the Americans into WWI. During

the peace process, Wilson was

outmaneuvered by England,

France, and Italy. Unwilling to

compromise his ideals, Wilson

set out across the country working

to “sell” his position to the

Americans. He worked himself too

hard and became ill, eventually

suffering a stroke. Wilson

eventually died a defeated idealist.

How is George Wilson also a

defeated idealist?

Pay attention to what happens in the City.

How is what happens in the City in Chapter

2 different from the party in Chapter 1?

Note where the “old money”and the “new money” live.

What kind of money lives in

the Valley of Ashes?

Note how Fitzgerald’s

choice of characters

and geographic locations

highlights the comparisons of

old money, new money, and

no money.

Myrtle Daisy

Both of Tom’s women are

named after flowers. What

differences and similarities

do you see?